Selecting the right personal protective equipment for each residual risk within your organisation is a real challenge.
The number of standards and the wide range of products are an absolute necessity. However, this means that you often cannot see the wood for the trees.
How do you choose the right protective equipment and use it correctly? This is especially difficult if you have no knowledge of the standards and their nuances.
We would like to provide you with six approaches that help you inform your staff about which PPE to wear in every work situation. You can implement these matters in the short and long term.
- Create a PPE matrix
- Hold a toolbox meeting or training session
- Organise a safety day
- Create visual posters
- Use a management platform
- Install distribution machines
#1: Create a PPE matrix
A PPE matrix is a diagrammatic overview of your personal protective equipment.
It makes it clear at a glance which protective equipment your staff should wear for particular tasks.
Make the whole thing even clearer by including pictures so that people immediately recognise the product.
You can also link the information to the online product information of your supplier. This ensures you always have an updated version available.
#2: Hold a toolbox meeting or training session
Nothing is more efficient than proper training…
In a toolbox meeting, a team leader can have a discussion with his team lasting about 10 minutes about the specific risks in the workplace.
This is the ideal time to also draw attention to the PPE that must be worn when performing specific tasks.
Keep your toolbox meeting short and to the point so that the message is not lost. Focus on one topic and focus sufficient attention on it.
Would you like to receive information about holding toolbox meetings because you don't have experience with such meetings? Our friends at Samurai at Work are your ideal partner for the efficient use of toolbox meetings in your organisation.
Make sure that training on the correct use of protective equipment is practical in nature. When training, link it to the real work environment so that people can put the information they have gained into practice.
Teach them to recognise the most important symbols on their protective equipment that is relevant to the risks in their workplace.
These symbols will also help them correctly assess other protective equipment in the future.
#3: Organise a safety day
On a safety day, you can organise workshops where you involve people in the subject of safety in a creative and interactive way.
In one of the workshops, you can focus attention in a practical way on the possible protective equipment available for the most significant risks in your company.
For example, you can show demos of working at heights, highlight a new technology, or make a nice pop-up booth.
Keep it interactive and above all instructive.
#4: Creat visual posters
Pictures speak a thousand words…
Make posters with a few short sentences explaining what the protective equipment can be used for. Use a few simple symbols to indicate the risks the product protects against.
Hang the posters next to the central warehouse or the distribution machine. This helps your employees make an informed choice.
You can derive these posters from your PPE matrix and create a different poster for each department or workstation.
#5: Use a management platform
PPE management platforms help you to structure your safety policy.
Create one or more product ranges and create specific catalogues.
You can link products to a business unit, a department, a job, or a risk.
Structure your organisation's product assortment so that staff can easily find the right products.
Give your staff access to the platform so that they can search out the right protective equipment for their application within a product range that you define.
You determine which catalogues are visible for each type of user.
You determine whether the organisation or employees can determine which employees may order protective equipment online.
Add your own tips to the products that will be included in your company-specific assortment.
Make the tips available in different languages to prevent language barriers.
Have online orders approved by an authorised person. This allows you to check that the right products are ordered by each person ordering.
Did you know that vdp.com offers all of these options?
#6: Install distribution machines
Distribution machines have proven to absolutely be an added value for the dispensing of rapidly rotating protective equipment.
Employees sign in and remove the products available to them.
You use the management system to control which products are available to each employee and link this to annual budgets, if any.
This means:
- You know exactly which products were used by each employee.
- Ensure that employees only select protective equipment that is relevant to their jobs
Distribution machines also provide solutions that contribute to the correct use of protective equipment:
- Make pop-ups appear on the screen when a product is taken out.
- Provide additional tips that promote the correct use of the protective equipment.
- Ask test questions so that staff select the right product.
Be sure to keep it interactive and have videos play on the screen.
When the distribution machine is not in use, it is the ideal medium for playing your videos with the most important safety regulations.
You can also use it to display short messages or PowerPoint presentations.
Some protective equipment can and should only be used after users have been trained. For example, fall protection, gas detection, breathing apparatus, etc.
With a distribution machine, you log users' training certificates and make sure that only staff with a valid certificate can take out these products.
Conclusion
The six approaches will help you inform your staff as much as possible about the available PPE and their usage in the workplace.
For example, you can start small with brief toolbox meetings and creative posters and in the meantime look for a management platform that best suits your organisation.
A few rules of thumb:
- Keep your posters or diagrams visual and attractive.
- Keep your training sessions really practical and focus on one topic.
- Opt for a PPE management platform or a distribution machine for a structured long-term solution.
Do you have a pressing question about these tips?