Workplace First Aid and CPR Training – Who are the Certified First Aiders in Your Workplace?

November 11, 2015November 11, 2015 Audra Sayn-Wittgenstein

Fusion Career Services Staff Update First Aid and CPR Skills – Workplace Training

The Fusion Career Services and Labour Source team spent some time this past week updating our emergency first aid and CPR skills. It was a fun day! Even though it was a long day, it was worth it. We all learned and practiced some important, potentially lifesaving skills while sharing a few laughs.

What we Learned?

Our emergency first aid training taught us:

How to assess and respond to an emergency situation.
When and how to perform CPR.
When and how to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator).
When and how to help someone choking.
How to bandage serious wounds.

Why First Aid training is Important for Everyone?

Everyone will eventually encounter an emergency situation – at work, at home, while commuting, traveling or in the community. The first aid skills you will learn could potentially save someone in your family, a co-worker, someone in your community or a stranger. If you have children, aging parents or if someone in your family has health issues that put them at risk of heart attack or stroke you will want to seriously consider becoming first aid certified.

I Don’t Have Time to Get Trained

One reason first aid training is time consuming is because training requires practice. It takes time and effort to learn a new skill. Even if you have been trained in the past, if you do not use the skills you quickly forget them. A typical emergency first aid course is about 8 hours. A significant portion of the class will include performing CPR, actually using the AED machine and bandaging a wound. This is time well spent practicing what you have learned.

First Aid in the Workplace – What does the Law Say?

All employers covered by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) are required to have first aid equipment, facilities and trained personnel in all workplaces. The equipment, facilities and type of training required depends on the size of your workplace. Details are outlined in the WSIA Regulation 1101 – First Aid Requirements.

Rudeness at Work is Contagious

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 Carol Irwin

New Study shows Rudeness at Work is Contagious

Most of us have experienced a co-worker who was as prickly as a porcupine. These people are unpleasant to be around and over time their rude and negative behavior starts to impact our workday. A new study out this year in the Journal of Applied Psychology reports employees who witness or experience rude behavior at work are “more likely to be impolite in return, spreading rudeness like a virus”.

Share these tips in your workplace as a reminder of how small things like good manners can make a big difference to everyone’s workday.

10 Examples of rude workplace behaviours:

Refusing to acknowledge someone’s presence – have you ever passed by someone at work who looked right through you?
Refusing to make eye contact – it is not pleasant speaking to someone who can’t be bothered to look up or turn around to face you.
Making a “grumpy”, “scowling”, “frowning”, “don’t talk to me” face.
Eye rolling.
Interrupting.
Complaining – about the weather, traffic, the boss, the workload, the clients, and anything and everything else you can think of.
Slamming and banging – the phone, the door, the filing cabinet…
Swearing.
Muttering, grumbling or mumbling under their breath. You can’t quite hear what the person is saying but you know it is negative!
Snapping, snarling, or just plain mean spirited response – you get the answer to your question, but the person leaves you feeling like you should not have asked and don’t come back!

How can you avoid spreading rudeness? Try these common sense, good manners at work:

Always nod, smile or acknowledge people at work with a friendly greeting.
Face to face interaction is always preferred. When you make eye contact you show you are listening and interested.
Put on a happy face and maybe you will start to feel happier. As the saying goes – “fake it, til you make it”. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, but if your bad day goes on all week it will start to impact everyone around you and your productivity.
Discuss disagreements in a mature manner. Eye rolling is flat out disrespectful and childish.
Listen first. Then respond to what was said. Now it is your turn to make a point. Interruptions are inefficient. Often the person interrupting is not listening to others. This leads to frustration and poor communication.
Share good news stories and keep the bad news to yourself. Complaining is the adult version of whining.
Take a brisk walk outside to let off some steam. Slamming and banging things at work is negative and can be intimidating for others around you.
Keep your language “clean” most days of the week. Bad stuff happens and when it does you will need to let loose with some choice expletives.
If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. If you have something to say, speak up so everyone can hear you.
Kindness goes a long way. Helping others feels good! If someone is coming to you to ask a question, clearly you have knowledge that is needed at your workplace. This is a good thing!

Imagine a Healthy Workplace

September 22, 2015 Audra Sayn-Wittgenstein

Take a moment to imagine a healthy workplace.

A place that supports the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of employees. October is Healthy Workplace Month in Canada – a time to think about your workplace. Is it a healthy place?

The World Health Organization says physical, mental and social wellbeing are requirements for optimal health. Health is more than simply not having a physical illnesses. To be healthy, people must also be free of excessive mental distress and feel socially connected to others.

Similarly, a healthy workplace is an environment that promotes health for employees by preventing physical injury, undue stress and providing social support. Physical hazards are controlled. Employees feel their workloads are balanced and manageable. And, the social environment is positive.

Workplace activities that promote a healthy environment include:

Health & Safety programs and activities
Training opportunities to learn and develop skills
Opportunities to socialize and work with others
Wellness programs and activities
Discussions and evaluation of workplace health achievements

It doesn’t matter if you envisioned your workplace as healthy or you feel it needs some improvements. The status of workplace health changes often due to the normal variations in factors that influence businesses. Workplace health is achieved through commitment by individuals and employers who regularly choose healthful behaviours at work. Initiatives that manage physical, mental and social problems in the workplace will lead to happy and productive employees and a healthy workplace.

