Editor's Note: Getting trained

I’m very pleased to introduce two new members of the Safety+Health editorial team: Associate Editor Kevin Druley and Copy Editor Andrew Lefkowitz. Both Kevin and Andy come from the newspaper industry, and I and the rest of the team are happy to have them on board.

Although one of the qualities that made Kevin and Andy stand out during the job interview process was their ability and eagerness to hit the ground running, their first few days at the National Safety Council included many hours participating in safety training.

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that NSC places a great deal of emphasis on training. The S+H team works in an office environment, yet we routinely complete training on slips, trips and falls; ergonomics; defensive driving; and first aid and AED, and more. In addition, I recently participated in a new pilot program on workplace violence prevention, and this training will be rolled out to all NSC employees in the coming weeks.

Here at S+H, we know that making sure workers are trained on safety is an integral part of the safety professional’s job. That’s why, this month, we’re presenting the results of our first-ever worker safety training survey. The survey was prompted by inquiries from safety pros at NSC member organizations who wanted to know, among other questions, how much employers of a similar size were spending on safety training.

We appreciate all of our readers who took the time to complete the survey, with additional thanks to those who shared their challenges and lessons learned in the write-in sections of the survey. This allowed Associate Editor Tom Musick to identify and share some common themes (and to look at some of them with an eye toward future feature articles).

Because we hope to make this an annual feature, we’d welcome feedback on what we can do to improve future training surveys. If you have suggestions for what we can do to make the survey more useful, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The opinions expressed in “Editor’s Note” do not necessarily reflect those of the National Safety Council or affiliated local Chapters.