Before we tell you more, it is important to understand the benefits that First Aid Training can have on an organisations and its employees. Below are 4 of the main benefits, however they do not stop there, the advantages are endless!
1. First Aid Training Saves life’s.
Do you and/or your company want to be completely prepared to deal with any incident in the workplace?
If the answer is yes, you are on the right track to safety!
This could be the most self explanatory benefit for most, but often individuals and companies underestimate the impact that First Aid Training has on the reduction of serious incidents and even death in the workplace.
2. Cost effective
Some may neglect adequate First Aid Training due to unwanted costs that may seem ‘pointless’.
However , when you begin to realise that the cost of a course is nothing compared to the damage caused for the company and loved ones when there is an accident or death in the workplace.
3. Increases workplace morale.
This may seem like a surprising benefit of First Aid Training but it is actually proven to boost morale in companies for several reasons, including;
Makes employees feel they are cared for by their organisation.
Helps employees look out for each other which will bring them closer.
Learning skills that can also be used outside of work makes employees feel they have accomplished more in their role.
4. Keeps employees safe outside of work.
The skills you learn in First Aid Training are for life and can be used in a variety of different scenarios- in and out of the workplace.
You never know when a serious situation will arise and having the confidence that your employees will be able to deal with this in the most effective way is great for any company who care about there workers.
Interested to find out more?
The courses that we deliver in partnership with Tactical Tuition UK are designed to be informative, fun and engaging. Our aim is to create an optimum learning environment , with out First Aid training courses being run in-house, at your workplace or at a location that suits you.
Regulated by Ofqual, under their Regulated Quality Framework, accredited by the FAA and FutureQuals – our courses provide accountable, quality assured, practical knowledge, backed up by real-world experience from our trainers.
One of the most common questions we get asked is; ‘Which course would be best suited for me?’. This is a question our trainers LOVE to hear as it shows you are dedicated to getting the most out of a course. The more dedicated to learn you are, the better your chances of starting your pathway to employment.
It is crucial that we get a full understanding of your experience and your aspirations from a course for many reasons;
You are happy with the speed and detail of the course.
We can put you on a course with delegates who are at a similar level/experience to you.
Avoid last-minute changes where we decide to move you onto a different course.
You leave the course happy that the qualification you gained will be useful in your employment journey (leads you to find work, a promotion or just to meet safety regulations in a current role).
Are you wondering that exact question of ‘Which course should I do?’ Below is questionnaire for you to get a rough idea.
Experienced Courses;
So now we can ask you, what course should you do?
Novice Courses;
Brief Description-Our RTITB Reach or CB novice courses are for those with little or no experience operating forklifts.
Duration- 3-5 days
Price- £650+VAT
2. Experienced Courses;
Brief Description- Our RTITB Reach or CB experienced courses are for existing operators with some previous experience but who have not had the benefit of adequate, formal lift truck training.
Duration- 3 Days
Price- £400 + VAT
3. Conversion Courses;
Brief Description-Our RTITB Reach and CB conversion courses are aimed at current certified lift truck operators who are wishing to convert their current driving qualification and skills to include a different type of truck.
Duration- 2 Days
Price- £285+VAT
4. Refresher Courses;
Brief Description- Our RTITB Reach and CB refresher courses are for those operators with documentary evidence of basic training and who wish to renew their certification to use a CB truck.
Duration- 1 Day
Price- £140+VAT
Still undecided on which course is for you? Head over to the ‘course content’ section of our website to find out some more details about what each course entails.
Cross- training employees can be a catalyst to a huge improvement in workforce productivity of any business. Here are the 5 main benefits of cross-training in the warehouse sector, however the advantages do not stop here, they are endless!
What does it mean to cross train an employee?
Cross-training is building the skills of your employees so that they can work in several different roles and carry out tasks even if they aren’t part of their main daily responsibilities. As a result, you, as the employer, can increase productivity in the workplace by making the maximum use out of the latent talents and skillsets of your employees.
For example, when summer is approaching and people are rushing into travel agents to book their last-minute holidays, if employees who usually handle telephone customer service enquiries are also trained to handle walk-in customers, then the travel agency will be more able to handle the increased demand.
Similarly, in the warehouse sector if someone in your team who usually works in production work could also operate forklift trucks you could move them temporarily to the loading team if there is a spike in demand. This prevents orders falling behind and increases the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your team.
Cross-training, specifically in the warehouse sector, is something that gets spoken about more than it is actually implemented. What is the main reason for that? Because people are simply unaware of the multitude of gain generated from this method. Hopefully after reading this blog post, you will be part of the percentage who are aware of the benefits, and will be tempted to use that knowledge to your advantage!
1. Great return on investment
The key to cross-training making a great return on investment is realising that the talent you are trying to outsource is most likely already within your business. Once you’ve had this realisation and act upon it, you are likely to see ways to boost to your bottom line.
2. Improved employee retention
A study conducted at the university of Warwick via Forbes found that on average, happy and engaged employees are 12% more productive than their unhappy counterparts. Cross-training has a significant effect on individual employee happiness because with a broader range of skills employees will feel as though they are being invested in and in return will become more engaged. Continuously focusing on the skillset of your existing employees rather than trying to recruit new employees with prior qualifications, will keep long term employees more committed to stick around.
