NEW RELEASES: Active Shooter and Environmental Awareness (Global)

We are your strategic partner for your Health and Safety training and our library of courses is always growing and evolving to meet your needs.

We have two new developments in Health and Safety: the release of our new Active Shooter course, one of the Emergency Response group, and the update of our Environmental Awareness offering. Environmental Awareness is now available in two versions: UK and global.

Active Shooter eLearning Short Course

Sadly, many workplaces and educational establishments have fallen victim to active shooter attacks. Training can help provide peace of mind for employees so that they become more confident in their ability to face such an event if it happens.

Our Active Shooter eLearning short course shows learners what to do in these tragic and stressful situations to minimise casualties and keep themselves safe. Learners answer a series of multiple-choice questions about their immediate response to handle the situation safely and pass the course.

The Active Shooter course is one of our Emergency Response courses, along with Civil Unrest, Explosion, Bomb Threat, Suspicious Items and Medical Emergency.

See our new Active Shooter course HERE.

Environmental Awareness Global Update

Our Environmental Awareness course has helped many businesses understand and improve their environmental impact on the world. Focusing on international best practice to ensure legal compliance and practical techniques to reduce carbon footprint, the course now has a global version.

The UK-focused version is still available.

See our new international Environmental Awareness course HERE.

If you are not currently a customer and would like to know more about what our Health and Safety courses can do for your organisation, please email [email protected]

NEW RELEASE: Explosion eLearning Short Course

You’re going about your normal day and you hear a loud bang. There’s been an explosion nearby. Do you know what to do?

Our Explosion eLearning short course gives all employees the peace of mind of knowing what they should do if the worst happens. The course presents the aftermath of an explosion from the perspective of a person in the next building. Learners must answer a series of multiple-choice questions about their immediate response to handle the situation safely and pass the course.

The Explosion course is part of our Emergency Response suite, which when complete will include Civil Unrest, Active Shooter, Bomb Threat, Suspicious Items and Medical Emergency.

See our new course HERE.

NEW RELEASE: Civil Unrest eLearning Short Course

In times of uncertainty and political change, the likelihood of being caught up in civil unrest grows stronger. How many of us can say we would know what to do to if a riot broke out near our building?

Suitable for all employees, our Civil Unrest short course encourages employees to learn about the appropriate response to such serious incidents. It joins our Emergency Response suite, which when complete will also include Medical Emergency, Explosion, Active Shooter, Bomb Threat and Suspicious Items.

In the course, you are in a dangerous situation. A riot has broken out on the street by your building. You have a room full of customers and colleagues. Do you know how to keep yourself and others around you safe? Make the right decisions to collect 6 or more protective shields and pass!

See our new course HERE.

The course joins our Emergency Response collection of courses.

Creating a Business Contingency Plan (BCP) for Infection Outbreaks

It’s difficult to think of an area of everyday life that isn’t affected by the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, and business is no exception.

It’s natural for employees and corporate leaders alike to feel anxious about the future. However, by keeping the issues in perspective and working calmly to draw up a plan, businesses will be best placed to weather the approaching storm.

If you have an existing business contingency plan, now is the time to review it to make sure it’s still fit for purpose and tailor it to the specific case of Covid-19. Here are some tips to make sure you’re as prepared as possible:

Communication

Clear communication is always important in business. In a time of crisis, it’s crucial. Employees may be anxious about their health, their families, and the financial implications if they are unable to work in the usual way.

Communication should be as clear as possible, with little room for interpretation or confusion. Strike a balance between providing much-needed information and avoiding unnecessary panic. When discussing Covid-19 specifically, base any advice on official guidance from expert organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO).

If you’re transitioning to a home working model, ensure all employees know who to contact for technical help and updates on their workload. If possible, this should be worked out before any changes occur; the first days of the new routine are more susceptible to disruption, so minimising this is the key to a smoother transition.

Updates should be timely, clear and regular. Have a plan for how each individual will be contacted for work matters whilst at home.

