While they may seem like ‘low risk’ individuals as they don’t spend very long on site, it’s still your responsibility to keep visitors safe while they’re there and this can be achieved through effective visitors safety orientation. Visitors are unfamiliar with their surroundings and in most cases, they’re unaware of potential risks associated with your plant, facility or site. Imagine a simple scenario such as a visitor coming on site to have a meeting with one of your employees during which they visit the toilet and the fire alarm goes off. They’re away from everyone else on-site and leave the toilet to find an empty building. They don’t know where the fire exits are nor do they know where to find help.
What usually happens?
Every day visitors come and go, they sign in and are given access to the main campus. In some cases their ID is checked, but it’s only on rare occasions that they are given appropriate safety information, never mind being properly trained on it. The most ‘advanced’ visitor orientation is usually in the form of a leaflet or a rolling DVD of safety bullet points, but more often than not, the individual reads their phone instead or is yanked off to a meeting before the DVD is complete. Unfortunately the important of visitor orientations just haven’t hit home for most companies.
Your visitors may only be attending a one-hour meeting, but they may be exposed to hazards just by plugging in electronics to give a presentation, or walking around your facility.
Who’s responsible for Visitors safety orientation?
When a visitor comes onto your facility, they have a reasonable expectation of not getting injured. By the same token, you are responsible for maintaining a safe environment for them. Setting up a comprehensive visitor orientation which is automated so that no-one slips through the net can offer real peace of mind. It gives your company transparency if an accident does occur at your facility and you need to be able to show that orientation training was given. At the same time, the risk of visitors having an accident on site can be greatly reduced by the safety orientation having taken place in the first place. You’re encouraging visitors to open their eyes to the potential hazards around them, and to take responsibility for their own safety. Download our Visitor Orientation Checklist below to make sure you’re ticking all the boxes.
