Putting safety online
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Putting safety online
Time and cost constraints have often stopped construction companies, particularly at the smaller end of the industry, from making health and safety the high priority than it should be. But that shouldn’t be an excuse any more, as health and safety training is now available at the click of a mouse. Tim Wood tries out the RoSPA Health and Safety e-videos.
Everyone in the construction industry swears blind that health and safety is their biggest concern. However, figures released just last month by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) for the 12 months to 31 March 2005 revealed that 72 people were killed working in the sector across the country, with 76 perishing in both the previous two years. Although 72 remains well under the industry’s annus horriblis of 2000-2001 when 113 workers lost their lives, it is still no improvement on the 68 killed back in 1998-99 – the lowest figure up to now.
So why are the figures so damning? Is the industry at fault for failing to do enough to promote the benefits of proper health and safety?
Not if you look at the performance of, for example, three of the industry’s major trade associations - the Major Contractors Group, the Electrical Contractors Association and the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation – who have all reported significant falls in injuries for their member firms as a result of schemes they have introduced.
What about major contractors, have they been looking after their staff properly? Judging by the initiatives introduced by the likes of Willmott Dixon, MJ Gleeson and Pochin, [all of which have been publicised in the pages of Contract Journal ] there can be no arguing that the safety of their workers is uppermost in their thinking.
However, any construction companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, will argue that cost and time are the biggest barriers to ensuring staff are educated about the benefits of good safety practices.
After all, spending valuable time out of the office and hard-earned money on training staff cuts into the profit margins of every company whatever its size.
But help is now at hand. Einstein Network, the UK ’s foremost supplier of e-learning solutions, has created a health and safety portal for RoSPA, enabling RoSPA’s very own e-videos to be accessed online .
So how does it all work? Each programme consists of a video element of up to 20 minutes in duration plus an eight question quiz to assist the users’ understanding and programmes can be viewed individually on a PC or in a group viewing situation with a projector
The RoSPA e-videos havea number of advantages over training using ordinary VHS videos.
VHS tapes are on the way out, as the players become less common, and tapes are lost or damaged. But with on-line delivery, all programmes are available on demand from the archive so there is no need to keep track of who had the video tape last.
The online service also ensures all programmes are relevant and within the current guidelines.
Companies with users on multi sites can more easily be accommodated than through the process of distributing tapes.
Every user has a unique health and safety log. Every time a user watches a programme it updates his or her own log, which can also be viewed by a supervisor or company health and safety manager.
The good news is that this service is unique. Although some health and safety training providers are beginning to offer their product online, the RoSPA e-videos have the benefit of tools that others do not have - automatic health and safety log, a search facility with a unique knowledge engine, and a secure and managed platform so that users viewing which programmes can be monitored.
A variety of supplier’s material can be accessed from just one source, while data from the management system is accessible to human resources and training managers who are nominated as administrators.
Personal diary facilities allow individual users to maintain other training related activities in a “free text” entry facility.
CJ contacts and advertisers can join the party as a supplier in two ways.
If a company has existing health and safety video footage, that is meeting current health and safety standards, it can be ‘re-purposed’ by Einstein Network, and loaded onto the portal. The company will then receive a royalty each time a programme is viewed.
And if a firm wanted its own programme or programmes made, and then released on the portal, this service is also available.
So how can these ground-breaking online health and safety programmes be accessed? And what does it cost?
Users will buy a license that gives them a number of credits. The more expensive the license, the cheaper each credit will be. Each time a programme is watched, it will use a credit. Licences will be available from £500 up to £5,000, so that both small and large companies can be accommodated. So the cost to view a programme will be circa £40. A license will also give access to a number of health and safety suppliers, not just one.
Errol Taylor, RoSPA’s business development director, says: “We already have a library of video material containing health and safety messages, but working with Einstein Network will enable us to reach a potentially global audience.
“With our website getting in the region of 1.4m visits a year there is real potential to go worldwide. In fact our latest health and safety award, the Sir George Earl Trophy, was actually won by Gulf Petrochemical, which is based in Bahrain .
“This is an exciting product that is available 24-7 and provides access where it suits,” he adds.
So there you have it. Health and safety training in your own office, via the click of a mouse and at a price you control. If that doesn’t make health and safety training easier and prevent fatalities in the industry - what will?
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