Why do I need to consider training?

Improved opportunities to tender for contracts
Improved quality of work
Safer Sites
Compliance with legislation and regulation
Evidence of liability in case of accident
Minimisation of insurance costs
Evidence of risk management
Increased staff loyalty and commitment
Improved Company image


Improved opportunities to tender for contracts
The Major Contractors Group and many large contractors are demanding proof of trained staff before allowing sub contractors onto their site. It is recognised that contractors who have a strong commitment to risk management achieve improvements in operations, helping them to improve their tender strike rate and to carry out those contracts more cost effectively.


Improved quality of work and savings made through improved efficiency and increased productivity
Trained staff lead to operational effectiveness and this can enhance a company’s bottom line performance.


Safer sites
A uniform understanding of health and safety issues promote and facilitate safer sites. 2.2 million people work in Britain’s construction industry, making it the country’s biggest industry. It is also one of the most dangerous. In the last 25 years, over 2,800 people have died from injuries they received as a result of construction work. Many more have been injured or have fallen ill.

Between April 2004 and March 2005, 71 workers died and thousands were injured as a result of construction work. The main causes of the fatal accidents were:
- falling through fragile roofs and roof lights
- falling from ladders, scaffolds and other work places
- being struck by excavators, lift trucks or dumpers
- being struck by falling loads and equipment
- being crushed by collapsing structures


Legislation and Regulation
Under domestic law (the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their employees and others. This responsibility is reinforced by regulations for specific areas of operations. The Corporate Manslaughter Bill puts extra emphasis on the employer to ensure that proper risk management is put in place.

- The Health & Safety First Aid Regulations 1981 place a responsibility on the employer to provide adequate cover for first aid at work.

- The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 applies where the assessment identifies risks of serious injury from work in confined spaces.

- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers and self-employed people to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety.

- Working at Height Regulations 2005 stipulates that if your staff work at height you must provide adequate training for the job they do.

- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 PUWER requires that equipment provided for use at work is:
   - suitable for the intended use;
   - safe for use, maintained in a safe condition and, in certain circumstances, inspected to      ensure this remains the case;
   - used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training;      and
   - accompanied by suitable safety measures, eg protective devices, markings, warnings.

- Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment regulations 1998 LOLER

In general, LOLER requires that any lifting equipment used at work for lifting or lowering loads is:
   - strong and stable enough for particular use and marked to indicate safe working      loads;
   - positioned and installed to minimise any risks;
   - used safely, ie the work is planned, organised and performed by competent people;      and subject to ongoing thorough examination and, where appropriate, inspection by      competent people.


Minimisation of liability in case of accident or injury
In the case of accident, injury, illness or death a company will have to prove that it took the necessary steps to train it’s staff.


Possibility of reduced insurance costs for companies who have put the necessary risk management procedures in place
Insurance brokers are starting to ensure that insurers recognise improvements and reward insurance buyers with a more competitive rating. Risk management and health and safety issues are the factors that are now driving the construction insurance market.


Risk assessment - A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm. The aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt or becomes ill. Accidents and ill health can ruin lives, and affect your business too if output is lost, machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase or you have to go to court.

You are legally required to assess the risks in your workplace. The important things you need to decide are whether: a hazard is significant; and you have it covered by satisfactory precautions so that the risk is small.

Your risk assessment tells you that more needs to be done about the risk from the activities under your control. How do you decide what that ‘more’ should be? In the great majority of case, referring to good practice will give you the answer.

- Good practice - For lots of work activities, there are already well-established ways of controlling risk. In general, if you adopt good practice, you will be meeting your legal duty. If there isn’t any good practice to fall back on, or if what there is only provides part of the answer, or you want to control the risk some other way (and that will have to be at least as effective as the good practice) you will then have consider how you can reduce the risk AS LOW AS REASONABLY PRACTICABLE (ALARP).

- Reducing a risk ALARP involves weighing the risk against the cost needed to remove or reduce it. And the balance to be achieved is weighted in favour of health and safety because the Courts have ruled that to avoid putting a measure in place; you must be able to show that the cost of the measure would be grossly disproportionate to the benefit of the risk reduction it would achieve.


Increased staff loyalty and commitment
As employers are investing in theirs staff’s career and performance capabilities, many companies are finding increased loyalty and commitment from their staff feeling part of a family. Less turnover of staff makes training an effective way of reducing costs and improving efficiency.


Improved company image through improved work following training
As a company’s skills increase so does the quality of its work which in turn will result in an increase in company image within it’s customer base.