Fire training is essential because encourages employees to stay vigilant and raises awareness of how to prevent fires and what to do in an emergency.
Home Office figures show that around 26,000 fires occur in commercial premises every year in England alone. It is an employer’s responsibility to ensure fire safety regulations in your organisation are regularly maintained, up-to-date and give adequate training to employees.
90% of organisations use some form of eLearning for employee training, which can replace or be in addition to classroom learning. Online fire safety training has many benefits, including:
- Can be completed at the employee’s convenience and comfort
- Flexible access to courses
- Usually more engaging than classroom learning
- Easily keep track of performance and areas of weakness
- Roll out and update information quickly
- Ensures all employees are getting the same information and standard of training
Online courses also makes auditing easier. Records of employee participation and skills can be easily accessed, and the reports can be put together to show outcomes. At Praxis42, we offer health and safety audits to ensure your organisation complies with UK legislation and regulations.
Benefits of fire safety training
There are many reasons why employees must be fully equipped to deal with a fire, and as an employer, you must make sure employees fully participate in their training.
Safety
Employees who feel safe in their working environment are more productive. When employees feel unsafe at work, they are often unsettled and perhaps even preoccupied with the hazards. Knowing what to do and where to go in the event of a fire emergency can boost productivity because employees are not distracted worrying about their safety.
The right approach
Should a fire break out at work, unprepared employees can exacerbate an already dangerous situation. Fire safety training will help employees implement evacuation protocol calmly and professionally.
Good training should educate employees on how fires start, how to reduce the risk and best practices during an emergency and the right evacuation procedures based on the specific organisation. Some organisations may have more complex evacuation protocols than others.
Knowledge
Increasing knowledge and awareness can only be a positive thing. However, it is recommended that at least one or two appointed fire marshals in the organisation. The role of the appointed professional is to ensure that their knowledge of fire safety is up to date so they can educate and update the workforce on fire safety strategies.
Cost savings
When an entire workforce is educated in fire safety strategies and competent in fire prevention, it can positively impact organisations. When employees use the equipment effectively, the costs associated with repair and servicing are reduced. Not only this, a fire can be highly costly to an organisation, with some organisations never fully recovering.
Employers can also save costs and boost engagement through online training. It has been shown that fire safety training delivered through eLearning increases knowledge retention and encourages more employees to participate actively.
Government legislation
Having a fire plan and training your employees will protect you and ensure you comply with laws and regulations. Health and Safety legislation require employers to carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises and appoint responsible people in charge.
Keeping fire safety precautions in check will encourage customer and employee trust in you as an organisation. You’ll build a positive reputation if you keep to the necessary legislation and protect everyone involved.
One of our qualified and experienced fire safety advisors can help your organisation with fire prevention. Working with the responsible person, we can produce a Fire Risk Assessment with prioritised recommended actions to enable compliance in line with the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order (RROFSO), Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the associated Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
Praxis42 Fire Safety Training
Developed by our experienced fire safety consultants, our Fire Safety Training helps ensure your organisation complies with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and supports employees to understand fire hazards, how to prevent fires and what to do in an emergency.
We also offer Fire Marshal Training which covers everything in the Fire Safety course plus the additional knowledge fire marshals specifically need for their role.
Rob Sherman
Director of Fire Safety
