How Immersed is your Training?
Check Out this Up and Coming Technology: Virtual Reality

Over the years, emerging technologies and needs have molded safety training into the front-runners you know today as streaming video, interactive online, and instructor-led training. And now there’s a new format gaining momentum… have you heard about virtual reality? Get ready, folks, because it’s not just for gamers anymore. Virtual reality safety training could be hitting mainstream safety shelves soon.

Since 2016 or so, we’ve been spotting articles pop up here and there about virtual reality safety training in the workplace. Companies that involve high-risk activities, such as those in construction, mining, oil and gas, and forestry, have been early adopters of this kind of training. With movement of virtual reality in more and more industries, we think it’s a good time to give you (and us!) a quick understanding of the topic.

Next Level Training

As safety professionals, we know that a key component of training is to help employees feel confident that they can perform their tasks safely. The idea behind virtual reality is to take training a step further to really immerse trainees in a variety of scenarios that they are likely to encounter on the job. This way, they can practice how their skills, responses, and actions affect outcomes – all in a safe environment.

Picture the Benefits

So, how does virtual reality do that exactly? Just like in some video games, the technology provides a virtual environment that causes the user to immerse themselves in a 360 degree virtual world by using sight, sound, and sometimes motion to provide a realistic experience, according to the American Society of Safety Professionals. Depending on your industry and training needs, virtual reality can bring some real benefits to your overall safety strategy:

• Higher content relevance – Training can be customized to your facility requirements for higher comprehension and retention of training material.
• Takes hands-on to a new level – With 360 immersion, trainees can be exposed to high-risk and hazardous situations in a 100% safe environment.
• Better snapshot of skills – Make the distinction for trainees between knowing what to do and performing that skill in real time.
• Less damage to real equipment – Help eliminate the toll training takes on equipment, downtime, etc. at your facility.

Cost Considerations

Be aware that virtual reality isn’t for everyone. Some potential drawbacks have included reports of people feeling nauseous after using virtual reality headsets, as well as hesitations of learning new technologies with older workers. The cost for setting up facility-specific training can also be high. If you are currently using or interested in using virtual reality safety training at your workplace, make sure you have alternate training methods available for those who need it – and we can help with that.

Questions, comments, or interested in getting a jump on virtual reality safety training at your workplace? Let us know – we’ve love to start a conversation on how we can provide the best solution for your needs. Call us today.

Back pain isn’t shy – depending on your age, your occupation, or your activity, back pain can strike at just about any time, arising from the most mundane movements to a one-time jarring maneuver. We know – we’ve been there. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, back pain is one of the most common health complaints in the United States and around the world, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point in their lives.

In the safety professional world, you know that much of such complaints happen at work. Regardless of industry, back injuries can and do happen quite frequently, with risks being higher for workers at physically demanding jobs, such as manufacturing, warehouses, and hospitality.  We don’t need to tell you how important it is to cover Back Safety with your employees, but in case you need a reminder, here’s a crash course on how to mitigate back injury at your workplace.

Understanding the Risks

Each workplace is different and should therefore have specific risks and opportunities evaluated to ensure all bases are covered for a low injury work environment. If you currently do not have standards in place, a good first step is to observe and analyze employees as they work. OSHA suggests having employees fill out a survey regarding physical difficulties on the job and their experience with low back pain, as well as measuring the weight lifting requirements, the frequency of motion, and distance travelled in each activity. Ask questions like:

• How are workers lifting loads?
• Does the floor have enough traction?
• Are workstations positioned efficiently in relation to worker tasks?
• Are handles grip-friendly?

Once these variables are addressed, you can start to develop plans to prevent injury.

Prevention is Key

Make this your back safety mantra: Proactive prevention is always better than reactive treatment. In the prevention scenario, everybody wins, but the aftermath of an injury can cause painful surgery, medication, lost work days, a ruined safety culture, and countless dollars spent on potential workers comp, insurance claims, and more.

