The COVID-19 pandemic has turned many industries upside down, and yours is probably no different. Despite the chaos in the rest of the world your materials handling needs don’t stop just because we’re living in uncertain times, so it’s important that you make sure that your employees’ skills stay in tip-top condition so you can handle whatever the world throws at you.
While there are problems and obstacles that might get in the way of your forklift training, there has never been more need for it to help you adapt. So how can you get the skills you need and adapt to your workplace, while keeping your staff safe and well? Let’s take a look.
Growing your expertise
While many businesses are slowing down during the COVID crisis, materials handling industries are at full speed trying to help serve the needs of people in the homes and businesses who require deliveries. As a result of the unusual demand cycle in this period, your company can never know when it might need to deal with a surge in demand or an unusual order, so it pays to have your staff trained and skilled enough to meet demand. Forklift training for a novice can turn an unskilled staff member into one who can pull their weight in the materials handling process, greatly increasing your capacity, allowing you to fulfil more orders, and taking the pressure off your regular forklift operators.
While it’s useful to have more forklift operators on the job, it can also be necessary to have a smaller number of more advanced drivers to call upon if necessary. Whether you’re anticipating performing difficult or dangerous tasks, using new or unusual equipment, or just working at a higher capacity, having a core of experienced forklift drivers with licenses can allow you to take advantage of opportunities as they come in. Being able to work to a higher capacity, in a way that is safe and responsible, is vital to being able to keep your business ticking over during these difficult times, and having experienced forklift drivers in place ahead of time makes your business future proof.
Keeping up your skills
While getting the staff you need in place before you need them is a prudent idea, just getting their licenses doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be operating at 100%, especially if they were trained a long time ago. Technology changes, best practice goes out of date, training gets updated, and your employees won’t benefit from any of this if their qualifications are years old. To make sure your staff are operating at the peak of their potential, it’s important that they keep getting training to keep them abreast of the latest developments. By learning about new and updated training your staff can use the latest types of vehicles, making your business more efficient, as well as maintain and look after those vehicles so they last longer.
Forklift training doesn’t just cover their safe operation, it also covers how to maintain and support them in the long term, so that repairs can be made on the fly. Not only does that result in lower maintenance bills over time, as fewer things go wrong with your vehicles, it also means lower repair bills as your own staff are able to handle most common problems themselves. Training also helps keep these skills within your business, whether you’re getting new hires up to speed or refreshing existing staff, so that best practice is well known within your workforce and your staff train each other on the job. Having skills too concentrated in one or two members of staff risks losing that training altogether if they leave the business, while having more trained staff spreads those skills further.
How can it help me?
Trained forklift drivers are able to work faster and more efficiently than untrained ones, and some sites require your drivers to have specific kinds of licenses, so having untrained staff can seriously hamper your business if they don’t have the right skills. It’s also important from a health and safety perspective, as forklift work areas have the potential to be extremely hazardous, so following the correct procedures is essential. Forklift health and safety regulations, the proper use of attachments and add-ons, proper load handling theory and much more are covered in our training, which will leave your staff equipped to work as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible. Making sure your employees are licensed also covers your company from a legal perspective, demonstrating that you have done your best to create a safe work environment should an accident happen.
Forklift training during COVID
It’s no good trying to upskill for COVID if you can’t get the training you need, which is why we’re committed to providing the same high quality and effective instruction but in a COVID safe manner. We can still come to your site to help train your staff, but we will be adhering to our special set of COVID safe guidelines. This allows you to train in a familiar environment that simulates your day to day, so your training can be tailored to your situation. All of the training will be carried out by members of staff in the same work bubble, so that you and your staff are not exposed to any risk. They will also adhere to strict hygiene regulations, including cleaning and hand washing, to ensure that every possible measure is taken to minimise risk.
It’s also possible to conduct your training at our purpose-built facility, so that your staff can learn under controlled conditions where we’re able to simulate a full range of situations. We have also taken a range of precautions to ensure this facility is safe and clean from a COVID perspective, including regular deep cleaning. As well as this, social distancing and mask use is vigorously enforced at all times, meaning your staff will be as safe there as they would be in your own business. Forklift training during COVID is different, but there’s no reason that it can’t be just as practical and effective.
Get in touch today to find out more about how we can help you with your forklift training.
