Helping our workers’ compensation policyholders keep their employees safe is one of the things we take the most pride in at ICW Group. Recently, we spoke with Eddie, who works at a family-owned dairy farm in Visalia, California, that is committed to producing high-quality dairy products and fostering a safe, supportive workplace for its team of over 75 employees. As the HR Compliance Coordinator, Eddie plays a key role in maintaining workplace safety—one of the many responsibilities he manages in his role. To support these efforts, he relies on ICW Group’s Safety OnDemand®, a tool he finds extremely helpful in managing that responsibility. We spoke with Eddie to learn more about how Safety OnDemand helps him meet the demands of the job.
When Eddie’s ICW Group Risk Management Consultant, Michelle Rodriguez, first started talking to him about the free online training platform, one offering sparked his interest right off the bat: The Forklift Train the Trainer Course, which teaches how to train, evaluate, and certify employees to be forklift operators as specified by OSHA. “When she told me that, I jumped on it,” Eddie told us. “I was like, hey, Michelle, sign me up for the next one!”
Because the comprehensive 6-hour class instructs trainers how to develop and present an effective forklift training program, as well as learn how to evaluate and certify operators, it saved Eddie’s employer the sizable amount of time and money it would take to bring in outside trainers. “Plus, the person who conducted the training was super helpful, super clear,” Eddie told us. “The trainer said, ‘Hey, ask questions whenever you want. If there’s something you’re not sure of, feel free and ask away.’ So, it was a really easy training–and informative for sure.”
Something like Train the Trainer also relieved some of the pressure on Eddie to be the only one at work who can do this kind of training. “Now I want to get one of the lead guys at the shop to do it,” he said. “So then, if I’m not around, he could train his staff on his own.”
Eddie has found several of Safety OnDemand’s other safety trainings extremely helpful to the farm as well, including those on heat illness; slips, trips and falls; and how to lift heavy objects. He especially likes being able to assign the trainings to new hires as part of their onboarding. “If we’re doing a new hire, it’s super helpful because you just literally see what department they’re going to be working in, and then just pick and choose what safety issues they may run into and what subjects we know we need to train them on.”
Eddie also appreciates that so many of the trainings and resources in Safety OnDemand are bilingual, coming in both English and Spanish versions (including 100% of the safety talks). “Because, our staff is majority Spanish speakers,” he explained, “so that’s super helpful.”
With all the ways he’s begun to use Safety OnDemand to save the dairy time and money, there was one more big benefit Eddie wanted us to know about the program: since they started using the program, workers at the farm are safer! According to Eddie, they have seen a steady decrease in safety incidents since they started with Safety OnDemand, and as of the end of March, they haven’t had a single one this year!
“We have had none so far this year,” Eddie said. “Three months in, we haven’t had any. So hopefully, it stays like that.” We hope so too Eddie, and are here with as many resources as possible to help make that happen!
If you’d like to learn more about all Safety OnDemand has to offer and perhaps get a little more instruction on how to make the most of it, check out this course catalog, our top courses on the platform, or one of these How-to Webinars. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to our Risk Management Team for help as well. Your safety is our priority and we’re in this together.
