Epic Fail by OSHA imposter investigated by Department of Labour

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

So, an OSHA representative holds classes for mostly unemployed fishermen in southern Louisiana, providing them with essential training they need to get jobs cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of the 2010 oil spill. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, it certainly would be, if the OSHA trainer was actually an OSHA employee and if the whole thing wasn’t an elaborate ruse designed to exploit disadvantaged communities.

The U.S. Department of Labour and the EPA are investigating the eyebrow-raising case of a Mississippi woman who is accused of using false credentials to convince over 1,000 fisherman to take an “OSHA” training course to get work cleaning the spill. Connie M. Knight allegedly identified herself as a “Master Level V Inspector and Instructor” and the top-ranking female trainer from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when she attempted to get fishermen across the area to pay $100 to $300 to take the course.

She is also charged with fabricating four additional ID badges for four other local individuals that she hired as employees (it’s unclear whether they were in on the scheme or not). Not only that, according to the indictment she specifically targeted members of the region’s Southeast Asian communities who were at a disadvantage insofar as many couldn’t speak or read English very well.

On one level, it’s amusing to think that anyone would attempt such a thing. On another, it was heartless and highly manipulative to take advantage of an underemployed, primarily disadvantaged segment of the population for personal gain. And on a whole other level, it’s serious. Really serious. The accused faces 22 charges that, cumulatively, could net her over 20 years in prison and more than half-a-million dollars in fines.

The simple lesson in all this? Don’t do it. Just don’t do it. It’s not worth it. If you boast the strategic acumen and organizational skills to pull off a ruse like this and actually get away with it (for a while at least), consider applying your talents elsewhere. There are plenty of other lucrative avenues in life where you can prove useful in a totally legal fashion, and in most cases you don’t even have to exploit members of marginalized communities.

(Pictured: Legitimate U.S. Environmental Services contractors deploying an oil boom in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Image courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard Eighth District External Affairs.)

Training Gap Analysis 101

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Purdal Mya

Training new hires in the tech industry has become a challenging pursuit among training and development professionals. As technology endlessly evolves, training objectives have to follow suit. This can cause large gaps in your training program if they are not addressed early and often. Conducting a Training Gap Analysis is a great way to stay on top of the dynamic beast that is your tech organization.

What is a Training Gap Analysis?

Essentially, a Training Gap Analysis describes the difference between the job skills that your people are currently gaining or improving through training and the skills that they will need in the immediate future to keep your company competitive.

The idea behind any Gap Analysis is to create a bridge between where your organization is and where it needs to be. In training, it is about making what we train as close to what actually happens on the job.

Who do you conduct Training Gap Analysis with?

Use a pool of diverse employees from all walks of your company. This will improve the results of your analysis, extract vital insight from your workforce, and allow you to see how training impacts everyone in the company. Look to all employees, regardless of seniority, including:

Experienced Employees: Employees who have been around your company for a long period of time have seen both your training programs and your company at large evolve and can hopefully help make suggestions based on their experience.
Managers/Supervisors: Employees who have direct reports are great to leverage, they see the benefits and obstacles of the current program in their own employees.
Newer Employees: Employees who have started in the last six months are my favourite to work with – they have recently gone through your onboarding program and have had a chance to get comfortable in their job. Ask them what they liked, what they found redundant, what they would like to see in the future.

Why conduct Training Gap Analysis?

Carrying out a Training Gap Analysis will help your organization from many different angles, including:

Sending the Same Message: Too often do new employees come out of training where they are being told one thing and told another once they get on the job. This will help all parties promote the same message.
Identifying Trends: If those you converse with during your analysis are all saying the same thing, it can help prioritize transformations moving forward.
Strengthening Relationships: Everyone wants to feel like they are cared for and considered, this is an easy way to build a strong relationship with the rest of the company. Let them be heard, and deliver on what they ask for.

Now there are many ways to go about completing a Training Gap Analysis but the most important message I am trying to push is for your organization to comprehend the significance of completing these analysis. The accuracy and efficiency of your Training Program weighs heavily on the success of your employees.

Purdal Mya is a Corporate Trainer in Intelex Technologies’ Professional Development Office (PDO). Reach him at purdal.mya@intelex.com or use the comments section below.

