Guidelines For Supervisors – Ensuring Safe Lifting
and Manual Material Handling in the Workplace
5
310-BJS-03-IGPA © 2022, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS)
1 877 494 WSPS (9777) | 905 614 1400 | www.wsps.ca
Review the Plan for the Session
Below is how you would run the session:
Introduction Introduce/Review the session plan with your participants. An example
of what you might say is, "Here is what I would like to do with you today:
Review the steps to a proper lift/manual material handling as
covered in the training
Have a participant or supervisor demonstrate a lift
(must be done safely)
Practice the proper technique for lifting objects at waist height
off shelving or other relevant lift.
Tell your participants: "Let's get started." "Let's take a look at the right
way to LIFT OBJECTS AT WAIST HEIGHT OFF SHELVING or other
relevant lift"
Lift Demo
Have employees comment on lift performed by the demo.
Ask for questions or comments. If there are no questions, ask the group
questions like:
What did you see in the steps that made the lift safe?
Were any of the steps new to you?
What would be the hardest part of the technique to master?
Do you think that you already lift this way?
What barriers would keep you from being able to use
this technique?
Do you ever lift things incorrectly? How often? Having watched the
video, what do you think you will do now?
If participants bring up unsafe lifting situations, discuss possible
alternatives.
Introduce
Practice Exercise
for Lifting
Introduce the practice exercise. You could have workers use the Safe
Lifting Observers Checklist, a resource downloadable from the WSPS
website (www.wsps.ca), to observe a lift such as lifting objects at waist.
Tell participants: "Now you will have a chance to try this technique out
for yourself so we can ensure that everyone is doing this correctly."
Explain how the practice segment will run.
(Choose from Options 1 and 2 on next page)
