Getting back to the office: is your business fully prepared?

Over the last two years, most people have experienced working remotely, most often from their own homes. Adapting to—and functioning under—the “work from home where possible” advice required a great deal of changes to the average workspace. One example would be limiting how many staff could be in the office on any given day; as if it wasn’t already hard enough to schedule meetings! 

 

However, these changes are not permanent. At the time of writing, in February 2022, most experts believe that the number of people with Covid-19 will begin to fall away, as they did in 2021. This could bring us back to some normality in the workplace again, and as such, it is important to prepare. 

 

This disruption to our normal work routines has meant that many of my clients are out of sync with their normal mandatory legal requirements. Several organisations I have worked with in the last two years have expressed their need for a “back to work” refresher of several different things. Most commonly, I was asked about fire risk assessment, first aid training, manual handling training, and display screen equipment assessment—to name only a handful. 

 

The Health and Safety at Work Act outlines the appropriate regulations for how these topics should be trained. Remember: any employer with more than five employees is required, by law, to document risk assessment practices and provide basic training to their staff. Failure to meet these regulations could damage a business in several different ways—but most importantly, it would put members of staff in danger. The words of East Saxon Training’s motto, “Protecting your business by training your staff”, are not for nothing; the first step to keeping your business on stable ground is to ensure the people who work for you are properly trained to do their jobs, giving them a sense of stability and security for the benefit of all other employees. With many organisations looking to bring staff back into the workplace, it is essential that everyone receives the support they need. 

 

For most office-based organisations I have worked with, it was possible to fit all necessary training into a single morning or afternoon. This has been one of my specialties since founding East Saxon Training; I pride myself in making these training sessions engaging and effective, for which I have been commended on several occasions, in person and in reviews online. And yet, they take up only half a day, which I have found makes staff more receptive to the training. 

 

Most often, I will meet with clients to provide a free assessment of their training needs. Following this conversation, I then plan and develop a bespoke training course unique to their business and it’s specific needs. In one of my later blogs, I will outline why this is such an important element of providing training. Once the bespoke training course is ready, I am able to bring it directly to the place of work—convenience and accessibility are important components of good training. 

 

To find out more, please do not hesitate to call or email me. 

 

David Hewitt 

 

07485 099 309 

 

david.hewitt@eastsaxontraining.com