Areas of Strength and Areas of Difficulty

It stands to reason that some departments and business functions will be able to adjust to a remote working model more easily than others. Identifying these as early as possible means you have more time to work out a plan for the trickier job roles.

Remember to take workplace stress into account. Change on this scale, even of a temporary nature, and living through a pandemic can aggravate existing mental ill-health conditions. Employers have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of all staff. Make a plan to keep lines of communication open and make sure nobody feels isolated. If you are able to offer significant flexibility in terms of working hours, this can help anybody feeling burdened by unexpected extra childcare duties or looking after older relatives.

Remote Working

People who work remotely have some advantages under normal circumstances, but during times of crisis there can be extra challenges too. Acknowledge this may be a big transition for some workers and draw up plans to support them through it.

As people become used to remote working, it can be a benefit: people might find they are more productive and refreshed without commuting and more comfortable in their home environment. Some short-term teething difficulties are worth pressing through to keep your business up and running throughout the coronavirus outbreak.

Since it is a big change for people who are usually workplace-based, it is worth considering extra training on remote working to get people through the transition.

Plan for the Long Term

Unfortunately, nobody knows for sure how long contingency measures will need to be in place. It’s entirely possible they could last for several months. Likewise, in a fast-moving situation such as a pandemic, everything can shift from day to day – so normality could return earlier than expected, too.

It’s possible that a review of your company’s sick pay and compassionate leave will be needed to get your staff through this difficult period. Should schools close in your area, people may need extra flexibility in working hours for childcare reasons. As far as possible, employers should try to meet these requests and have back up plans in place for cover if needed.

Business Continuity Plans

Writing a business continuity plan (BCP) that incorporates all of these elements will go a long way to ensuring you’re as prepared as possible for the effects of Covid-19.

It also has the purpose of making sure everyone knows what to expect should social distancing measures like widespread working from home be introduced. In a time of uncertainty, this can have a reassuring effect on staff.

Improving your Workplace Risk Assessment

When it comes to improving your workplace’s health and safety, there are few things more important than getting your risk assessments right. After all, if you don’t know where your potential safety issues are, how can you tackle them with the appropriate control measures?

Every risk assessment will be different because every workplace’s needs are different. There are a core group of health and safety topics that need to be covered by almost any organisation (e.g. fire risk assessment) and some specialist topics that vary depending on the company and its context (e.g. hazardous substances or legionella risk assessment). When it comes to the office risk assessment, one size certainly doesn’t fit all.

What is a Risk Assessment?

On the surface, “what is a risk assessment” seems like an easy question to answer: it’s a record of the possible risks and hazards in a working environment and the control measures in place to tackle them.

A quick internet search can reveal the technical basics of how to write a risk assessment. But all too often, they are seen as a box-ticking exercise, performed in isolation by one member of the management team purely to comply with legal requirements. The resulting document is sometimes then left to gather dust, with little relevance to the day-to-day work it refers to. This is a shame: effective risk assessments are a powerful tool to keep your staff safe and your accident rate down.

People responsible for writing them should begin by asking themselves: what is the purpose of a risk assessment? First and foremost, it exists to have real-world consequences – namely, the prevention of injury and accidents. If your risk assessment isn’t a living document that is regularly updated and has a clear relationship to how work is being performed on the ground, it isn’t doing its job.

Communication

The key to a good workplace or office risk assessment is the same as achieving good health and safety in general: communication with staff at all levels.

It’s fine to use a risk assessment template as a guide. There are many good quality versions available online. However, it’s vital to make sure yours is tailored to your specific circumstances.

The importance of communication flows both ways. Just as the suggested control measures are much more likely to be effective if they are the result of collaboration rather than dreamt up in isolation, workers are more likely to abide by health and safety rules if they know why they are in place. Like so much of successful health and safety culture, it must be an ongoing conversation. It must be a joint effort from everyone rather than something passed down from above with no explanation.

Risk Assessment Training

Writing a good risk assessment is a skill like any other. It can be improved with quality training and practice.

