Requirements
Identify and respond to the specific training needs of your employees, including supervisors, managers and team leaders. Develop a written safety and health training plan that documents specific training objectives and instruction procedures.

The safety and health training plan will include:

• Company safety and health policy statement;
• Employee responsibilities.

Safety and health training will include:

• Hazard communication;
• Bloodborne pathogens, if applicable;
• Specific job/task safe work practices and hazard recognition.

At a minimum, training must cover:

• Procedures for the safe and efficient use of machinery and tools;
• Ergonomic risk factors, including the prevention of cumulative trauma disorders;
• Chemical hazards and how to prevent contact or exposure;
• Procedures for lockout-tagout, hot work permits and confined-space entry, if appropriate.

You must document all training and include the date, topics covered, instructor's name and the names of employees attending the training session. On the day training is completed, have each attending employee sign the documentation form.

Implementation
No matter how safe a work environment you provide, the success of your safety and health systems depends upon the managers, supervisors, team leaders and employee buy-in of safe work practices.

The goal of any safety and health training program is not just to impart knowledge, but also to change behaviors and improve one's ability to make good decisions. Through safety training, employees receive information about hazards, procedures, processes and expected behaviors.

Bureau of Labor Statistics studies have found that 48 percent of all injured workers had been on the job for less than one year. Therefore, you should assume that new employees know little or nothing about the job hazards and processes associated with their job functions.

After your new employees participate in safety orientation have their supervisors provide them with job-specific safety and health training. Do not permit employees to start a job until they have received instructions on how to perform the work safely. We recommend you commit at least three days to this to ensure the training is understood and proper procedures are being followed.

Other than new employees, participants also will provide training in the following instances:

• Provide employees with a general safety and health orientation, and job-specific safety and health training, similar to the orientation and training provided to new employees;
• Have the supervisor provide employees who are given a new job assignment or transfer with the same job-specific safety and health training as if they were new employees. Often, transferred employees are not given safety training because they are only temporarily filling in for the regular employee. Temporary employees must be trained or the potential for an accident is increased;
• Conduct safety and health training before or at the time of introducing new substances, equipment, processes or procedures. Training may be an informal toolbox safety meeting held at the workplace. The training must be responsive to changes in the work environment;
• Provide safety training whenever you identify a new or previously unrecognized hazard. Teach employees who may be exposed to the hazard how to protect themselves. Also encourage employees to report potential hazards immediately.

In addition, it's important to build supervisor and manager competency levels in safety and health. As they learn more about effective safety process management and emphasize it, employees are less likely to be injured or become ill from inherent hazards. Developing managers', supervisors' and team leaders' effective safety process management in contemporary safety management may contribute to higher profitability levels. Improving communication, team building, interpersonal and problem-solving skills elevates management performance levels and also may contribute to higher profits.

Fully document your safety and health training by including the date, topics covered, instructor's name and the names of employees attending the training session. Have employees answer written questions about the content of educational material that was presented. This helps provide a sense of importance to the training, measures understanding and retention of the material and documents the effectiveness of the training. It also provides the opportunity for constructive feedback from the employees. Have each employee in attendance sign the documentation form on the day of completion.