Guides & Toolkits

Guidelines For Supervisors – Ensuring Safe Lifting and Manual Material Handling in the Workplace 4 310-BJS-03-IGPA © 2022, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS) 1 877 494 WSPS (9777) | 905 614 1400 | www.wsps.ca Safe Lifting Safety Talks Introduction These instructions for safety talks are designed to help you conduct brief (10 to 15 minute) sessions with your staff. The purpose of the session is to remind your staff of the correct way to perform a specific type of lift or manual material handling. Supervisors are to demonstrate movements learned in Module 1 and Module 2 of the Safe Lifting and Manual Material Handling course. Through your questions and group discussion you should be helping your staff see how the technique shown relates to the kind of lifting/moving they will be doing. Finally, the practice exercise at the end of the safety talk will help your staff practice the technique and receive feedback from you. The practice and feedback portion of these safety talks is very important. Acquiring a physical skill such as proper lifting or manual material handling can only happen through guided practice. Your observation of each staff member's technique and the guidance you give them will help ensure they use the correct technique in the future. How to Use This guide outlines, step-by-step, how to prepare for, conduct and close a safety talk including how to run a practice exercise – either in a meeting or in the workplace. Preparation Determine the type of lift/move you wish to review with the staff. Play a video clip from YouTube, WSPS or demonstrate a technique. Decide if you wish to use either Option 1 or 2 for the practice portion of the safety talk. Gather together the necessary boxes or objects workers will be using during the practice portion of the safety talk. As an option you can print off the safe lifting observers checklist for participants to follow. Notify staff that this topic will be covered and there will be a practice exercise too. Keep a record of the people who attend the safety talks by having them sign an attendance sheet. Keep these forms on file for future reference. Conducting a Safety Talk Session Explain the purpose of this talk by linking the need for this safe lifting and manual material handling technique to an issue at work. For example, "Today we are going to talk about the right way to lift objects from the floor because this coming week we are going to be doing a lot of that and we want to be sure no one gets injured". Alternatively, you could ask staff if anyone has ever been or knows of anyone who has ever been injured lifting. Invite the staff person to tell the rest of the group what happened. Then link the incident to the purpose of the talk. Encourage questions and participation throughout the talk. If you don't know the answer to a question, admit it and promise to follow up and report back at the next staff meeting.

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