Manual Handling
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSAW), employers must make sure employees can stay healthy and safe at work. Employers must “take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety and health of employees and others while at work.”
One of these steps is to identify and control manual handling hazards.
Manual handling is defined as “any activity requiring a person to lift, lower, push, pull, carry, throw, move, restrain, hold or otherwise handle any animate or inanimate object.” And it can pose risks for several types of problems; including serious back injuries, musculoskeletal disorders (including repetitive and overuse injuries), acute injuries (such as sprains and strains of muscles or tendons) and injuries sustained through slips, trips, and falls.
There has been recent discourse insinuating that “manual handling training doesn’t work.” While there is some validity in the argument against historical methods, it is far too simplistic to discount ALL programmes because of the failures of some.
What does work is safe movement practices and that’s what our First Move Manual Handling programme is all about. This is our point of difference - at Provention we train engaging and practical techniques to address the activities unique to your business.
“Feedback from attendees has been really positive, with many attendees commenting that they have never encountered such pragmatic and useable advice in any of the similar training sessions they have attended before Our HR Manager was particularly impressed, and also several of our ‘tough crowd’ machine engineers raved about it.”
The appropriate design of manual handling tasks has additional benefits:
Insight into how to optimise the efficiency and performance of the work.
Reduced injury costs.
Fewer absences from work and less disruption.
The retention of skilled employees.
Safer work, which leads to better morale.
“The training has been a great success. The instances of back strain have reduced to practically none.”
Practical and interactive training that makes sense
Physical learning practices are best taught by doing and comparing, not just watching and theory. Our interactive learning style ensures that employees are actively engaged and understand how to apply simple principles to all aspects of their life. Your team will thank you for investing in their physical well-being and giving them lifelong skills.
“I just want to thank and commend the department for running the First Move Manual Handling training course. I think this is one of the most valuable courses I have ever done in my life, and wish I had learned it at primary school. Although I am office-based, this course will help in all areas of my life.”
Embed safe movement practices
First Move Manual Handling is more than a one-off training programme. With over 15 years of experience working with New Zealand and Australian businesses, we understand that for sustainable results, there needs to be buy-in at ALL levels, from senior leadership to employees performing the manual handling activities.
We are experts in safe movement and preventing injuries and your employees are the experts in the activities and challenges of your business. First Move combines this expertise to ensure the programme fits your business and its people’s needs.
We incorporate habit-building principles into our programmes to ensure safe manual handling practices are embedded within organisations. This makes our training engaging and establishes long-term results.
“I got told today by our workshop manager that we have changed his life! He has been trying all sorts of tasks and found that he can really tell the difference now in what he is doing. This has even applied to the voluntary work he does marking out an athletic track!”
Principles that are applicable across all manual handling activities
People enjoy learning Provention’s First Move principles not only because they produce great results in the workplace but also because they apply to all physical activities at work and at home. Our motto is Safe Moves 24/7. This means it’s more than just another training exercise for work. It’s fun, engaging and drives long-term behaviour change regarding safe movement.
Example of a First Move Manual Handling Principle (click on image below for a demo)
Suited to your organisation’s needs
We have a range of delivery methods which may be adapted to suit the needs and budget of your organisation:
Train the Trainers: for organisations that want to manage a manual training programme in-house, without the reliance on an external provider.
Provention Trainer: for organisations that want training delivered directly to staff by a Provention Manual handling expert.
Online Training: remote virtual training delivered through video and competency-based questions.
Which option is best for your organisation? Talk to our manual handling expert.
