Customized Workforce Education (CWE) is a division at South Central College that has been providing workforce training for over 40 years.
Are you in charge of Safety at your facility? If so, you should have a Safety Professional in your corner!
Most small to medium-sized companies have a person in charge of safety (compliance) who is also expected to complete other tasks such as production, warehouse, maintenance, and/or Human Resources. Larger employers may have a full-time safety person but some of those folks have a limited safety (compliance) background. Education and training are important tools for informing workers and managers about workplace hazards and controls to avoid employee complaints to OSHA, citations, and injuries. Safety trainers at SCC’s Customized Workforce Education (CWE) allow you to have a professional in your corner to help bridge the gap between basic safety information and what you might find on a google search. Employers, managers, and supervisors may benefit from specific training that allows them to fulfill their leadership roles so the company can strongly compete with competitors.
When most people say “safety,” they really mean “compliance”, the basic requirements that need to be fulfilled to maintain a minimal status. Anything above that is more likely to be viewed by your employees as safety. Assess your organization’s safety climate through the eyes of your employees. Simply put, do you have a proven safety climate survey that your employees fill out to help management see what the current state of safety is? Your employees are the best gauge of this ever-changing metric and if you are not measuring it, you can’t possibly know what needs improvement. A safety professional can help you to implement a safety climate survey and consult with you on the best next steps.
Do you know what safety training is required initially, and annually, and do your supervisors know that they are the ones that need to ensure that all company and OSHA rules are being followed on the floor? A safety professional can work with your front-line supervisors to ensure they have a basic understanding of what rules need to be followed on a daily basis, and which employees have been trained to complete certain tasks. Through rules, regulations, interpretations, and case law, a safety professional can educate your front-line leaders so they can hold their direct reports accountable in the area of occupational safety. This of course drives down costs associated with injury, property damage, and citations. Assessment-based programs and OTI (OSHA Training Institute) classes like 510 and 511 are things that only a safety professional can deliver. Simply having access to these tools will give you a leg up in your industry.
Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and this is when it’s important to have a safety professional do a complete audit of your operations. Not an audit from a company that dabbles in safety (but specializes in uniforms, tools sales, or sling inspections), but a credentialed safety professional. If it’s time for you to get a complete audit done, seek out a safety professional who does them frequently and one who can help you create a strategic priority list. This list should include company policy, training requirements, inspection protocol, environmental, ergonomic, noise monitoring, respirator fit testing amongst other areas, and all physical plant issues.
Don’t go it alone! The credentialed safety professionals from CWE at South Central College have been onsite helping their clients for over 40 years. With four full-time professionals on staff, you can be assured that they will always be able to answer your questions, conduct training sessions and audits and provide you with peace of mind. Emails and phone calls are always welcome and we’re here if you just need that sounding board in a pinch.
If you are wondering “do they do ……..?” The answer is yes. If it involves safety, compliance, OSHA, MSHA, citations, audits, operator training, risk assessment, HAZ, etc. CWE does it, and at a high level of professionalism and expertise. Have questions? Just reach out! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 507-389-7425