Any employee can learn how to write a risk assessment, though it is essentially a collaborative effort between everyone in the workplace. Employees should be empowered to speak up about the health and safety challenges they face in their workplace, from fire safety to stress levels, and the writing and updating of risk assessments are the perfect times for these discussions to be encouraged.

Designing the Perfect Office for Health and Safety

We spend a lot of our lives at work and where we work can have just as big an effect as our role itself. Let’s face it, most of us have been in less than perfect conditions at some point in our careers!

What is undeniable is that where we work has a strong effect on how we feel. It’s a big influence on our level of safety during the working day. Almost all workplace accidents are avoidable and design can play an important role in stopping problems in their tracks before anyone gets injured.

It’s rare for an employer to have the opportunity to design an office from scratch. But little changes can help too. Whether you’re re-fitting an existing workplace, relocating somewhere new or simply tweaking your existing arrangements, there are changes you can make to benefit all employees.

Getting the Basics Right

The workplace’s layout is one of the most important aspects of its health and safety. In lots of cases, the design features will not be consciously noticed but will nudge people towards more safe behaviour.

Try to make every area accessible to all. Don’t just take your current staff members into account. Even if few employees have mobility issues now, that doesn’t mean new hires won’t – and existing employees can develop them too. It pays to be prepared.

Take into account evacuation procedures. Whether it’s a fire, a bomb threat, flooding or another sudden event, you may need to get everyone out quickly and safely during stressful situations. Having a well thought out plan in place, backed up by sensible placing of workstations near to the exits, can make all the difference.

The lighting must always be carefully placed and strong enough to ensure maximum visibility. This is especially true around stairs and in storage areas. Many slips, trips and falls are completely avoidable but happen because people can’t see where they’re going. This extends to outside areas too. It could be a personal safety issue to have employees walking long distances through the dark on their way home.

Employers should also consider hygiene. Standards in this area can make the difference between one person having a bug and spreading it like wildfire through the whole office.

People should have space to move around during the day. Sitting at desks for entire working days isn’t healthy for many reasons and can contribute to musculoskeletal issues.

Minimising Stress

Stress is a huge issue for UK workplaces. Millions of us suffer from work-related stress every year, with many of these cases becoming long-term and resulting in illness.

Of course, the design of a person’s office isn’t the only factor at play. “Working conditions” doesn’t just mean physical conditions, and policies such as flexible working, a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and harassment, and fair pay can all make a huge difference to the mental health of workers. Even a perfectly designed office won’t change the culture if people are overworked and bullying is rife. Employers need to look at the full picture when improving working environments and avoid the temptation to look for a quick fix.

That doesn’t stop the environment itself from having a huge impact. People benefit from a wide variety of types of spaces in their offices. As well as the traditional desks, make room for areas to relax during breaks, smaller “quiet areas” for involved individual work requiring concentration and meeting rooms for teamwork. The sort of space your colleagues need will depend on the sort of work they do, so there’s no “one size fits all” solution.

Bringing some elements of nature into the workspace has benefits for employee health and wellbeing. This doesn’t have to be complicated: even a few well-placed plants near to where people work can make a difference.

Colour theory suggests even the décor can have an impact on stress levels. The rule of thumb suggests blue is good for productivity, green is calming and yellow is energising. No colour should be over-used but it can be a fun guide when deciding which spaces should be which colour.

There are so many factors at play that affect health and safety in the workplace. Looking at the layout and design of the office is just one step employers can take to ensure they’re taking their duty of care to their workers seriously.

Could a Bomb Threat Happen at your Workplace?

When we think of bomb threats in the workplace, we might be reminded of scenes from action films. Unfortunately, bomb threats are very real – and pose a genuine danger to everyone in any workplace and its surroundings.

Disruption

Bomb threats are reported relatively often. No type of workplace is immune.

