At JCH Safety we are able to offer a wide range of online health and safety training courses to keep you and your staff safe at work. Companies have a legal duty to manage risks and this includes ensuring that your team are well trained. If your staff are involved in manual handling activities then you need to make sure that they are aware of the risks to their health and how to safely manage this risk. Failure to keep your staff trained and informed of the health hazards associated with manual handling can lead to ill health, employee absenteeism and possible costs associated with this and potential claims or prosecution. Can you afford not to train your staff? After all, healthy staff are happy staff and these are the backbone of British business.
What are the risks from manual handling?
There are a range of health risks associated with manual handling. These include musculoskeletal disorders, back and neck problems and a range of other possible injuries and damage to your body. You might not realise that your job involves manual handling but the majority of jobs do actually involve some form of manual handling. Some jobs obviously involve manual handling such as people associated with the construction injury for example. However, it is not just people who work in physical roles that are involved in manual handling activities. Office workers, education professionals, health and care workers, engineers and many other professions are often involved in manual handling tasks. Manual handling, in health and safety terms, is related to the moving of objects, whether this by lifting and lowering or by carrying objects or even pushing or pulling. So when you consider manual handling, within this definition, you can see that many job roles involve a range of manual handling activities and therefore pose significant risks.
How does manual handling hurt people?
Manual handling injuries occur due to a range of reasons. The weight of objects being moved is a major contributor but this is not the only factor. Other issues relate to the frequency of the activity (how often you do the particular task); the distance you are carrying the item; the lifting and carrying technique; whether or not the task involves twisting, stretching, lifting or bending; the physical condition and overall health of the person carrying out the activity; the environment the activity is occurring within; and a whole host of other variables ranging from the space available to the weather. Too many health issues are occurring due to poorly managed manual handling procedures and a lack of awareness of the risks. As with all aspects of health and safety, the starting point to managing the risks of manual handling should begin with carrying out a suitable and sufficient manual handling risk assessment. This should be carried out by a competent person who is knowledgeable of how to carry out a risk assessment and who is aware of the particular risks associated with manual handling activities. You do not have to use a consultant or a health and safety professional to carry out a risk assessment but many people do prefer to ask a health and safety professional to assist with the process. Remember, the person assessing the risk needs to understand the risks. If there is any doubt, it is questionable as to whether they could be deemed as being competent. Competence involves a mix of experience, training and qualifications in both the activity being assessed but also in understanding how to risk assess. The HSE offers a range of information on the subject so take a look at their website to find out more.
JCH Safety offer a range of health and safety consultancy services including support in carrying out risk assessments of all kinds. If you need any help please contact us to find out more.
Once a risk assessment has been carried out you will probably see that one of the best ways to manage the risk from manual handling activities is to ensure staff are well trained and aware of the hazards. In addition to the findings of the risk assessment there is a legal duty to provide manual handling training. Furthermore, there are moral reasons to protect your staff from risks to their health and indeed a financial incentive to the business. After all, staff are an organisations most important resource. If your staff are off work with health issues they are not looking after your customers and service users. Employees who have their health injured by the work they do may also make a legal claim against your business in search of compensation. This affects the company’s bottom line, morale and can even impact on your reputation and brand.
Selecting the Right Online Health and Safety Training
There are a number of providers offering online health and safety training including manual handling awareness training. As with everything, the quality and value of products varies widely. It is important to choose the right provider for your online health and safety training. When choosing your training course do some research so that your investment achieves your goals. Find out who endorses the training, has it been externally evaluated for quality? Our online manual handling course is approved by IIRSM and CPD. This assures our clients that the course is suitable and fit for purpose. Also, find out if the style of the teaching suits you. Some online training is better than others. For online training to be beneficial it needs to be engaging, interesting and able to get the information over to the student. Look to see if the provider provides a free trial and see whether or not the style works for you. Our courses are designed to be interactive, interesting and informative, mixing a range of professional teaching techniques. We welcome our customers to trial all of our online health and safety training courses for free. After all, why buy before your try?
How long does online training take?
The JCH Safety online Manual Handling course is geared to help people to absorb information in a relaxed and informative way. Our course takes around 75 minutes to study and provides a wide range of knowledge around the subject. Help your staff to protect their health and protect your business from the risk of claims by using the JCH Safety online training system. One of the great benefits of our online training is that you can literally do it wherever you have access to the internet. You can stop and start the training which means even the busiest of people can find the time to undertake the training.
The cost of the online manual handling course is only £35, offering really competitive pricing and value for money. If you are looking at training more than 10 people please contact us to discuss big discounts! We always offer value for money.
Other online training courses
JCH Safety offer a range of online training courses. We offer Working at Height, Working Safely, Legionella Management, Fire Awareness, COSHH and many other types of online health and safety courses. Please have a look at our website to find out more. Please get in touch to discuss multi-user discounts.
Free Online Training Trials
It is always a good idea to ‘try before you buy.’ If you would like to view our online courses you can sign up to view the first modules of all of our online health and safety courses. They were designed by experts with you in mind. JCH Safety are committed to making light work of health and safety in order to ensure our clients are kept safe at work.
Contact us now for a free no obligation consultation.
