While economy growth is still a little slow, manufacturing jobs are on the rise, and with these small steps towards at least a partial recovery in the area of manufacturing, businesses need to take on new employees both on the manufacturing floor and in warehouses where products are made and shipped and often received. However, erring on the cautious side for the moment, many manufacturing businesses are choosing to only maintain a skeleton warehouse staff and hiring temporary employees as the need arises for the business. While this may be a smart move in one sense for many manufacturing businesses it also can end up costing these businesses more in the long run, unless they take the time to ensure that warehouse workers have proper forklift training, and that new and temporary employees know about, and understand the safety measures need to avoid accidents which can result in serious injury to an employee and thousands or even millions of pounds loss to the company itself.

Work Related Accidents and New or Temporary Employees

Data shows that a large majority of work related accidents occurs within the first month of employment. This makes sense as new employees tend to make mistakes that can result in accidents and even death if they don’t understand the safety rules instituted by the company, or asked to do dangerous jobs without proper training. One of the largest warehouse dangers to employees and to the company itself is when unskilled and improperly trained forklift operators are hired to work in the warehouse. These workers not only pose a danger to themselves, but to other employees as well.

And as an employer it is your duty to maintain the safety of your warehouse by seeing to it that everyone who works in the warehouse is properly trained and skilled to do the job they hired to do or assigned.

Putting Safety First

While it may be somewhat unrealistic to expect an employer who is only hiring someone to temporarily work for a few weeks to put the employee through an extended forklift training program, it is not unreasonable to expect an employer to ask anyone doing this job to produce a certificate showing that they have undergone proper forklift safety, and to give them a skills test ensuring the employee or employees operating this equipment are skilled enough to take on the job safely. In fact, you owe it both your temporary and full time employees to make sure that anyone operating any heavy equipment is well trained and skilled. By doing so you reduce the risk of any accident occurring, which could cause injury and affect your company their profits.

In addition, all warehouse employees, both those who have worked for your company for years and new hires should be required to spend time attending a safety class, that covers all the key points of warehouse safety including awareness of the forklift and how to keep themselves safe when this machinery is in operation.

By ensuring that everyone, both forklift drivers and those workers on the warehouse floor have the proper forklift training to keep themselves and their co-workers safe in the warehouse, your business can continue to grow and prosper.