In August 2019, a bus in Plymouth was evacuated after a man told the driver he had left a bomb onboard whilst “winking and smiling”. Though the body language of the person making the threat may have suggested it was a hoax, the driver did the right thing and evacuated the bus. After police checked thoroughly for anything suspicious, it appeared the threat was a false alarm.

Weeks later, an office in Liverpool had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. Although there was no bomb, the psychological effects on the people who had to be evacuated and the lost time were real.

One of the most dramatic and widespread incidents occurred in 2018. A British teenager emailed bomb threats to over 1700 UK schools, colleges and nurseries. Hundreds of them were evacuated as a result, causing distress and chaos for the families involved. He also made a false hijacking claim about a transatlantic flight, causing it to be grounded and undergo a full security check. Though there were no explosives involved in any of the incidents involved, these crimes were enough to result in a prison sentence of several years.

Unfortunately, not all bomb threats turn out to be baseless. In 1996 the Manchester bombing devastated parts of the city, and mass casualties were only avoided because the authorities were able to evacuate tens of thousands of people in the minutes between the threat being received and the detonation of the bomb. This highlights how proper preparation and training can save lives and prevent injuries.

Whether a bomb threat turns out to be real or false, many of the effects are the same: people’s lives are disrupted and it’s often a traumatic experience for those involved.

Handling Bomb Threats Safely

Bomb threats can come from many different channels: verbally, over the phone, via the mail, online or through notes.

If you receive a bomb threat, it’s vital to stay as calm as possible. Follow the correct emergency procedures and remember any bomb threat training you have received.

Emergency response training gives employees the confidence they know what to do in serious situations where every second counts.

NEW RELEASE: Bomb Threat eLearning Short Course

It’s an ordinary morning at work. The phone rings and you answer. The voice on the other end tells you there’s a bomb in your building. It’s going to go off in an hour. What do you do?

This nightmare scenario has happened at many different types of workplace. Bomb threats can be delivered via phone, email, post, social media, verbally or in writing. In many cases they will be hoaxes, but it’s never safe to make that assumption.

Our Bomb Threat eLearning short course gives all employees the peace of mind of knowing how to handle this distressing scenario. The course makes the situation feel “real” by putting the learner directly into the shoes of an employee receiving a bomb threat. They have to answer the questions correctly to keep everyone safe and pass the course.

It is the third course to be released from our Emergency Response suite, which includes Explosion, Civil Unrest, Active Shooter, Suspicious Items and Medical Emergency.

See our new course HERE.

Is your Workplace’s Mail Safe?

In late November 2018, a Royal Mail sorting office in Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim was evacuated after the discovery of a package containing a suspicious powder. Following their internal procedures, the area was cordoned off and the emergency services were called. Investigations revealed it was a non-hazardous substance.

This is far from the only example of suspicious mail being handled by staff. Training in how to deal with such situations is very important and could prevent a chemical or biological attack from harming people.

What Makes a Package “Suspicious”?

If possible, all letters and packages should be opened with a letter opener or using another method that doesn’t disturb their contents. There are certain signs that a package has been tampered with or contains something it shouldn’t. A lot of it comes down to instinct – if you’re in doubt, it’s better to have it checked rather than risk opening it.

Suspicious physical aspects of the package, such as discolouration, residue on the packaging or envelope, unusual size or weight, or excessive tape on the outside can all be signs that something is wrong.

Unusual labelling such as excessive postage, wrong addresses, being addressed to the wrong person or no-one specifically, misspellings and being marked with “confidential” or similar messages could all arouse suspicion, especially if more than one of these signs are present.

If you do receive a suspicious letter or package, it’s important to stay calm and alert the police immediately. Don’t touch the package. Leave the room, closing all doors and windows, but try to stay separate from other people until you have been medically examined.

In the vast majority of cases, suspicious letters and packages will turn out to be harmless. However, it pays to be vigilant, follow the correct procedures and report your concerns if you receive a suspicious item in the mail.

Emergency Response eLearning from DeltaNet International

We offer a collection of 5 minute short courses on handling workplace emergencies, including our course on Suspicious Items.