Risk-Sharing
contact hours by attending this same training. These classes are held annually between January and April. The dates and locations are emailed to members ahead of time and they can also be found on the risk-sharing pools’ websites.
Are Your Employees Adequately Trained? Where is employee training on your long list of safety priorities? Front and center or pushed way to the back? Few entities design a training program. It evolves over time by adding a required training class here, a DVD there, and then another and another. Over time, there are many bits and pieces of training, not a comprehensive program. Managing and promoting a positive, effective program takes effort, time and planning, which are often difficult for an already stretched staff and budget. We tend to push training to the back of the stack due to lack of resources and manpower, or safety becomes invisible when training is not required and/or there are no employee injuries. The SDML Workers’ Compensation Fund and the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance offer multiple training resources to assist you with your training efforts. These resources are free to members and they can be found on their respective websites. For the SDML WC Fund go to www.sdmlwcfund.com and for the SDPAA go to www.sdpaaonline.org. Ask yourself, “what does your employee training program look like”? Here are some considerations for establishing a written program or reviewing an existing one. One of the first questions you should ask yourself is “why do we train”? Are we training employees because of regulations, employee requests or due to a task analysis of hazards? A comprehensive training program should include all of these. Some positions require contact or recertification hours within a certain time period. How many of you have found yourself short of hours right before the deadline? A written training program will help ensure that employees stay current on any recertification or contact hour requirements by scheduling the required training ahead of time. For example, entities who have employees working in gravel pits are required by MSHA to receive 8 hours of annual refresher training. Each year the risk-sharing pools offer 39 one-day regional safety training courses where member employees can get this training. Likewise, water-wastewater operators are required by SD DENR to have a certain number of contact hours every three years depending on what class of operator they are. Operators can get five 24
Another aspect of developing or reviewing a safety training program should include a task analysis of hazards. What hazards are your employees exposed to? Are you providing them with adequate training so they know how to perform their assigned tasks safely? Task training needs to start with each new employee. Now is a good time to review your new employee training program. Don’t forget to provide safety training whenever an existing employee is assigned a new task or your department receives a new piece of equipment. Some of the best safety training comes from suggestions from your own employees. What topics do your employees want or feel they need? Do you get your employees involved in providing training suggestions or even the training itself? We have a series of “tailgate” or “toolbox” safety topics entitled, “Take Time for Safety.” These are safety training sessions designed to take 10 to 15 minutes each. Each course comes with a trainer outline, a handout, a quiz, a registration sheet and a certificate. How do you train? There are several options available. Here are some of the resources that the risk-sharing pools have for their members. The pools maintain a DVD library of various safety and risk management topics. These can be found on their websites. The pools work with some well-known companies that produce safety and risk management videos. Each year new and updated titles are added to the library. The pools have retained the services of FirstNet Learning to provide online safety and risk management training sessions. Several different topics are available, including seasonally featured courses. These can be accessed through the pools’ websites. Once a course has been completed, employees can print a certificate of completion. SD DENR has approved several of these courses that are eligible for contact hours that can be used for recertification. MSHA also recognizes online training that qualifies towards the 24 hours of new miner training that is required before they can work in a gravel pit unsupervised by a competent person. The SDPAA has contracted with PATC to provide online training for law enforcement and corrections. PATC has just developed a new site that features several video training sessions on a wide variety of topics. South Dakota Law Enforcement Training will give recertification hours for these training sessions. We provide on-site training for both of the risk-sharing pools. Last year we provided 161 regional training sessions on 39 different topics for pool members. To host an on-site training session all you have to provide is a classroom and SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
