4 Ways To Make Sure Your Temporary Workers Avoid Injury

There are many disciplines and industries that will hire temporary employment.  No matter the industry or function of the employee, it is the responsibility of the employer to provide a safe work environment and the proper training for the hired help.  There have been many complaints that employers do not treat their temporary help with the same regard as the permanent employees.  Such practices are not only immoral; they are not good business practices to abide by.  There are several steps that should be taken with care in order to ensure their safety while they are working in their new environment.  Some of the responsibility lies in the hands of the agency providing the potential help, but mostly it is the responsibility of the employer as stated by OSHA.

Well Qualified Employees

Temporary help is typically provided to employers by a staffing agency.  The staffing firm will seek out the help and recommend qualified individuals for the job that is available. It is crucial that the staffing company can provide these well-qualified candidates to ensure the company will get a competent individual to perform the job.  If a person does not have the right skills or enough experience, that person may be prone to injury by performing a task incorrectly.  Having well-qualified individuals will ensure that the person will be able to act responsibly and not make costly mistakes.

On the Job Training

Hiring temporary help can be very beneficial for companies with sporadic work.  When a temporary employee is brought on to help with the workload, they should first be prepared by a senior member of the company.  This serves as a redundancy for the new hire to show them how things are done within the company.  Just because they have done similar work or appear to have the proper credentials does not necessarily mean that they know the specifics of every company’s operational procedures.  Spend some time training them to get them up to speed.  Such training may involve specific safety protocols, or how to use equipment that may be unique to individual companies.  Get them well trained, and they will be in a better position to perform their job in a safe manner.

Injury Reporting

Having timely and accurate injury reports will red flag any problems with procedures or improper training methods.  The quicker you can analyze the problem that occurred the quicker you will be able to understand why and remedy it.  This will help to prevent future injuries from occurring and fine tune your training and safety policies.  It is important to identify the source of the problem.  Was it due to lack of training?  Alternatively, maybe the person had a problem with malfunctioning equipment.  Tracking why injuries occur is necessary to avoid them in the future.  The more detailed your injury report, the better you will be able to fix the problem moving forward.

Well Defined Safety Procedures

Aside from being trained by a senior member of the business, it is also the responsibility of the business to provide detailed safety instruction to the temporary help.  Just because they are there for a short period, does not mean that they should not have access to all of the training and safety protocols of permanent employees.  It may be best to have the temporary help undergo more extensive safety training since they are exposed to the policies and procedures of multiple companies.  A job they are asked to carry our within one company may entail the same type of work but may not necessarily involve the same safety guidelines.  It is up to the staffing agency to be in close coordination with the business in an effort to fully understand the job requirements and potential hazards.


Author Bio: Nick Quinlan is a health and safety coordinator for a small retail outlet that frequently hires temporary employees during seasonal rushes. To help keep his workers (both temporary and full time) safe, he makes use of software and training that can be found at http://ecompliance.com/. You can learn more about Nick by visiting him on Google+.