How’s Your Emergency Preparedness and Response Knowledge?

Expect the Unexpected with Evolved Safety

Pop quiz: Do you know what to do in the event of a tornado? What about a fire? Or even an injured worker? Natural and manmade disasters can happen at any time, so how prepared are you and your workplace if one should occur? Regardless of your answers, we aren’t here to judge. Our goal is to remind you of one of the best ways to stay safe and at-the-ready for unforeseen disasters on the job, and that’s what emergency preparedness training is for.

What is a Workplace Emergency

Let’s start with defining what an emergency can look like in your workplace, right from OSHA. Emergencies include any situation that threatens your workers, customers, or the public; disrupts or shuts down operations; or causes physical or environmental damage. They may be natural or man-made emergencies, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, weather, chemical exposure, disease outbreaks, explosions, and many other hazards.

As an employer, several OSHA standards address emergency planning requirements, and you should also be familiar with the consensus standards of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and other standards-setting organizations for additional recommendations and requirements about emergency planning.

Here’s why – even when prepared, sometimes injuries and even death can occur. The most emergency-related deaths in 2017 were caused by flash floods, tropical storms, and heat waves from a total of 59,985 weather-related events, which resulted in 592 deaths and 4,270 injuries, according to Injury Facts. And as we’ve seen so far this year, natural and manmade disasters aren’t slowing down.

Make an Emergency Action Plan

So, what should you do before an emergency strikes at your workplace? The best way to prepare is to create your own Emergency Action Plan (EAP). This is intended to facilitate and organize employer and worker actions during workplace emergency situations, which – along with proper worker training – will result in fewer worker injuries and less damage to the facility during emergencies.

Not all employers are required to establish an EAP, however they are recommended to protect workers’ safety and health. A comprehensive plan includes conducting a hazard assessment to determine what, if any, physical or chemical hazards inside or outside the workplace could cause an emergency, as well as describe how workers will respond. Make sure to take into account your specific worksite layouts, structural features, and emergency systems. If there is more than one worksite, each site should have their own emergency action plan.

Bringing the Plan to Life

Preparing for emergencies is easier than it looks, and Evolved Safety can help. We work with all kinds of vendors who offer content to help keep you and your workers prepared for the worst. No matter your format need – online, video, onsite – we’ve got you covered when it comes to emergency action planning. Here is a list of what we offer:

• Earthquake Safety
• Emergency Evacuation
• Emergency First Aid
• Emergency Preparedness & Response
• Emergency Preparedness: A Supervisor’s Responsibility
• Emergency Preparedness: An Employee’s Responsibility
• Evacuation Procedures
• Emergency Preparedness: A Supervisor’s Responsibility
• Emergency Action Plans – Office Employees
• Emergency Response
• Emergency Response for Multi-Story Buildings
• Emergency Action Planning

Prepare for the unexpected with Evolved Safety. Let’s work together to ensure your workplace is ready to go should an emergency strike – helping you keep you and your workers safe.

The Best Ways to Train the Younger Generation in Safety

They represent more than half the workforce population… and will reach 73 million in the U.S. this year. They’re the Millennial generation, and they bring with them an entirely different way of life than those before them – yup, even in safety.

We’ve done the research – today’s modern workforce no longer wants training and would rather learn through experience. So what does that mean for you as a safety professional? Changing up your training. To create the learning atmosphere that resonates most with this upcoming generation is to harness the power of today’s technology. They were raised with it, and therefore, high-tech should be at the forefront of the way they learn, but don’t just blame the Millennials – along with needing to appeal to incoming workers comes the need for keeping your training current and up-to-date for all of your generations.

Transitioning to the new technology-based way of learning is necessary but can be a time-consuming and cumbersome task, especially when you’re not sure where to begin. Here’s how you can use technology to appeal your safety training to the Millennial mind, ensuring the comprehension and retention of material presented.

1. Use eLearning When You Can

eLearning allows for training courses to be available on multiple devices so Millennials can learn when and where they want to, and a flexible schedule and on-demand style information is very appealing to young workers. What’s more? eLearning is good for all of your workers – not just Millennials. Though older workers may prefer more traditional forms of training, once they understand how e-Learning works, they’ll also enjoy the ability to be able to learn when and where they want.

2. Keep Training Short and On-Going

A two or three hour-long meeting won’t cut it – instead of long-winded training sessions or hour-long videos, consider training they can absorb quickly and be able to read in between meetings, on the way to work, or while having lunch via handheld devices or laptops with wifi. Short lessons and modules allow Millenials to reach small goals and checkpoints, helping to encourage their learning and making it more likely they’ll retain the info.

4. Organization to Prompt a Strong Safety Culture

Organizations with a strong sense of purpose and a values-driven culture will likely attract more Millennials, so consider how this affects your safety program. How are you encouraging a strong safety culture? Are you providing modern, technology-driven training or multiple formats or continuous training? Having a strong LMS system will help organize and administer all of your safety training depending on your needs, regardless of employee size or safety topic. Plus, this is what Millenials are looking for – over a third said they would be more interested in an employer if they offer exceptional training and development opportunities.

5. Videos are Still In

Outside of safety, videos play a large role in how Millennials take in information – think social media, Youtube, etc. Use this to your advantage. Resonating, custom videos are cost effective and helps to engage viewers in the natural way they tend to learn. A study by Hubspot categorizes when people are most attentive versus only skimming for information – videos take the number one spot with 55% of respondents saying they pay close attention to video content. Further, using graphics, animation, and pictures all constitute successful additions in safety training for millennials.

Update Your Safety Training

What’s great about working with a safety consultant like us here at Evolved Safety is that we are constantly keeping the lookout for new and updated training. Because one size doesn’t fit all, our scope of safety training offerings works to encompass all of our customers’ needs, regardless of need or size.

