Are your staff properly trained? – PROVE IT!

The maintenance equipment that golf courses use is fantastic for what they are design to do. They can maintain the course quickly and at an efficient cost. The downside of this equipment is that they are generally high powered machinery with many moving parts that can cause severe harm if misused. There are several cases of accidents such as lost limbs, disfigurement s and large lacerations occurring to the staff while operating the equipment. The main reason for this is that courses are not properly training their staff how to use the machinery properly. They give out basic training that allows for the job to get done but do not go over the entire machine and every potential situation that may occur.

Here are a few helpful tips to assure safe operations on turf equipment

• all staff must watch training video on specific machinery
• all staff must receive full on-machinery training from supervisors
• all staff must be signed off my supervisors on what machines they are permitted to use
• prior to use and during use, staff should be able to identify any mechanical errors occurring in order to prevent an accident for happening.
• all machines should be stowed and locked in their proper areas and keys should not be accessible to unauthorized staff and the public

It is very important that each employee is trained on the machinery they operate. It is even more important that this training is documented. Under the Ontario Health and Safety Act, it states that employees should be trained regularly in order to prevent accidents. By documenting the training, the course is showing their due diligence in properly training their staff. This can be done by having the Superintendent or assistants train and sign off on each employee for every machine they use. However, the way to assure the best documentation would be to video tape every training session and keep the video on file. This is easy as video files can be electronic and transferable. This is becoming more common for the larger courses, but is also very important that the smaller, public courses are on board and begin documenting their employee training. They also need to educate their staff on their rights. Every employee has the right to: know the risks involved in a task, participate and or refuse any unsafe tasks. If both the staff and the employers are educated and take the necessary precautions prior to operating machinery, the number of accidents will drop drastically.

OHS - http://www.healthandsafetyontario.ca/HSO/Home.aspx

WSIB - http://www.wsib.on.ca/en/community/WSIB

John Deere Turf - http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/parts/parts_by_industry/golf/golf.page?

By Rick Leendertse