At the end of the initial 6 to 8 weekly safety training sessions (STEP 2), the owner or foreman should begin a schedule of monthly one-to-one “Safety Debriefings” during the remainder of the new employee’s first year. These 15 to 20-minute sessions should be used to reinforce the results of the employee’s “Safety Observation Audits,” encourage feedback from the new employee on near-misses and/or observed unsafe acts or conditions, and should include informal discussions of safety issues relevant to the current operation. Safety Alerts from www.loggingsafety.com could be especially appropriate discussion materials for these debriefings. For example, if the new employee had been observed during the audit operating a skidder without wearing the seatbelt, Safety Alert 00-S-7 “Skidder Operator Injured in Rollover” could be used to show the potential result of this unsafe act.

The monthly Safety Debriefings, like the first-day training and follow-up weekly safety sessions, should be documented, signed and dated, and placed in the employee’s personnel file.

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©2005 National Timber Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation