Michael Martin, CHST, Lead Safety Advisor
And Ron Hanson, CHST, Vice President
Safety Management Group
As an employer, you have a genuine concern about the well-being of your workers. Beyond the human safety concerns, you also know that when workers are injured on a site, you face the costs of medical care, higher insurance premiums, and downtime that you just can’t afford.
So, as much as you may dislike government regulations, you don’t mind footing the bill for 10-hour OSHA training. It keeps you in compliance and keeps your workers safer, right?
But what if you discovered that your workers’ 10-hour training actually took place in a bar where attendees knocked back cold beers as they listened to instructors, or that the 10-hour course you paid for actually clocked in at just over two hours?
That’s what a reporter posing as a construction worker experienced when he signed up for 10-hour training. After several high-profile construction accidents in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News set out to see what kind of safety training local workers were receiving. What they found was nothing short of embarrassing to the construction industry – and chilling for employers who thought their workers were in good hands.
How can an employer be certain that its employees are receiving legitimate, high-quality, relevant training to meet OSHA’s 10-hour and 30-hour requirements? It’s not as easy as you may think. To be authorized to present 10- and 30-hour classes and hand out OSHA course completion cards to participants, an instructor needs to complete one of OSHA’s trainer courses, either Course 500 for the construction industry or Course 501 for general industry. However, you can take those courses online, with minimal supervision.
The program is voluntary, and there is no licensing beyond the ability to distribute those completion cards. Yet that doesn’t stop some safety professionals from promoting themselves as “OSHA Certified,” “Official OSHA Trainers,” or similar terms that may not be illegal, but that certainly raise ethical eyebrows. Others may have passed the 500 or 501 course, but bring minimal real-world safety experience to the classroom setting. They may be knowledgeable, but they’ll have little credibility with your workers.
Because there aren’t any organizations that provide independent oversight of safety professionals or safety training firms, that responsibility falls to the employers that hire them to educate workers. If your goal is merely to meet OSHA’s minimum requirements, that’s probably not a big concern. But if you understand the value of safety and have a genuine interest in protecting your team, be sure to consider these seven aspects when choosing a safety trainer.
1. OSHA Credentials. OSHA’s training requirements may not be perfect, but they’re a legal requirement for passing out cards that signify course completion, and those cards must include the trainer’s 500 or 501 course number.
2. Background. Don’t just settle for the fact that a prospective trainer may have OSHA credentials. Take a deeper look into their background to learn how they obtained that certification. OSHA requires five years of safety experience, so see how they spent that experience. Was it in an industrial situation or on construction sites? Ask for references and follow up on them. It takes extra work, but the safety of your workers (and your company’s finances) is worth the effort.
3. Real-World Knowledge. It’s great if a trainer has a college degree, but the most effective trainers usually also offer years of practical experience helping to manage safety on jobsites. Not only does that give them the real-world knowledge that makes their training more effective, it also builds their credibility and respect among your workers.
4. Relevancy. OSHA may use general terms like “construction” or “industry,” but your workers encounter hazards that are very specific to the work they do. If your company is in the business of erecting steel, a trainer who focuses on the hazards of moving dirt isn’t going to help your employees – and they’ll probably tune him out.
5. Communication Skills. Nearly anyone can acquire the knowledge to be a trainer, but there’s a big difference between knowing the material and being able to teach others and convince them that they’ll benefit by listening. In addition, safety trainers may have to work with everyone from unskilled laborers to the top owner’s rep. They need to be able to communicate at all those levels, and must know how to discuss important matters in layman’s terms with people who don’t understand regulations.
6. Outside Certification. Industry-recognized certifications such as the Occupational Health and Safety Technician (OHST) and the Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST) are administered by the Council on Certification of Health, Environmental and Safety Technology. The more prestigious Associate Safety Professional (ASP) and Certified Safety Professional (CSP) have more stringent requirements to earn and are administered by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. These certifications demonstrate that the individual has extensive knowledge of safety specifications, and has gone through the extra effort to study for and pass challenging examinations.
7. Ethical Approaches. Finally, you can conduct something of an interview process to learn more about an individual’s experience. By posing hypothetical questions (or situations that have actually happened on your worksites), you’ll be able to get a good sense of their approach and commitment to ethics. That’s every bit as important as their other qualifications.