Training needs assessments help your organization’s training efforts

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Anthony Cogliano

In many ways, Training Needs Assessments are the backbone of an organization’s development and transformational efforts. It may surprise you to learn that less than 50% of small to medium-sized organizations actually conduct official, robust Training Needs Analyses to gain insight into training requirements, and even fewer actually use the acquired data in any meaningful way.

Training isn’t about people sitting in a classroom; it’s about how effective those people can be once they are released into their respective roles. Training builds contributors; focused training builds focused contributors, and focused contributors provide an increased benefit to any organization.

Get Started!

Training Needs Assessments begin with understanding your current state, and being able to identify the various requirements of your desired future state. The future state is highly dependent on a clearly defined set of corporate goals that serve to inform all supporting activities, such as training.

At Intelex, we are fortunate to have a clear set of goals that are defined on an annual basis, and help us to move the organization forward. These goals serve as a target for our Future State. One great thing about our Corporate Goals is that we arrive at them together, by pooling our resources and ideas, and deciding on the best course of action for our company. Other companies can benefit from this highly effective model.

Pick Your Analysis Tools

Once defined, a gap analysis can be performed using any number of tools available to the organization. Interestingly, tools used vary widely from industry to industry, and in fact from company to company in many instances as well.

Whenever considering the tools available for your use, always remember that you are attempting to ensure that a) the tool measures what it’s supposed to measure, and b) the tool produces consistent results when used, so that we can trust our findings and make informed business decisions.

Examples of Tools that can be used by your Organization:

Employee Satisfaction Surveys (what do your employees wish they had?)
Employee Reviews (what are the challenges facing your employees?)
Analyzing KPIs and Balanced Scorecards (what do the metrics tell you about current quality and productivity?)
Observations (what do you actually see occurring day-to-day?)
Informal communication (what do you hear around the water cooler?)
Analyzing the allocation of Educational Allowances (in what areas do employees ask to focus this benefit?)

Use Your Data

With your analysis in hand, training requirements can easily be described, along with required budgets and related ROI. The most important thing for an Organization to keep in mind is that Training, when properly vectored using a Training Needs Analysis, helps reduce costs by eliminating costly mistakes and inefficiencies. Effort expended through training is not wasted; it is leveraged exactly where it is needed every time.

Make It Stick!

Monitoring is a necessity if you’re trying to validate your ROI. Check your Key Performance Indicators and listen to what they tell you:

Has production increased or decreased?
Is production or process quality higher or lower?
Are employees more or less satisfied?
What does your turnover rate look like?

If you find that required positive metrics are still stalled or in decline, do something about it by adjusting your approach. Once you are clear on the problem you need to solve, it’s that much easier to make the right changes. This is what Total Quality Management is all about.

Always remember that your goal is to be in a more favourable position than you were previously. Track your training; track your results; listen to the information. It will only help you to improve your overall Training efforts, and by extension the efficacy and credibility of your organization!

Intelex discusses Oil and Gas safety management in ISHN

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

As in other high-risk sectors, workplace safety is of utmost importance in the Oil and Gas industry, where the smallest of near-misses and at-risk behaviours can result in devastating consequences for frontline workers, not to mention catastrophic environmental impacts. In light of this, it’s hard to believe some oil and gas companies still rely on archaic, paper-based systems for EHS management. Yet in spite of the adoption of state-of-the-art EHS management systems by some industry leaders, paper- and spreadsheet-based systems are still in widespread use.

That said, the trend is changing and businesses are increasingly beginning to see how streamlined EHS management systems are ultimately investments with great returns that help companies navigate increasingly complex regulatory waters. Learn more about this dynamic by checking out my article “Goodbye to paper and spreadsheets” in the most recent issue of ISHN (Industrial Safety and Hygiene News). You’ll have to register to view the issue, but it’s free and ISHN is a great publication with a wealth of EHS news.

True competence starts with strategy

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

We’ve discussed how training is not competence and how compromised employee competence can hurt all aspects of business performance. So, what do you do about it? Today I’d like to discuss a very simple approach to developing effective training and cultivating workplace competence.

While a high level of employee competence makes the difference between a simply serviceable workforce and one that truly excels, many might contest that achieving competence is easier said than done. This is true; properly training staff can be a significant burden on any organization. Simply providing training, tracking training, and measuring competence post-training involves substantial costs, multiple dedicated, full-time trainers, depending on the organization’s size – burdens that are significantly reduced if not entirely eliminated for organizations that use the right training tracking and management software. Coupling these software tools with a training strategy will generate results for any organization of any size, under any budgetary constraints.

