Onboarding Resources for New Employees

Employees in their first month on the job have more than 3 times the risk for a lost-time injury than workers who have been at their job for more than a year, according to research from the Toronto-based Institute for Work & Health.

Possible reasons for this? Peter Smith, IWH scientist, points out that new workers may be performing unfamiliar tasks – some of them hazardous. In addition, the workers may be unsure about their safety rights and responsibilities and might feel uncomfortable speaking up about a hazard.

Training – especially at orientation and with consistent reinforcement – is key to protecting new workers.

In order to help with this process, and helping to decrease their risk of musculoskeletal injuries, Worklete has two resources (attached to this article) that may help.

The first is a two slide PDF that can be used during new hire orientation meetings.

The second is a flyer that can be included in your company's orientation packet for the employee to review on their own. 

As one Worklete veteran stated, "If our (EHS) purpose within the company is injury prevention or reduction, if that is the goal, then we need to make sure our associates are executing the principals of the Worklete program from day one."