Do I really need electrical safety training for my employees?

This is a two-part answer. First, electrical safety provisions is law

OSHA requires in 1910 Subpart S that employees that work around electrical-related equipment, are trained in safety-related work practices. If you don’t provide training for these folks, and they get hurt, OSHA can issue a citation against you and fine you. So, the the short answer is yes — you really do need electrical safety training.

The second part of the answer has to do with protecting your assets and protecting your employees

Employees who are trained to recognize workplace electrical hazards understand the precautions that are necessary to take to either eliminate or mitigate the hazards.

At the end of the training, the worker should be able to recognize the potential electrical hazards that he faces in his daily work life:

• Can he recognize a shock hazard?
• Can he recognize an arc flash hazard?

At this point, he’ll know what safety-related work practices he needs to protect himself and the plant equipment.

The safety issues that OSHA refer to in 1910 Subpart S, are spelled out very clearly in NFPA 70e®

These are the world’s best electrical safety work practices. And, if we’re following these rules, and apply these rules, we’re certainly going to meet all of the OSHA requirements.

However, buying the book and reading through it is NOT considered to be training. Real training has to be formal, classroom training, on the job, and has to be documented. And at the end of the training, the employee has to prove proficiency.

BCH Electrical Safety Training provides interactive and customized training that requires hands-on exercises where the employee has to take the rules that are in the book and apply them to a common job that he typically performs in order to prove that he is proficient.