To that end, here are some essential tips for improving your workplace trainign programs and enhancing employee competence.

Start with a training strategy. Conduct a basic needs assessment to define what the requirements are for all employee groups and determine resource and content availability so you know who is available to provide training and what materials exist or need to be created. The results of these investigations will inform your implementation strategy. Plan to leverage training management software to execute your strategy, and ensure it is scalable software that can accompany corporate growth.
Evaluate your time constraints and resources. Do you need an employee up and running as soon as possible, or can your training resources take time to train the individual and gradually integrate him or her into the workforce? If you don’t want to hire and maintain a team of trainers to implement your training plan and conduct training and competency exercises as your organization grows, use a training software tool. Yes, training and competency-building is a significant investment, but it cannot be reiterated enough how time-consuming and resource-heavy thorough training can be without streamlined software. Even the simple act of tracking training manually – that is, without a training tracking tool – will eat up unnecessary resources on a daily basis and grind your training program down to a lumbering pace.
Define goals and track progress. While this may be one of the most crucial aspects in a successful training strategy, it is also one of the most overlooked. Business leaders often think that training is nebulous and too difficult to track, and this factor might be the greatest contributor to the gulf between training and competence described above. Yet it is quite simple to track the success of a training strategy.
Get a training software solution that can capture and streamline key performance indicators (KPI), such as dates and times for training, instructors, cost per delivery, attendance, and accountability. It is also ideal to have functionality to automatically assign courses (e.g. Brian is hired in the manufacturing department and automatically assigned a group of required courses), reminders and escalations, generate reports, and produce detailed analytics on training performance.
Build custom quizzes. Critically, you’ll want the capacity to generate customized quizzes to test employees on course content to ensure they have actually absorbed required information. This step is generally overlooked, yet is one of the most crucial aspects of building competency as opposed to having employees simply ‘sit in a classroom’. Notably, possessing all of these documented metrics will help you circumvent potential legal calamities by enabling you to easily prove all employees were thoroughly trained.
Calculate ROI and get buy-in. An underlying component to a successful training strategy is buy-in, and not just from senior management and those that hold the purse strings, but across the entire organization. As you prepare your training strategy, create case studies, define scenarios that illustrate the consequences of compromised training – as well as the costs, time and resources associated with a manual training management system as opposed to a software-based system – and calculate training ROI to build a convincing case for a streamlined, competency-focused training strategy.

Do you have ideas on how to better ensure training programs improve workforce competency? Write me or post your ideas in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about building effective training programs and generating true competency among your workforce? Check our white paper, Cultivating Competence: Leveraging Training Tools for Measurable Results.

The organizational costs of incompetence

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

Yesterday we talked about how being trained doesn’t necessarily equate with competence. Today we’ll take a brief look at how that discrepancy can impact organizational performance.

To start, take a look at the picture to the right. Now, by no means are we casting aspersions on the capabilities of these two able-bodied young men by implying that they are incompetent, as the title above alludes. However, given the tremendous level of accuracy, acuity and precision required every day in their individual roles within their manufacturing setting, it’s a good entry point for this discussion to consider how one hole in their training could, at any point, on any day, engender compromised competence, thereby resulting in a possible environmental, health or safety-related disaster or impact product quality.

Training touches every part of your business

The benefits of a training program that cultivates actual competence are multifaceted and impact all aspects of corporate performance. Of course, on a day-to-day basis, competence reduces the probability of errors in all job functions, thereby boosting productivity and profitability. But above and beyond that, from a corporate perspective every organization has a moral, business and legal obligation to their employees in terms of education, and a good training strategy will address each facet in a comprehensive way.

For example, a business has a moral obligation to ensure employees are sufficiently trained in their job function so as not to suffer injuries or encounter preventable illnesses on the job. In business terms, should an employee get injured or become sick at work there is the potential of a variety of costs that may impact the organization’s bottom line, including claims, lost time, and fines associated with regulatory infractions. From a legal perspective, if an employee is injured in, let’s say a manufacturing setting, they could initiate a lawsuit against the organization and claim that they were insufficiently trained. In such a situation, if the business could not produce documented evidence to clearly prove the employee was provided with required training, it would be on the hook for substantial damages and other consequences, not to the always mention unavoidable legal fees.