Start a conversation with us today about your safety training needs for this upcoming generation.

References:

https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/training-millennials-elearning

https://www.360training.com/blog/millennials-workplace-safety/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/workday/2016/05/05/workforce-2020-what-you-need-to-know-now/#292bbb3d2d63

We’re Exhibiting Right Here in West Michigan!

It’s time to kick off our tradeshow season next month right here in our hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. We’ll be heading downtown to the DeVos Place where we’ve got the Michigan Safety Conference on the docket for April 16-17, 2019 – and we can’t wait to tell you what we’ve been up to so far this year. Come visit us at booth 617!

The Michigan Safety Conference is near and dear to our hearts. Aside from throwing some love at our favorite state and industry, we’ve been either attendants or exhibitors at this show for a total of over 20 years. On top of that, this show is in it’s 89th year, boasting over 220 exhibitors within the safety, health, and environmental industry to showcase new products, CEs, a silent auction and more – and we think is pretty darn cool.

If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by our booth #617 to say hi, see what’s new, and learn more about how Evolved Safety can help with safety needs. See you there!

Can Fatigue Affect your Bottom Line?

There’s a reason why children get fussy and/or whine when tired – sleep is a vital factor in their overall health. Flash forward into adulthood where adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep each night; unfortunately 30% of adults report averaging less than six hours.

Translate that into the workplace – can fatigue affect your bottom line? Long story short – yes, and we’ll highlight the reasons why as you keep reading. Here’s the thing – we’ve all yawned at the office, your work station, or otherwise on the clock, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re fatigued. So, what does fatigue mean and what how can it affect your workplace as a whole? Let’s dig in to some key statistics and look at what you can do to stay out of the numbers.

Understanding Fatigue in the Workplace

Fatigue is more than catching some extra Z’s at night. Feelings of fatigue and tiredness have been used interchangeably, but in recent years researchers are considering both feelings to be separate, distinctive issues. While tiredness can often be solved by a change in your routine or getting a good night’s sleep, fatigue can be a more complex issue with a variety of symptoms that usually last longer and are more intense than tiredness.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), fatigue can cause weariness, sleepiness, irritability, reduced alertness, impaired decision making, and lack of motivation, concentration, and memory. In fact, studies have shown that fatigue is linked to health problems, such as:

• Heart disease
• Stomach and digestive problems
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Reproductive problems
• Depression
• Some cancers (breast and prostate)
• Sleep disorders
• Poor eating habits/obesity
• Worsening of existing chronic diseases such as diabetes and epilepsy

In the workplace, long work hours and extended and irregular shifts may be stressful physically, mentally, and emotionally. Because our body operates on a circadian rhythm sleep/wake cycle keeping us naturally tired at night and alert during the day, these demanding work schedules may cause an override those natural sleep patterns that can lead to increased fatigue. Here are the numbers – more than 43% of workers are sleep-deprived, and those most at risk work the night shift, long shifts, or irregular shifts.

What’s more, fatigue is estimated to cost employers $136 billion a year in health-related lost productivity by interfering with concentration and increasing the time needed to accomplish tasks. Take a look at what fatigue does at work straight from the National Safety Council (NSC):

• Safety performance decreases as employees become tired
• 62% of night shift workers complain about sleep loss
• Fatigued worker productivity costs employers $1,200 to $3,100 per employee annually
• Employees on rotating shifts are particularly vulnerable because they cannot adapt their “body clocks” to an alternative sleep pattern
• You are three times more likely to be in a car crash if you are fatigued
• Being awake for more than 20 hours is the equivalent of being legally drunk

Fight Fatigue with Evolved Safety

We know those statistics look scary, but there’s a silver lining – you’ve already taken your first step in mitigating fatigue in your workplace by reading this blog. The need to understand the issue and consider what fatigue could look like in your workplace is a great starting point. Here are some general pointers you can give to your workers to help them combat fatigue from the NSC:

• Get enough sleep and provide for adequate rest between physically or cognitively demanding activities.
• Talk to their doctor about getting screened for sleeping disorders.
• Align their natural body clock with their work schedule.
• For workers on the night shift, mention maintaining a consistent sleep schedule even on their days off and to use blackout curtains.

As a safety professional, you can take mitigating fatigue risk for you and your coworkers at the workplace a step further with Evolved Safety. We’ll help you look at your current safety training plan to see where tweaks and changes can be made to keep your staff well-rested and alert on the job.

Let us know how we can help. Call or email us for your free consultation.

What Evolved Safety Added for YOU in 2018

We say it every January, but it’s always true – the past year went by fast. And what a great year it was! From new training formats to topics to regulations, we worked hard to bring you the best safety solutions possible! This last year we were able to add several items to our offering line-up to help ensure you’ve got the best tools and training at your beck and call. So here we go, folks – let’s review our favorite new training additions from 2018!

• Micro-Learning – The micro-learning approach gives you shorter 3-5 minute training sessions that work to easily fit into your employees’ work days, keeping productivity high by challenging and improving upon traditional training methods.
• Virtual Reality – In the safety training space, this 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.
• Streaming Video options – We have new Individual Training Courses, which means you can receive your favorite training programs available as SCORM-compliant – from Alcohol, Drugs & Driving to Forklift: Distractions and more.
• Aon Risk Solutions Partners with Evolved Safety – Aon’s Casualty Risk Consulting practice provides comprehensive prevention and loss mitigation solutions for clients through expertise in safety and prevention programs, ergonomics, transportation, product risk, compliance, claim mitigation and risk control, all supporting the reduction of the organization’s’ total cost of risk.

Ring in the New Year with safety style – Evolved Safety can help. Give us a call and let’s talk.