How to Keep Your Temporary Employees (and Your Workplace) Safe

Temporary workers pose a unique challenge when it comes to training. The word temporary implies they aren’t going to be around forever.

Maybe these employees are hired seasonally or to fill in for an ill employee.

Often employers don’t want to spend the time or money to train these individualsScreen Shot 2015-08-10 at 12.22.42 PM

This can be a big and costly mistake.

A temporary employee without proper training poses a high safety and financial risk in a workplace. That risk can be much greater than the cost of training the temporary worker.

So how do you balance the resources required to train a temp with the need for safety in the workplace?

  1. Never assume training is being completed by the temp agency you use for sourcing employees. This is a common misconception that can lead to lawsuits, injuries or even death. You should always take on the responsibility of training temporary workers, even if you believe they receive some training through the employment agency.
  2. You may want to consider working with the temp agency to determine where potential risks are in the workplace, and the primary areas where training is needed. You should contact a representative from the agency and go over the worksite, in detail. You can then compare the worksite with the experience and background of the temp employee who will be coming in, to address more adequately potential knowledge gaps.
  3. Develop onboarding for all temp employees that covers at least the general safety issues they may be facing in the workplace. A cost and time effective way to deliver this onboarding is through the use of a learning management system. With an LMS, you can quickly disseminate this information, track the training temps are undergoing and have them up and running in a shorter amount of time.
  4. Create training that’s concise, to the point and only covers what temps will absolutely need to know. There’s a few reasons this is important. One reason is that employees are going to retain information more effectively when it’s delivered in byte-sized Another reason is that you’ll save time and reduce a loss of productivity that can occur as a result of training.
  5. Use e-Learning to provide training that’s accessible on the floor or on-the-go. A temporary employee may have only a short time to undergo safety training, so using an LMS to deliver information is valuable because that person can then refer to information via their smartphone or tablet. This is much more reasonable than having an employee remember every detail of safety training or lug around a cumbersome training manual. When it’s available on a tablet or smartphone, it’s easy to access at the moment, which can be an excellent way to avoid hazards and safety issues.
  6. Make sure temp employees understand the training. This can mean in terms of language as well as overall competency. By using virtual training, you can let temps customize the training experience to their needs, which will likely improve their level of comprehension.
  7. Keep careful records of all employee training, including temp training. It can be difficult to maintain records when you implement training in a traditional classroom setting. This is just one more area where e-Learning is valuable. You can automatically track the training of your temp employees through your learning management system. This not only helps you know how they’re doing, but it can also be useful to have these records on-hand in the case of a safety issue or situation.

Ultimately your goal with temporary employees should be to provide a level and quality of safety training that mirrors what full-time employees experience. Luckily, using an LMS from eLeaP makes this simple. You can customize training to the unique needs of your temporary employees, while saving time and money, and keeping your workplace safe.

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