The Benefits Of A Safety Officer Course

The Benefits Of A Safety Officer Course

There is no question about it; having a staff member who has completed a safety officer course is essential to running a legitimate business. The main reason is that there has been a renewed effort in the twenty-first century to protect workers’ rights. This is emphasised by governments worldwide implementing legislation that directly lays out workplace safety standards. This includes their safety on the job site. Therefore, with this focus employing a safety officer who has trained comprehensively with a good safety officer course is critical.

However, a business should not be forced to hire a safety officer. When a person has completed an EMCARE safety officer course, they provide a company with many benefits that should encourage any business owner to hire such an employee if they already don’t have one. In this article, we will confirm this view by examining only some benefits a safety officer can offer you as a business owner.

Accident Protection

The primary reason any company hires an employee with a safety officer course is to minimise the risk of accidents occurring on the work site. A safety officer is not only trained to deal with accidents once they have already occurred but also to prevent and protect against them from happening in the first place.

At EMCARE, we are fully committed to providing a safety officer course with realistic measures to protect against accidents, considering that different industries have various risks. For instance, miners’ threats differ greatly from those facing healthcare staff. Therefore our safety officer course provides practical general knowledge to inform safety officers about protecting against accidents.

Thus when you employ a safety officer who has completed an EMCARE safety officer course, you can rest assured that you are instilling a culture of safety in your workplace that mitigates the risk of accidents on your site. This will prove to be beneficial to your place of business for several reasons. These include but are not limited to:

  • Better Employee Morale: Employees will feel safer and happier working at your business with fewer on-site accidents.

  • Enhanced Productivity: A company with no or fewer accidents will be more productive as they will not have to take time out of work to rectify injuries or accidents.

  • Positive Brand Awareness: When those with a safety officer course effectively instil a safer work culture, your business will build a secure reputation, positively impacting the decision of your clients and the general public.

safety-officer-course-fallen-man

Regulatory Compliance

As mentioned in the introduction of this article, many countries’ governments have actively sought to implement legislation that protects the health and safety of workers in the workplace. In South Africa, the Occupational Health And Safety Act of 1993 (OHSA) has been inducted to help promote safety in the workplace. According to the OHSA, companies or working sites are subject to inspections by government members to ensure that they comply with the regulations set out in the act.

Although one might first consider having a lawyer study OHSA regulations and inform senior management on how to comply, this is neither efficient nor cost-effective. EMCARE’s safety officer course is built with South African workplace safety regulations in mind. This means that those who complete our course are well-trained to inform senior management on compliance and, as a safety officer, be responsible for effectively implementing these regulations throughout the business.

In this way, by hiring a safety officer who has been well trained with an EMCARE safety officer course, you ensure that your business will meet all regulations when a safety inspection or audit happens. This is extremely beneficial as it will allow your business to avoid legal repercussions like fines or penalties. This is extremely important when your business relies on government contracts or competes for public tenders, as the government will consider safety compliance when hiring a company to perform work.

Cost Reduction

As a good business owner, especially in this weak South African economy, you are constantly looking to reduce costs wherever possible. Although on the surface level, hiring a safety officer who has completed a fancy safety officer course may be an unneeded expense. You or someone already part of the company can also handle any safety concerns and compliance issues and spare the cost of hiring a new safety officer.

Although this seems more cost-effective to many, at EMCARE, we believe that by hiring someone who has completed our safety officer course, your company can reduce their overall costs, especially in the long run. But to strengthen this argument, let us look at a few ways that a safety officer can benefit your business by reducing costs:

  • Accident And Injury Prevention: Although we already discussed this in the first section of this article, this is one of the primary ways a safety officer helps reduce costs. When workers are injured on site and look to claim worker’s compensation, if an investigation finds the business to have acted negligently, the company may be responsible for paying for medical care, which can be extremely costly. Hiring a safety officer who seeks to prevent such injuries can help your business completely avoid these unneeded costs.

  • Insurance Premium Reduction: When insurance companies provide business insurance to any company, they base the cost of those services on the inherent risk of that business. An insurance company will consider several extenuating circumstances. By proving to insurance companies that you have an employee who has completed a safety officer course on-site, in the eyes of the insurer, you are minimising overall risk. This will be considered, which may lead to cheaper premiums for the company, which can be a huge cost saver.

  • Training And Education: Another cost reduction can be found simply in training and education. Often occupational health and safety regulations expect business owners to provide comprehensive safety training to staff. Suppose you already have a safety officer on site who can disseminate the information they have learned at EMCARE. In that case, you will save money, as you do not have to bring in a third party to provide that educational service.

safety-officer-course-man-counting-college-savings-fund-tuition-fee-or-student-loan

Why Choose EMCARE?

This article has sought to provide the reader with a few basic examples of the major benefits a safety officer can provide for any business. At EMCARE, we believe in safety in the workplace and have designed a comprehensive two-week course that will provide our trainees with industry-leading expertise in workplace safety. Furthermore, EMCARE is accredited and is recommended by several governmental agencies, including the Department of Labour and The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (if you want to learn more about our accreditations – visit our website where all our affiliates are listed).

So why look for any other service? Get the best training possible with our professional team at EMCARE. Contact us to book a training session today and learn about the benefits of having a safety officer on your team.

Accreditation & Affiliates

GET IN TOUCH

There are a few ways to reach us below. Please feel free to contact us via phone, email or you can send us a message via the form provided and we will get back to you.