MAKE SAFETY TRAINING A PRIORITY The Safety Requirement
By Steve Trusty
Let’s start with the Big Picture—employee training. Most people want to do the best job they can and, as an employer, you certainly want to make sure that your employees do so. You know they need training, tools, equipment, and guidance to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Yet, knowing is one thing; doing is another.
How Does the Green Industry Rate in
Training? LMN, a company providing business management software specifically for the landscape industry, recently released their survey-based “Landscaping Industry Report 2023.” It devoted a section to “Untrained Landscapers Pose Risk to Revenue” providing the information that follows. “Labor statistics show that excessive training programs can deter prospective employees from joining your crew. Unfortunately, landscapers who don’t focus on training risk digging into their profits, as poor training can lead to rework, accidents, and insurance liabilities. Despite the risks, fifty-eight percent of survey respondents report allowing new hires to work without any formal training.”
And, the LMN report continued, “Of the respondents who maintain a training program, only eight percent spend more than a full day training new employees. Tese alarming numbers are set to increase in 2023, as business owners continue to struggle with the labor shortage and lack the time to properly train new hires.”
And the LMN report offered this advice, “Te best way to minimize risk and improve the performance of crew members in 2023 is to implement a formal training program for all new employees. By doing so, you not only set expectations, but also decrease the chance of work interruptions and minimize the need for senior crew members to supervise new hires.” So, what training does your company provide to its employees—new hires, long- term, seasonal, part-time, full-time?
To do their best job, people need to have a clear understanding of what their job entrails, what procedures your company requires them to follow in doing that job, and how to perform those procedures SAFELY. Worker safety is an essential component of operating a successful business. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) materials state, “the employer needs to ensure their employees have received training for the hazards that exist in their workplace, and the equipment, policies, and procedures used to address those hazards. Te employer is also required to document the identity of the employee, the date of training, and the means used to verify that the employee understood the training. Does your company have a training documentation procedure?
The Drug and Alcohol Issue
Does your company’s safety training specifically address drug and alcohol use? You are putting your company at risk if you don’t. Te Ohio State University reports these facts in its “OSU Tailgate Safety Training for Landscaping and Horticultural Service” program materials. “In the United States, the green industries rank high in work- related fatalities. Many accidents involve some type of machinery or equipment. Most accidents are predictable and preventable.” And, “Safety is too expensive not to be taken seriously. Accident costs reduce the profit margin. In the worst cases, accidents cost lives.”
Alcohol use is a long-standing issue in the workplace which has become even more so following the isolation of the pandemic. Drug use is also escalating. Te Week magazine’s January 20, 2023, issue included this report from Te Washington Post, “Total tax revenue on marijuana from the first legal pot sales through the first three months of 2022 hit $11.2 billion. By the end of the year, marijuana use was legal in 21 states, D.C. and two U.S. territories.” And that doesn’t address the other legal and illegal drugs that may be impacting the lives of your employees.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 20 percent of workers who die on the job have alcohol or drugs in their system. One resource to consider, among the many available online, is the National Association of Landscape Professional’s (NALP) section on “Te Hazards of Workplace Drug and Alcohol Use,” in their Safety Tailgate Training Manual. Protect your workers—and your business.
Safety training on today’s equipment is much more complex than that needed for operating the sod harvester in this 1968 photo. Photo courtesy of TPI archives
20 Steve Trusty is co-editor of Turf News.
TPI Turf News March/A
/April 2023
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