Many employees have to manhandle materials on a daily basis and without some basic knowledge of the safest techniques to lift and move heavy items, a person can cause themselves serious injuries, which would be costly to both the worker and the company. A vast majority of back injuries could have been avoided if the person had been aware of safe manual handling techniques, and with that in mind, here are a few of the benefits that manual handling training can bring to any organisation.
Manual Handling Training Options
There are specialist Australian companies that offer manual handling training courses that can be adapted to suit every situation, and you can easily locate such an expert with an online search. There are no off-the-shelf solutions for manual handling training, and the specialist provider would first have to carry out a detailed survey to determine the content of the course. If you would like to find out how this type of training could help your business, start with an online search, which will bring up a list of organisations that focus on this field.
The Initial Assessment
There is a four-step process to arranging manual handling training for your employees, which is as follows:
- After a short telephone conversation, the trainers would visit the work site to carry out essential observation of the day to day activities of the employees in question. Then there would be a short discussion with the major stakeholders to finalise the content that would be included in the training course, plus the trainers would take still images and video footage of workers carrying out tasks.
- The organisers would then head back to their base and compile the manual handling training course that would include risk assessment, assessment tools and control measures.
- The manual handling training sessions would be delivered by the trainers, usually in 2.5 – 3 hour sessions, with as many as 15 employees attending the training sessions.
- Controlled practice to reinforce the new handling techniques within the workplace, with constant support from the trainers to ensure that the newly learned techniques are applied correctly.
The Training Objectives
The goals of the manual handling training course would be as follows:
- To define manual handling and the need for training.
- To discuss the research findings and agree on the correct techniques to be applied.
- Describing the Make-up of the human anatomy and to discuss how manual handling injuries occur.
- Educate workers on risk assessment techniques.
- Helping workers identify their limits regarding manual handling and to introduce team lifting.
- Educate workers about incorrect lifting techniques.
- The correct application of control measures.
If you would like to learn more about the many benefits of manual handling training, search online for an established company that provides manual handling training and they can get the ball rolling by carrying out an in-depth survey to determine your needs. Personal injuries in the workplace can often be easily prevented with some manual handling training from the experts, which could save your company a lot of time and money and make your workplace a safer environment for everyone.