3. Reduced impacts when employees are absent
This is a fairly straightforward benefit but often people do not realise the extent of a positive impact having cross-trained employees can have when absence occurs. For example, if your business has 10 employees and each of them have a total of 25 holidays per year that would be a total of 250 days a year where at least 1 person’s list of responsibilities are not getting completed. Does that sound efficient to you?
When your work-force is “cross-fit”, you will be able to substitute somebody from a less busy shift or a different sector who has the knowledge to cover for the absent employee. As a result, a significant increase to the number of responsbilities and tasks that are being completed will arise and the productiveness\output of the company will expand.
Ideally, even in a small company, you would have three people or more who could do any single job – even if only to ‘hold the fort’ professionally for a shift or a day. There is a direct link between the competency of your people and the confidence your customers have in you as a supplier.
4. Better employee collaboration
There are two types of employees. Those who have just expertise in one area (not cross-trained) and those who have expertise in one particular aspect but also still have a broad knowledge of other aspects in the company (cross-trained). When you are the non-cross trained type of employee you are hyper-focused to that one particular area and therefore find it difficult to collaborate with those in other sectors of your company.
Good collaboration is crucial within a company as it allows you and a team to solve problems together, speeding up the process of finishing a task and avoiding breakdowns in communication.
5. Makes your company more agile
The actual process of cross-training employees may reveal areas of strengths and weaknesses in employees. Throughout the on-the-job-training hidden talents and strengths may be revealed that means people would work better in another area or field of the business. You can then change people around accordingly. This makes your company more agile and responsive to change as-well as increasing flexibility when needing to fill last minute absences.
Being an agile company has a range of benefits such as more resilience, quicker decision making, more collaborative and also quick mobilization.
How Key Performance Training can help your business with cross-training
Key Performance Training based in Swindon and RTITB Approved, can unlock your potential with novice, refresher, experienced courses in Forklift Training, First Aid, Health and Safety and Fire Marshall Training, amongst others, at regular times throughout the year in a specifically designed training centre or on-site at your own location if you prefer. From individual training to large scale corporate roll outs.
For more information email us at mia.davies@keyperformancetraining.co.uk
1. We help you to find work after completing a course.
Are you looking to find a job, a better job or a career?
Our aim is to provide delegates with a pathway to employment. By pathway, we don’t mean that we are providing the training and that’s all. We provide a guided pathway. One, where even after the delegates training course ends, we are there to guide them in the direction of employment.
Once completing a course, we will first give you the contact details of the job coaches and employment agencies we work with who will give you the coaching needed to find a job, a better job or a career.
You are then given the option to subscribe to our email newsletters where we send out forklift operator vacancies in Swindon and the surrounding areas. This means our previous delegates are often the first to hear about forklift driver job roles in their area.
With this process we have in place, as well as the increasing demand for operators, delegates are commonly finding work 1-2 weeks after completing a course with us.
2. Trainers with over 20 years of experience.
With any type of training, teaching or coaching the trainer, teacher or coach is the determiner for not only your success but also your experience and enjoyment. Wouldn’t you agree?
At Key Performance Training we believe that our experienced trainers are what takes our forklift training centre from great to EXCELLENT. Many of our previous delegates and reviews state that our trainers made their experience on a course with multiple reviews stating ‘the best trainer I’ve ever had’.
David and Calum both have over 20 years of experience in forklift operating and training. Therefore, they know first hand the potential dangers of operating and the best ways to avoid these risks. Both, share the same goal of minimising these risks by providing training that prioritises safety.
As we believe on any course that the determiner of success is the trainer, we offer FREE taster sessions for potential delegates to come along to the warehouse and meet our trainers. From there, you will hopefully share the same view as us on how friendly, calming and knowledgeable both David and Calum are. Especially for those apprehensive novice drivers, meeting the team in person before a course can make all the difference and calm your nerves before course week!
3. Our Reviews- They speak for themselves!
“Would definitely recommend” ‘Credit for my achievements go to him.’This delegate has never been out of work since completing a course with us!
Are you interested in completing a forklift course to expand your employment oppourtunities?
Are your warehouse looking to up skill or cross-train staff to operate forklifts?
After reading this blog post we hope you choose us as your forklift training centre! To get in contact about the courses we offer or for general enquires contact;
We’ve been keeping busy at the Key Performance Training warehouse. With both of our trainers (David and Calum) being able to teach at the same time in our double arena, more and more delegates are gaining forklift qualifications and unlocking their pathway to employment!
This is our cheerful monthly blog post where we recognise and congratulate some of the delegates who are now fully qualified, excellent operators! So lets take a look back at some of the fantastic delegates who have completed a course and gained their license with us throughout the month of September…
Connor and Bill
A big congratulations to Connor (pictured) and friend Bill who both passed their counterbalance and reach truck novice courses by completing a three day CB novice and then going onto complete a two day reach truck conversion.
Both boys were 19 years old and unsure on their next step towards a career. They came along for a taster session and quickly decided that forklift operating would be a good option and so booked in for a course.
