No Time Like the Present
This is, however, the time we are currently living in and we have to make the most of it.
- By Sydny Shepard
- Oct 01, 2020
We have seen some pretty expansive changes to our world in the last few months. Who would have thought that by October of 2020 going to the grocery store would require a face coving, hand sanitizer and a personal awareness of how close others are to you. This is, however, the time we are currently living in and we have to make the most of it.
While editing the PPE: Fall Protection article for this issue, I noticed an excellent point made by author Dave Ivey of Malta Dynamics. He wrote that as businesses and workplaces begin to resume activities the workers coming in each day may not be the same.
This could be due to workers deciding a pandemic is as good a time as any to retire, or perhaps they moved on to a new job when workers around the country were laid off or furloughed resulting in millions being stuck in pandemic purgatory. Either way, companies are seeing a new “freshman” class of workers entering their facilities. New workers bring a lot of added benefits to a company, but only after they’ve been properly trained of the hazards they could face.
As Ivey said in his article on page 38, “Having so many new faces on your team can be refreshing, of course, but it also means you need to train and equip your new workers so that they have the knowledge and personal protective gear to keep them safe on the jobsite.”
Occupational health and safety professionals should take advantage of this time when workers are trickling back to the jobsite to not only train new employees, but to review policies and procedures that might need to shift due to the newest hazard present: Coronavirus.
There’s no better time than now to ensure that your workers are up-to-date on standards and have the best resources available to them in their toolbox to work efficiently and safely.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the former editor of Occupational Health & Safety.