The good news is that prevention is easier than you think. We’ve pulled together 5 easy tips to help you and your employees maintain a healthy back while at work:

1. Use Proper Lifting Technique– The most important of all the prevention back injury tips is to learn the proper lifting technique. According to OSHA, manual materials handling is the main source of compensable workforce injuries in the US, and four out of five of these injuries affect the lower back. When your job requires you to carry or lift a heavy object, proper form includes lifting with your knees and tightening your core muscles. While lifting, maintain the natural curve of your back and keep the object close to your body.
2. Maintain Your Health– Food plays a huge role in how the body functions both on the inside and on the outside. Overweight persons are at greater risk for back pain, joint pain, and muscle strain than those who are not. This is especially true for people with extra weight in their stomachs, because this excess weight pulls the pelvis forward and strains the lower back. A healthy, well-balanced diet accompanied by a safe exercise program will help you achieve or maintain a healthy weight.
3. Get More Rest – Low levels of rest and sleep can increase the release of stress hormones, raising the level of inflammation in the body and tension in all of your muscles, including your back muscles, making you more prone to injury and chronic diseases. If possible, try to get between 6-9 hours of sleep each day, take periodic breaks at work, and use stress-reduction techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or exercise.
4. Increase Physical Fitness– The lower the level of fitness and flexibility, the higher the risk of injury. The vast majority of lower back problems are muscular in origin and if the muscles are not moved and stretched regularly, they become tight, short, and stiff, eventually resulting in back pain and injury or making existing back pain worse. Some forms of exercise to consider are aerobic or cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and stretching.
5. Warm-up Before Work – If your job requires some serious movement, it’s best to properly warm-up your body before performing any strenuous work to improve performance and to reduce risk of injury. Stretch and move to loosen and warm-up muscles before you begin work.

Workplace Training has your Back – Literally

If you need something more robust, that’s where we come in. Workplace safety training can help protect employees from multiple job-related hazards, including the need-to-know back safety basics of ergonomic movements, avoiding injury, and reporting potential hazards. Plus, depending on your work environment, it’s important to make sure that all employees know how to operate job-specific machinery and equipment, and workplace training has got you covered on that, too.

Is it time to add or alter your back safety training? If the answer is a yes, no, or maybe so, we’re here to help with a no obligation phone call – we love talking safety. We’re here to help you find programs that will not only reduce back strain and risk of injury, but will also boost efficiency. Take a peek at your current safety program and shoot us a call anytime to discuss what’s on your plate.

Something new is hitting the airwaves this month from Evolved Safety… for the first time ever, we will be hosting a webinar to bring attention to a very important and constant safety issue regardless of the season, time of year, or your job.

The topic? Driver Safety. Recent studies by NHTSA show that 94% of all crashes are caused by human error… What’s more is that road accidents take a social, financial, and operational toll on both the persons affected and organizations alike. This makes the need for developing a safety culture and implementing preventative, driver-focused, risk management solutions more important than ever. But how to choose what’s right for you and your company?

That’s where the webinar comes in. Evolved Safety and AlertDriving invite you to our “Onboarding Safe Drivers” webinar on July 26th 2018 at 2 PM EST. We understand there’s all kinds of solutions out there to help mitigate road risks, and we want to help you find the most effective and efficient one for you. During this brief presentation we will cover:

• The business case for investing in driver safety
• An overview of available options
• A driver-focused demonstration of the onboarding process
• Setting the foundation for a preventative approach to reducing collisions

PLUS, companies who attend will be given special access to select safety programs!

Ready to learn how you can help protect both new and old fleet drivers? Don’t wait – sign up now!

Remember that trade-show we were raving about last month? Well, we aren’t done yet! Here’s a quick recap – The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) will be hosting their annual Conference and Expo this coming June 3-6, 2018 in San Antonio, TX where valuable training, networking, knowledge, skills, and continuing education are the name of the game for the entire safety industry. Not only is ASSE a great place for us to learn new things, see vendors, and meet people but it’s a great place for YOU to do the same thing!

That being said, we’d like to invite you to the best safety show in the industry – as our guest. We’ll sit down for a one-on-one meeting to talk about YOU and your safety goals, face-to-face. You’ll see that Greg isn’t as scary as he seems on the phone and Teela actually IS that nice. We may or may not have a prize that you can enter to win, too… interested yet?

Get your FREE Expo-Only tickets for all three days at ASSE now!

Okay, we know it’s still a couple of months away, but we just HAD to get make sure you got this on your calendars… The American Society of Safety Engineers hosts their annual Conference and Expo this coming June 3-6, 2018 in the warm climate of San Antonio, TX! Our hotels and flights have been booked for months, and not just because we like to plan ahead, but because we love this show.

Why is Safety 2018 ASSE our favorite? Because ASSE brings together over 5,000 safety professionals, providing valuable training, networking, knowledge, skills and continuing education… AKA it’s THEE place to be for anything safety. ASSE has a long-standing reputation of delivering top-quality occupational safety and health education and training members can immediately put into practice… and we just love learning new safety things and meeting and greeting current and new customers.

Come visit us if you have the chance! We’re at booth #1561. And if you still need to register, head over to ASSE.com