How often does an employer need to provide refresher training?

 

Introduction

One of the most frequently asked questions we hear from business owners and managers is ‘how often should how often should health and safety training be refreshed for my staff or employees?”

This is a big question and as with all things relevant to the health and safety of employees it is first important to understand what the requirements of the applicable legislation are.

In the UK the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires you to provide whatever information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of your employees.

This is expanded by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which identify situations where health and safety training is particularly important.

Key events such as when people start work, on exposure to new or increased risks and where existing skills may have become rusty or need updating are good examples of this.

At AT&F we find that most of our clients opt for to provide refresher training annually. This helps maintain a certain skill set for their staff in order to encourage a safe place of work by keeping knowledge up to date.

There are other reasons for maintaining refresher training depending on the job role or associated risk. Here are some examples:

  • All staff should receive fire safety refresher training at least once a year.

  • In a hotel environment night staff for instance in hotels would train twice yearly.

  • Appointed First Aiders within most businesses can actually go three years before any refresher training; however 3 years is a long time if you haven’t been practising first aid regularly (we hope not) so online training can be completed easily every 12 months in order to maintain the basic knowledge and skills required for when they are required in an emergency.

Further to this and as a useful aside is correctly assessing the risk to an employee in carrying out their duties and role.

Any job which involves risk of ill health or safety to an employee, such as the frequent use of computers and display screen equipment (DSE) or tasks requiring manual handling should also include a risk assessment in order to record and address any changes to both environment and also individual workload.

By completing risk assessments alongside training periodically and addressing the changes noted the health and safety of the employee is put at the forefront and solutions can be put into place before adverse consequences take hold.

The old adage that prevention is better than cure rings true here. Preventing issues before they happen is far better for all than trying to cure issues after the event.

Conclusion

With the growing popularity of online health and safety training, the cost to maintain annual refresher training has greatly reduced and in doing so has helped many employers and employees adopt a safer working environment with all staff maintaining their skill sets.

If like many employers, you may not be in a position to provide adequate health and safety training on your own you will need competent help and we will be pleased to be of assistance.

 
Health and SafetyOllie Limpkin