Over 200 people are killed each year in accidents at work and over one million people are injured. Over two million suffer illnesses caused by, or made worse by, their work. But did you know that forestry is one of the most dangerous industries, and workers are 6 times more likely to be killed at work than a construction worker? That is not good odds. So, preventing accidents and ill health caused by work should be a key priority for everyone at work. As the owner or manager of a forestry contracting business you know that competent employees are valuable. Your business probably depends on them.
Providing health & safety information and training helps you to:
- Ensure you or your employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do;
- Develop a positive health & safety culture, where safe & healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;
- Find out how you could manage health and safety better;
- Meet your legal duty to protect the health & safety of your employees.
Effective training:
- Will contribute towards making your employees competent in health & safety;
- Can help your business avoid the distress that accidents and ill health cause;
- Can help you avoid the financial costs of accidents & occupational ill health.
Don’t forget that your insurance doesn’t cover all losses. Damaged products, lost production and demotivated staff can all result.
The law requires that you provide whatever information, instruction and training is needed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health & safety of your employees.
What is training?
Training means helping people to learn how to do something, telling people what they should or (often as important) should not do, or simply giving them information. Training isn’t just about formal ‘classroom’ courses and obtaining ‘tickets’ (certificates) to work.
Within the forestry industry, there are growing concerns about the level of competence and high expectations of newly trained/qualified operators. What makes someone more employable and valued is their experience gained through on the job training & consolidation, and non formal training in the form of ‘continuous professional development’ (CPD).
In forestry, great importance is placed on lifelong learning. Without this learning, the knowledge gained from innovation and work experience will not spread throughout your industry. General working experience is recognised as valuable evidence of workers employability. To help demonstrate this, the evidence needs to be recorded. Currently, there is no national scheme in treework for recognising or recording this. In the 21st century, CPD is vitally important to your employees, your business and your client. If CPD is managed effectively then your forest contracting business benefits from increased profitability and competitiveness. You have a more efficient & flexible workforce and are able to better utilise your staff resources.
Your members of staff become more motivated, remain loyal and committed. Management of CPD allows you, the forestry contractor, to attract, recruit & retain the best people. By demonstrating workforce competence your business is given direction and an enhanced image. This is not just about health and safety. Increasingly, clients are demanding evidence of ability to undertake contracts to a suitable quality, and businesses have been shown to benefit from being able to provide this information, by winning contracts over other companies.
Within forestry contracting, CPD is seen as the systematic maintenance, improvement & broadening of professional forestry knowledge. Greater understanding and improved skills lead to the development of personal qualities deemed necessary to undertake professional and technical duties, throughout a foresters working life.. Keeping up to date with new technical & business related subjects in forestry contracting is important and it’s about being even better at what you do in the forest.
