3 Signs It’s Time for Electrical Safety Training Courses for Your Team

Electrical safety issues are no joke. You can start to see signs your team is on its way to a disastrous event. My advice, don’t even wait for something bad to happen. Take action before you’re dealing with a literal or figurative fire at your business. It’s not worth the gamble of your business or your team members’ health or life.

Every single job site or workplace I’ve seen a huge electrical problem happen at, all skipped electrical safety training. You really can’t assume the people on your team know. They might have worked with electrical or around electrical before, but you need to know how much safety training they’ve retained. You can’t afford to run this blind.

Here are three signs you’re already on your way to a disaster. 

1) Electrical Safety Training is Needed if Your Crew Doesn’t Know PPE Properly

Anyone working around major electrical stations and equipment should be wearing the proper personal protective equipment. They need to know what areas could leave them with devastating injuries should an arc flash happen and they don’t have the proper PPE on. 

Watch your crew from a distance. Do they change gear accordingly as they enter different areas that have varying safety concern levels? Are they using tools correctly and with the proper safety gear? An untrained team usually ends up costing you.

Training with places like Benchmark will go over the different danger levels and where possible arc flashes can occur. It will show what may happen if someone is located within a certain zone during something like an explosion. Wearing extra hard core safety gear in possible problematic areas or in life threatening zones will help keep everyone safe.

2) Classes are Recommended if Possible Problematic Electrical Areas aren’t Taken Care Of Correctly

When your staff is lazy with the upkeep of electrical areas, there’s a huge risk for fires or shocks. Equipment needs to be kept clean and of course areas should be neat and tidy. Things thrown about can cause issues with how much energy runs through these electrical systems.

I’ve seen giant fires started and unfortunately I’ve even had a coworker pass away from their injuries from an arc flash. It’s just something no one needs to see. Not only is everyone traumatized, but you have a lot to deal with in the aftermath of one of those events.

The best sites I’ve seen have all their new hires take electrical safety training online before starting work. This strategy takes the guesswork out of how much someone knows. Everyone gets the same training so you know they can work together on watching for safety.

3) Your Team is Starting to Have Electrical Injuries

Well this certainly is the biggest red flag of them all. The moment you start having injuries on site, is the moment you might consider shutting your whole operation down until everyone is trained. If you know it’s a couple one-off situations then you can keep business moving. But if your whole team is questionable, you might be setting yourself up for major failure.

Burns and shocks, even just falls that happen in dangerous electrical areas are extremely concerning. Bare minimum you’re looking at increased insurance costs and a hurt team member. Max scenario is you’re facing a wrongful death lawsuit. Either is very undesirable and also avoidable.

Having a training schedule that you adhere to can save your business. You don’t want to close your doors or have someone hurt because of some missteps. There are online courses and in-person training that can fit whatever is in your budget and time constraints. Don’t be foolish and do this after an incident occurs. Trust me, you’ll save yourself a lot of money and heartache.

Require New Hires and Regular Refresher Courses

With the availability and cost of online safety classes, you can put all of your new hires through electrical safety training right away. Then do a more intensive, in-person training once a year for everyone on your team. That’s the magic recipe for avoiding costly and life endangering electrical issues. When you know your team knows what they’re doing, you can focus on the other tasks at hand. So pick a training schedule that fits your business model and get yourself some protection!

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