City of Hamilton Enhances Health & Safety Training with CCOHS e-Learning

The City of Hamilton's HR Workplace Safety Section is responsible for providing quality occupational health and safety training to meet organizational and legislative requirements.

A significant pain point arose when it came to training managers and supervisors and staff with health and safety responsibilities. It is difficult to schedule classroom course time that is convenient for all involved. The City needed to find a way to incorporate training that delivered the relevant health and safety information managers and supervisors needed to know as part of their roles, while also awarding maintenance and continuing maintenance course credits.

Developed by CCOHS, Health & Safety Training for Managers and Supervisors provides managers and supervisors and those with health and safety responsibilities with the information they need to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses and to develop a safety culture in the workplace.

The City of Hamilton has been offering the course since 2005. According to Les Fenyvesi, Co-ordinator of the Workplace Safety Section, they have trained more than 70 employees, with approximately 20 additional staff members taking the course each year.

Allowing staff to have options is integral to keeping up with training requirements. "The course is offered to all directors, senior managers, managers and supervisory personnel who may not be able to spare the time to attend our standard full-day classroom sessions. It's an additional option available to assist them in ensuring due diligence in the area of health and safety and compliance with the requirements of the provincial OSH Act," said Les.

Participants from various City departments have rated it highly for several reasons.

Compared to traditional classroom sessions, the Web-based format of the course allows easy access at times convenient for learners. All they need to do is to type a username and password on their computer, and instantly the classroom is brought to them.

Throughout the course, learners can contact an instructor online when they need help or have specific questions. And at the end of each module, key concepts are reinforced with interactive quizzes. Learners take a final examination at the end of the course, and continuing education credits and a certificate are issued by CCOHS upon successful completion.

The course content was also well received. "Learners found that the course offered a good overview of health and safety systems, industry standards, and recommended practices for a variety of health and safety issues. It's ideal as a primer on health and safety in the workplace, or for those that need it, as a refresher," said Les.

Overall, learners found it worthwhile to take and easy to use.

"I really enjoyed the program. There is a great deal of information and it allows you to work at your own pace," said Joe Xamin, Senior Project Manager.

Lisa Taraba, Manager, Chronic and Disease Prevention - Children & Youth, agreed. "I really enjoyed the course format, particularly the mini quizzes and the case studies.  These interactive aspects helped to maintain my interest and reinforce learning.  I also appreciated the flexibility of logging on at a home computer so I could set uninterrupted time aside to do the course."

"I think the modules were very good, and allowed the opportunity to get a broad look at the different aspects of health and safety that our department need to consider. The material on health and safety committees was especially useful, especially the information on inspections - and I appreciated all the sample tools," added Marcia Matthews, Manager, Vaccine Preventable Diseases and TB Control.

Municipalities are unique in that they cover a mixture of disciplines and environments, such as electrical, construction, and office, but the managers and supervisors all require health and safety training and education. Les stresses that the underlying concepts and key points presented for dealing with various specific tools, such as line work, could apply to a multitude of different processes and departments.

He feels any municipality, especially the medium to smaller municipalities, benefits from this course. "They will find it useful to address their training needs since they often do not have the resources and budget to do a lot of comprehensive training."

Les believes that e-learning options from CCOHS have enhanced the City of Hamilton's health and safety training program. "Flexibility with quality training and quality service - all at a reasonable cost."

For further information or to register, visit the Health and Safety Training for Managers and Supervisors course page.

Ensure a Safe & Healthy Workplace

Three benefits of an occupational health and safety management system

Dealing with the health and safety challenges facing your organization can be complex and time-consuming. An occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) provides a framework for handling key activities so that everyone knows the right way to do things - and all the right things get done.

An OHSMS is a systematic set of plans, actions and procedures to help employers plan, do, check and act in order to manage, and continually improve, health and safety in the workplace. A committed employer needs to actively participate in and endorse the system to make it work. The benefits of that commitment include the prevention of injury and illness, reduced loss of working days, improved work methods, increased worker morale, and minimized work stoppages due to safety disputes.

Here are three critical reasons to have an OHSMS.

An OHSMS engages all employees, getting them more involved in fostering a safety culture at the workplace. Supervisors and employees understand their role in the system and are closely involved in its development and operation. For instance, some tools integrate into an organization's email software to simplify reminders and new task notifications.

An OHSMS consolidates everything health and safety-related in one area, making it easy for everyone in the organization to access policies, procedures, legislation, audits, tools, checklists, training and more. This way, an OHSMS can help to systematically eliminate the possibility of incident, illness, injury or fatality in the workplace, rather than waiting for a crisis to occur.

An OHSMS shows due diligence. Employers have legal responsibilities to provide a safe workplace and system of work, to consult with employees and to keep them informed about health and safety matters. An OHSMS contains records, actions, and an overall framework to meet an employer's legislative responsibilities.

There are a number of Canadian and international standards that describe how to implement an OHS management system and tools to help organizations automate the process. Chris Moore, Training and Education Manager at CCOHS, will provide an overview of what organizations need to do to implement a web-based management system at Health and Safety Canada 2008 in Toronto, Ontario, on Tuesday, April 22, at 3:30 pm.

Interested in a web-based occupational health and safety management system framework that can be customized to suit your own organization? Find out more about CCOHS' OSH Works.

Remembering Lives Lost or Injured in the Workplace

April 28 is National day of Mourning

The numbers are staggering. In Canada, some 786 employees die from work-related incidents each year, averaging more than 2 deaths every day.

April 28 has been singled out as the National Day of Mourning, to offer employees and employers the opportunity to remember the dead, injured and ill as well as to publicly renew their commitment to improve health and safety in the workplace.

CCOHS has created a free poster to help increase awareness and encourage observance. You can also order additional copies at a nominal cost.

Quantities are limited. Order yours today.