Emcare - Health and Safety Training

Health and Safety Training: An Essential for Office Workers Too!

Employees have the right to be provided with a safe and healthy workspace – free of any hazards that may result in any injury. It is a business owner’s legal obligation to ensure that all health and safety protocols are followed in the workplace to keep employees, visitors, contractors, and any other people on-site safe. Not only do employers and business owners have the responsibility to provide safe workspaces, but they are also obligated to provide any necessary health and safety training for staff so that they can remain safe in their workspace and learn how to use equipment and facilities around them correctly.

The correct use of equipment mitigates risks, expands the expected lifespan of the equipment and workspace, reduces the need for maintenance, and keeps the people operating the equipment safe. Many businesses and companies provide health and safety training as part of the initial training that staff members do upon entering a company. These training sessions can happen on site of the company or at the facility organized by the training facilitators.

Emcare is a proudly South African health and safety training company with multiple fully established facilities across the country. The entity is fully furnished with all necessary equipment to provide top-class education and skills needed to prepare someone for the workplace. When lives, money, time, health, and safety are on the line no sacrifice can be made. Emcare’s main priority is to make sure that all students have the required skills to act in dire and dangerous situations. There are a variety of health and safety training courses available at Emcare. The following list provides the names (and a few descriptions) of the courses available at Emcare (more information can be found on the Emcare website).

Health and safety training courses offered by Emcare:

1. Health and safety training induction course (OHS1/OHS2) – this health and safety training induction course is aimed to brief employees on the foundation regarding health and safety in the workplace. The course enables baseline knowledge of health and safety in the working environment and reduces injuries by increasing awareness of hazards in the workplace.
2. General health and safety training course (OHS7) – this course is designed to encourage a healthy and safe mentality in the workplace. It enables workers to better understand the occupational health and safety act and overcome struggles related to this in the workplace.
3. Health and safety representative course (OHS3) – this health and safety training course teaches representatives how to properly understand the relevant acts legislations and laws regarding health and safety in working environment. It is compulsory for every organization to have a health and safety representative appointed. This is stipulated under Section 17 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
4. Occupational health and safety act course (OHS9)
5. Occupational health and safety workshop (OHS10) – this occupational health and safety training workshop provides a platform for workers to collaboratively learn and discuss issues regarding health and safety in the workplace. It also gives them the opportunity to learn about the national and provincial layout of the occupational health and safety legislation and enables workers and organizations to improve their health and safety compliance.
6. COIDA course (OHS12)
7. Health and safety supervisors’ course (OHS4)
8. Accident incident investigation course (OHS5)
9. Risk assessment course (OHS6)
10. Safety officer course (OHS8)
11. Lookout and permitted to work course (LO)
12. Legal liability course (LL)
13. Safety stacking and storage course (SSS)
14. Working at heights course (WHB)
15. Emergency evacuation procedures course (OHS13)
16. Snake handling and safety awareness course (SHSA)

Health and safety training is usually prioritised in workplaces that make use of heavy-duty equipment but is often forgotten about when it comes to office workspaces. It is important to remember that there are risks that office workers are exposed to, on a daily basis, too. Aside from taking specialized health and safety training courses, there are a few basic tips and rules that can be followed in the workplace to make sure that the environment is a workable and safe environment for all.

One of the most common causes of injuries in offices is to do with ergonomics. Office workers spend most of their time behind a desk, typing away on a laptop or computer, and are often exposed to strain and injury in the neck due to bad posture. Ergonomic hazards are a major aspect that contributes to bad health but can also be easily mitigated by investing in good quality office equipment and providing training to workers. This training should include teaching workers how to keep themselves healthy in their workplace and environment. Trips and falls are also known to be some of the most common office injuries. There are various things in offices that play a part in these injuries and this can be mitigated if just a few steps are followed.