Improve Safety with Posters and Videos

September 1, 2015 Audra Sayn-Wittgenstein

Improve safety campaigns with thought-provoking pictures and videos in the workplace.

Seeing images of safe and unsafe work practices is an effective way to improve health & safety practices at work. There is a recent online trend of social sharing of photos and videos of health & safety practices at work. Images help spread the safety messages to the general public. The safety industry is using the popularity of social media to spread the word and improve safety in the workplace.

This principle, used by teachers and marketers, of displaying graphic images to reinforce a message should be applied to workplace safety training programs. Posted images remain present long after health & safety training is completed. Similarly, this approach is used in government regulations with requirements for posting various signs and posters as visual reminders of legislation. No smoking signs, exit signs, WHMIS labels and WSIB’s “In Case of Injury at Work 1-2-3-4” poster are all examples of graphics used to reinforce safety messages.

To improve safety training, employers can easily add visual content to their corporate H&S messages. Wall posters, images on workstation computer screens, videos and pictures on websites and newsletters and infographics can be friendly reminders of safety training. With minimal cost or effort, employers can easily find interesting images to post in the workplace.

There are many great visual campaigns and resources available online to use as inspiration for developing similar workplace strategies. Here are a few examples:

WSIB Twitter photo contest #PracticeSafeWork– Individuals are tweeting safe work practice pictures.
Health & Safety video contest – High school students are making workplace safety videos.
Online Health & Safety videos collections – WorkSafeBC on YouTube

Start by going to Google and searching health & safety images. This is a great place to start. Then, decorate your workplace, website and training materials. These images will get noticed and promote your organization’s priorities, one of which should be safety.

Work Breaks – The importance of taking time away from Work

August 11, 2015August 11, 2015 Carol Irwin

Work Breaks – Increase Productivity by taking a Break!

Why is it so hard to take a break from work? We know the benefits of taking time away, but many of us still find it hard to take breaks during our workday. We sit at our desks for prolonged periods of time during the day, we work through lunch or eat at our desk, we stay late and bring work home with us in the evening. The result is often mental and physical fatigue which results in reduced productivity. In the absence of breaks, we get sleepy, our reaction time slows, our critical thinking and problem solving is negatively impacted, and overall our productivity diminishes.

Our bodies need breaks for multiple reasons:

mental break – time away from a problem or task can actually speed up time to solve an issue or complete work
physical break – your body needs to change position, stretch and move
nutrition break – water, healthy snacks and meal breaks are essential

How can we encourage our staff to take breaks? Here are some ideas to share and try at your workplace. Make sure your managers lead by example and take appropriate breaks too.

Mini break

If you work sitting at a desk in front a computer screen, as many people do today, try these tips:

glance away from your screen every 15 minutes to give your eyes a rest and refocus on a point in the distance;
stand up and stretch at least 1 time per hour;
take short mini breaks of 1 1/2 to 2 minutes – fill up your water glass; get up and walk around the office; use the washroom on another floor in your building and take the stairs;

Coffee break

In some jobs it is not possible to take 1 to 2 minute mini breaks. If you work in customer service or in a job where you cannot take mini breaks, take a 15 minute break to enjoy a coffee, cold drink or snack, check your social media, take time to stretch and take a short walk.

Lunch break

Eating lunch at your desk is not the best option for taking a break, especially if you continue to work between bites. If you can, leave the office or eat your lunch away from your workstation. Try these other tips:

If the weather is nice, eat outside or have lunch on a patio;
Go for a walk, to the driving range or to the gym;
Try learning something new at lunch – schedule a webinar or listen to a podcast;
Schedule a few errands that require you to walk and will take your mind off work in a pleasant way – for example, pick up a new golf club or browse for birthday cards, don’t schedule a phone call to your cellular company to dispute a bill;
read the news, a magazine or a novel;
Take time to call a friend or check your social media.

Downtime after hours

Many people work long hours at the office and bring work home with them in the evening. With todays communication technology it can be hard for some people to stop working in the evening. Every workplace has different norms and expectations, but more and more workplaces are finding it necessary to put limitations on their employees’ work activities afterhours. Concerns for employees mental health, stress management, work and family balance, as well as responsibility for overtime pay are just some of the reasons employers are “putting the breaks” on after hours work.

Employee Opinions about Workplace Safety

July 14, 2015July 14, 2015 Audra Sayn-Wittgenstein

Employees may hesitate to voice their opinion about workplace safety problems.

Employee opinions are an important source of information. Personal opinions are the expression of what individuals believe to be true. Though not always objective, employee opinions about workplace safety can be an indicator of the safety culture of a company.

Supervisors should find out what their employee think about workplace safety. Do your workers feel safe at work? What problems are employees coping with on the job? Are work days stressful and do unreported injuries or near-misses occur? Are workers concerned that their job is compromising their health?

Engaging employees in non-judgemental conversations about what they think about the status of the workplace safety helps builds positive relationships and trust. Dialogues, including casual conversations, safety meetings and anonymous surveys, provide opportunities for employees to express opinions and ask questions.

Awareness of employee concerns about workplace safety allows managers to better train and supervise employees. Understanding what employees think can help managers correct problems and create a better employment experience. Employees often have practical solutions to workplace safety problems.

Start by asking this simple question: Do you feel safe on the job? Openly talking about workplace safety is an important step towards developing a work environment where employees are safe, healthy and enjoy their jobs.