When Connor was asked if he would recommend Key Performance Training, he answered; “Definitely, the instructors and facilities are all good and they give you the names of the agencies so it’s easy to find a job afterwards”.
Paul
Paul came to us as an experienced operator looking to refresh and expand on his skills. He already had experience as a counterbalance operator but needed to renew his license and so completed a Counterbalance refresher and Reach conversion course.
David picked up quickly that Paul was a competent driver who just needed a reminder on the latest legislations and safety procedures that have been updated since he last completed a course.
With no surprise to David, Paul passed with flying colours and is now a fully qualified operator of both trucks!
Artur
Congratulations to Artur who completed and passed his Reach truck conversion course.
The RTITB Counterbalance Lift Truck conversion course is aimed at currently certified lift truck operators wishing to convert their existing lift truck driving qualification and skills to include a counterbalance lift truck.
From completing the course, Artur gained a suitable and sufficient understanding of current relevant legislation, learnt new skills and the best practice of counterbalance lift trucks up to 5000kg.
Terry
Well done to Terry who passed his Counterbalance Novice course. As a novice operator, Terry had no prior experience of lift truck operation but wished to achieve a nationally recognised qualification in the safe and correct use of counterbalance lift trucks.
He was a pleasure to train and took everything on board excellently with a real eagerness to learn.
Now, Terry will have many more opportunities to get back into employment, especially as the counterbalance lift truck is one of the most common lift trucks in use today and are the workhorse of most materials handling operations.
Mike
Mike already had experience operating a reach truck but also wanted to expand his career options and get a license in safe operation of a counterbalance truck. Therefore, he completed a counterbalance conversion course.
Also, Mike recognised that he needed to refresh his Reach license as to follow health and safety legislations, licenses have to be refreshed every three years. He also completed his Reach truck refresher with us in the same week.
We would like to congratulate Mike, not only on his successful completion of the course but also for following the law and sticking with the health and safety legislations to get his license refreshed.
Why train with Key Performance Training?
We can offer RTITB accredited operator training and instruction from fully qualified and experienced instructors and examiners who are able to carry out training to the legal requirements.
This can help the likelihood of accidents and improve safety of operators and pedestrians in the workplace.
All our RTITB courses are held in our Swindon warehouse. If , however you are looking for an onsite course, we can cater to this too.
No matter if you’re working in a warehouse as a forklift operator or an office as an administrator, there are always possible dangers. You need to be aware of them and act immediately to ensure the safety of yourself and other colleagues. When I say ‘aware’, I don’t mean this lightly. There is a huge difference between being aware and being actively aware. Being just ‘aware’ often leads to situations where it’s too late. When you are actively aware you can spot an issue and resolve it quickly before an incident occurs.
Safety professional and coach for better risk management strategies- David Gant took to his twitter to ask his large following one question.
“What is the one piece of safety advice you would give to a worker?”
The responses were excellent with so many acknowledging how dangerous working in warehouse environments can be and having safety as their number 1 priority when at work. We want to share this advice with you in hope that it will help at least one person change their mindset on the importance of safety at work.
“Don’t do a job that you aren’t qualified to do, and do the jobs that you are qualified to do according to the process”.
More commonly than you would think, warehouse managers and supervisors cut corners and allow unqualified workers or those without refreshed licenses to operate forklift trucks. This is when accidents will occur. Even if you have been given permission to operate a truck this does not mean it is safe and as many experienced operators would tell you; it’s never as easy as it looks.
“Would you let your most loved one ‘be there’ ‘do that’ ‘take that chance’. If it’s not good enough for them; it isn’t good enough for you! You are important to them too”
Every time you get on the truck without inspecting, walk round a corner without making yourself known, drive too fast to get a job done or become complacent in any way, think to yourself; would I be happy for the one I love most to do what I am doing? If the answer to that question is no, don’t do it. It really is that simple.
“You can’t just talk the talk, make safety a priority.”
Now a piece of advice for all managers and supervisors; the costs of accidents that could occur due to a lack of safety are never worth the time saved by not putting in place and adhering to safety measures. Read that again.
“Never walk past an error”
We all make mistakes and not everyone is going to be thinking of safety every second of the day. In your workplace, you should first work together and encourage one and other to make safety an individual number 1 priority. You should then work together to encourage each other to make the safety of others a second priority. This way, even if the individual isn’t on their safety ‘A game’ there will always be back up to correct their errors.
Important- you should never assume that someone is going to correct your errors and act at all times as though you are in complete control of your own and everyone else’s safety.
“If you aren’t sure it’s safe, it probably isn’t”
1. Trust your instinct.
2. Double check.
3. Report it.
Finally, here are a checklist of questions you should ask yourself;
Will doing it this way get me home safely?
Am I concentrating 100%?
Do I need to have a break to prioritise safety?
Would I let my loved ones take this chance?
Am I following the companies safe work procedures?
Is safety my number 1 priority?
Key Performance Training are a forklift training company based in Swindon who also cover areas around Wiltshire and the South west. As an RTITB accredited centre, safety is genuinely a number one priority of the business and all delegates who complete a forklift training course should also take on this mindset.