Here are a few tips that you can follow to make sure that the health and safety in your office space are up to scratch:

1. Keep the workplace free of any miscellaneous items and clutter – files, storage boxes, and other objects stacked in corridors can create a possible falling hazard. Proper storage and organization tactics should be put in place in the office to further reduce the risk of falling and tripping over things that are lying around. In addition to keeping storage and organization boxes out of the way, electrical cords should also not be stretching across corridors and should rather be tucked underneath carpets to ensure that all cords are correctly covered and to prevent tripping.
2. Use items for their intended purpose only – a chair is meant to be sat on and is not meant to be used as a step ladder. Rolling chairs, in particular, are a fall hazard. When needing to reach elevated heights, a step ladder, placed on an even and firm ground, should be used. The stepladder should also not be used further than its intended standing height. This is to mitigate the risk of falling and reduce the likelihood of injury. When items around the workplace are used for purposes other than their intended use, the risk, and likelihood of injury increases. Everyone in the workplace must ensure that they do not miss use equipment as this can lead to injury as well as damage to the equipment.
3. Keep a clear line of vision in all corridors – when turning the corner in corridors, workers might bump into each other. This Increases the risk of tripping. Things that are being carried in corridors can also be dropped if collisions take place. This means that equipment may be damaged, and materials may be wasted. To avoid collisions in corridors, it is recommended that convex mirrors are placed at intersections.
4. Carpeting and other high friction surfaces should be used on floors to prevent slipping – tiled, marbled, or cemented floors can become extremely slippery (especially if they are wet from being cleaned or spillage). Therefore, carpeting, rubber flooring, or any other option of high friction surface should be used on floors to prevent falling and injury, and damage of equipment or loss of materials that may be dropped upon fallin/li>
5. Do not leave cupboards and drawers open unnecessarily – when cupboards and drawers are not being used, they should be closed and secured properly to avoid workers from bumping into the open doors. Drawers that are fully opened can also topple over easily if they are not properly secured to the wall behind them.
6. Ensure that stacked objects do not exceed an appropriate height – high piles and poor storage of heavy equipment and other items can cause extreme damage if they are knocked over. It is suggested to store heavy and large objects near the ground to prevent them from falling from high heights. It is also important to remember that shelves and storage units have specific weight capacities that should not be exceeded.
7. Provide equipment that can be adjusted to suit all people in the workplace – if shelves, storage units, pieces of equipment, etc. are out of reach of some of the workers in an office, the risk of falling, dropping things, and damage increases. The adjustability of workspaces, desks, work surfaces, monitor stands, etc. should be available for each worker to make their space comfortable for themselves. If the environment that you work in is comfortable and ergonomic it makes working in that environment much easier which increases productivity and efficiency. In health and safety training it is often taught that no price can be put on the health of workers. It is better to invest in better quality office equipment (such as comfortable chairs, workable keyboards, etc.) than to save money by buying things that are not going to work as efficiently.
8. Provide the appropriate training to workers – health and safety training should not only be provided to workers that work in dangerous environments. Training should also be provided to office workers and should not only include learning about hazards in the office but also about general health working a desk job. Office workers should learn how to stay fit and healthy while working a desk job and should also be trained to be in the best condition to perform well in every task that they do.
   
9. Keep your feet grounded – if your feet are not completely touching the floor, an office chair will not be able to decrease the amount of pain and discomfort felt after sitting on the chair for hours. It is important to keep your feet grounded and keep a good posture to preserve your health while working in an office space. Often, worktops, keyboard stands, and laptop or desktop stands are too high up on desks and chairs must be raised for workers to be able to reach their office equipment. Therefore, keyboards, mouses and other desk equipment should be placed to provide maximum comfort and accessibility.
10. Provide stands on which staff can rest their documents – many office jobs constitute of workers having to copy information from documents onto their laptops and computers. This often results in back and neck injuries due to workers slumping over their paper documents. Document stands should be provided so that documents can be placed at an eye-level to reduce the need of bending over papers on desktops.
    
11. Ensure that the working environment supports a healthy lifestyle – office spaces and other workplaces should be designed to support a healthy lifestyle. A few examples include providing the option of having a standing desk, providing enough walking room in the office so that staff can stretch their legs when needs be, adequate lighting in the office to reduce strain on the eyes, and proper ventilation.