Home Office figures show that around 26,000 fires occur in commercial premises every year in England alone. As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure fire safety regulations in your organisation are regularly maintained, up-to-date and give adequate training to employees.
Training should encourage employees to stay vigilant and give them the awareness needed to reduce the risk of fire in the workplace and what approaches to take in case of any incidents. Fire safety training can play a huge role in transforming opinions about safety and awareness.
The accessibility of fire safety training is easier now with the rise of eLearning. Online fire safety training means you can provide the same level of training standard to a large number of employees, track their progress and update when necessary.
Our fire safety training course helps you understand your responsibilities under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and ensures everyone in your workplace knows the risk of workplace fires.
Advantages of online fire safety training
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 a lot of 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
Using online courses for training will also allow for ease of auditing. 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.
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