Why Safety Should be a Top Priority with New Employees

Posted on: January 27, 2016 by Signature Insurance Group

When you look back at accident statistics, you will notice that ‘new employees’ are most commonly the ones to be injured on the job. While you want to make sure you have the best Orange County Workers Compensation Insurance to protect your employees as well as your business when on-the-job injuries do occur, you should also make sure to put some extra effort into training ‘new employees’.

‘New employees’ refers not just to newly hired employees, but also to temporary employees, recently promoted employees and anyone that has been transferred into an unfamiliar department. The reason that these employees need a bit of extra attention is that generally, newly hired employees are younger with less experience, they lack knowledge of your companies safety culture, they try to prove themselves and take unnecessary risks and/or they just do not have the knowledge needed to perform safely in a new work area.  Below are some helpful tips to train and keep your employees safe.

• Goals- Even before a new employee begins be sure to determine objectives that should be agreed upon by both management and the new employee. Let them know that focus on the safety culture is expected.
• Mentor- Pair each new employee with a seasoned worker for one-on-one training. Be sure that you are not having another fairly new employee train as this will result in a ‘blind leading the blind’ situation. The mentor should make sure to focus on helping the new employee to understand all aspects of the safety culture.
• Review- Be sure to have someone other than the mentor check on the new employee to ensure training is complete. Have a review periodically to make sure that safety practices are being understood and applied. These periodic reviews also help the new employee to understand that safety really is important.
• Time- Any form of training takes time to fully comprehend. Do not expect the employee to be able to understand and put into practice the safety culture with just one session of training. Allow them to work with their mentor and have a safety buddy to keep them in compliance. Once you have determined that they do fully understand, get them involved in any safety activities that may be going on.

As with any rules and regulations, leading by example is the best way to promote the importance of a safety culture. Be sure that they see that these rules that you expect them to follow are important for everyone to follow, management included.

At Signature Insurance Group we understand the importance of making sure that your employees are able to get back to work after an injury. Call us today fat 855.972.9437 or more information on our So Cal Workers Compensation Insurance.

Posted in: Workers Compensation

Tagged: Orange County Southern California Workers Compensation