When you are working in the field of health and safety it can often be easy to become bogged down in the details of risk assessments and compliance measures without taking the time out for personal development and the improvement of one’s own skillset.
Whilst it can be difficult to convince line managers of the value of training, constantly improving yourself and the way you approach health and safety is the only way you can hope to reduce the number of incidents in a workplace and increase the overall well-being of your workers.
Here we have a look at 3 ways you can add to your knowledge and skills in health and safety whilst also adding value to your department and employees.
- Attend HSE learning events with physical and digital conferences
When it comes to developing good base knowledge and networks in the field of health and safety attending events whether virtual or physical is a great place to talk to new people and get some different perspectives on the current ways of working.
Some of the best events out there will provide valuable information on theoretic practices in health and safety, and employers in HSE are always on the lookout for workers who are actively engaged in the industry with an eagerness to learn.
- Stay up to date with the latest news in health and safety
Part developing your knowledge in the field of health and safety is also staying up to date with the latest news in the field. This includes a base knowledge of any major cases, changes in legislation and current best practice in the profession. Staying on top of first aid training will also help you improve health and safety. By attending programs like this EMR courses by c2c, for example, you will be able to use the latest techniques if someone were to have an accident while at work.
- Keep a record of prior incidents and try to learn from them
One of the biggest parts of health and safety is good accident investigation, this provides information on which practices can be developed to keep workers safe. Not only do you need to have an understanding of incidents that are RIDDOR reportable, you should also make sure you have a comprehensive record of all previous incidents and near misses in the workplace. With the help of acquired data, you can change compliance rules and incorporate additional safety measures in the workplace. To explain it further, if a gas supplier business has a past history of gas leaks or other accidents, you can improve safety by enhancing storage solutions with the help of gas bottle trollies, safety cabinets, and explosion proof storage (find out more about such products online). You can also get a range of shelving and storage options for hazardous materials that could cause accidents in the workplace. A health and safety professional can study past mistakes to learn and prevent future workplace injuries.
Make sure you implement the learnings that you develop in your training
Whilst training is a great way of upskilling the workforce a lot of the time it is only worthwhile if you are implementing the new knowledge that you have gathered. This can come in the form of new tools, methodologies and general ways of thinking. Making sure you make use of training is the most important part.
