The drive to create a zero incident culture in any workplace focuses on reducing workplace accidents. Upon analyzing the factors that cause workplace accidents, there is one root cause that is often cited: inadequate safety training.

Many standards promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) explicitly require the employer to train employees in the safety and health aspects of their jobs. Other OSHA standards make it the employer’s responsibility to limit certain job assignments to employees who are “certified,” “competent,” or “qualified”—meaning that they have had special previous training, in or out of the workplace.

Therefore, since passage of The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers have been required to develop their own workplace training programs, including the creation or purchase of classroom and hands-on activities to certify the readiness of their employees.

The length and complexity of OSHA workplace safety standards make it difficult to find all the references to training, compounding the problem of pulling together training that follows OSHA’s core content requirements. Many companies have relied on outsourcing their classroom training in order to ensure compliance.

Some classroom solutions have included VHS and DVD trainings. However, these solutions required pulling whole groups of workers away from their jobs to view the video at the same time, affecting productivity. VHS and DVD trainings also provide little in the way of certifying comprehension.

Additionally, maintaining employee training records can provide evidence of the employer’s good faith and compliance with OSHA standards, but keeping those records organized year to year can be cumbersome.

Ultimately, managing a workplace training program can be a costly endeavor. In the event of an accident, employers who are found to have supplied inadequate training to their employees risk citations, fines, and a weaker workforce.

MSDSonline has responded by developing revolutionary, on-demand (cloud-computing), EH&S compliance management solutions.

We believe training in the proper performance of a job is time and money well spent, and the employer ought to regard it as an investment rather than an expense. An effective program of safety and health training for workers can result in fewer injuries and illnesses in the workplace, better morale, and lower insurance premiums.

Our on-demand workplace safety training solutions offer access to dozens of EH&S-related courses with affordable pricing and flexible deployment options — all designed to keep employees safe, productive and on the job.

Accidents and injuries are more expensive than you may realize. Costs mount up quickly, but substantial savings in workers' compensation and lost workdays are possible when injuries and illness decline.

Compliance with DOL, OSHA, EPA and other federal and state regulatory requirements, coupled with a successful workplace safety training program can help reduce your costs, injuries and illnesses. MSDSonline offers dozens of workplace and EH&S related topics. And, we offer flexible solutions for you to deploy effective compliance-based training to your employees based on your budget and/or needs.

Here are Some Key Reasons to Choose Workplace Training From MSDSonline:

• Around-the-clock access to a comprehensive library of EH&S related, original-content workplace safety training courses
• Flexible licensing and delivery options via the Web
• Rapid implementation with no up-front IT costs or software to install
• Improved regulatory compliance, risk reduction and lower accident rates through easy to track and manage compliance safety training and certification programs
• Cost savings from lower insurance premiums, workers’ comp claims and lost job time
• Improve retention of key employees by giving them the tools to keep them safe and productive in the workplace