Competence boosts retention

Beyond the business-critical advantages to a comprehensive training strategy outlined above, a powerful byproduct of such an approach is, quite simply, that a competent employee is a happy employee. By ensuring employees are fully prepared to appropriately fulfill all of their job requirements, they suffer less stress over the tactical elements of their job, and enjoy greater confidence and increased motivation to do their job better.

Further, organizations that take a holistic, continual approach to training and skill-building will ultimately cultivate the sentiment among its workforce that the employer genuinely cares for the employee. While this all leads a higher level of morale among staff and an enhanced focus on quality, the most notable benefit is that retention rates will be greatly improved, and attrition rates will fall. Happy, competent employees who feel they are adequately equipped to excel in their duties are less inclined to leave their organization and more inclined to contribute to their employer’s success.

So how do you do it? Well, you start with a training strategy, the subject of tomorrow’s post.

Is your trained employee competent?

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

It happens all the time. A worker makes a misstep in his or her day-to-day duties. The mistake leads to a serious injury, compromised product quality, negative environmental impacts, or even a fatality. “But they were trained,” the supervisor responsible for the employee in question objects. Trained, indeed – but were they competent in their job?

This situation is a regular occurrence in workplaces around the world and it speaks to a widespread and persistent discrepancy in many conventional approaches to training management: the gulf between simply delivering training and ensuring actual competency. Organizations that have achieved success know the value of a comprehensive, robust training program. Streamlined onboarding of new employees and ongoing training – and, critically, training tracking – throughout the course of their professional development can, if delivered effectively, lead to a more effective and responsible workforce, and greater retention rates. After all, while the costs associated with recruiting, training, support and professional development can be great, any seasoned business owner knows it is even more expensive to lose those employees.

A widespread problem, however, is that too often employers equate training with competency. They assume that since an employee has sat in a classroom and completed a course, that they are competent – a very inaccurate presumption. The following misconceptions contribute to some traditional views on corporate training:

Any and all training is good training, so we ought to train for the sake of training.
Simply having employees sit in a classroom means they are competent.
The availability of training material is sufficient enough to induce learning.
Subject-matter experts (SME) are able to train other staff based on tenure (that is, the notion that longer-serving employees are more capable of delivering training).
That robust training is not necessarily worth the investment and ROI is too difficult to capture.

As with the mistaken belief that training is tantamount to competence, all these assumptions lead to false conclusions. But above and beyond how these misconceptions are engendered it is important to clarify what is actually meant by competence in an organizational context. Essentially, ‘competence’ refers to an employee’s ability to do their job properly. But establishing competency within an organization is not something that just happens, nor is it something that will be necessarily produced by the provision of an otherwise robust and seemingly comprehensive training program. Instead, a systematic approach featuring a nuanced training strategy is an essential prerequisite for employee competence.

Competency certainly sounds like something that would be an advantageous element to cultivate within a corporate culture, if not an essential element of doing business. However, the intrinsic value of a training program that engenders competency is not always immediately apparent to upper management whose buy-in is critical to the success of any training strategy.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss how training impacts different areas of business performance, and on Thursday we’ll talk Training and Competency Strategy.

Intelex contributes to Oil and Gas Product News

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

Check out the recent Intelex article, When Paper Kills: The Perils of Reactive Management, in the latest issue of Oil and Gas Product News. Sure, the title sounds a bit dramatic, but when it comes to occupational health and safety, you can’t be too serious.

The story hones in on the sometimes archaic paper and spreadsheet-based systems that some Oil and Gas companies (not to mention businesses across all sectors) use to manage environmental, health and saefty (EHS) management data, particularly on oil rigs, drills, platforms and other worksites.

The article, through a couple of hypothetical case studies, explores the difference between reactive, paper-based EHS management systems and the proactive, streamlined alternative, and discuss how the impacts on workplace health and safety, environmental impacts, time and eficiency, and bottom line/ROI significantly vary between the two systems.

So take a look, and let us or Oil and Gas Product News know what you think. Just a final note that you’ll need to sign up for free registration to view the electronic issue, if you aren’t registered already.

The value of soft skills training

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Anthony Cogliano

A Brave New World

What is it about the term “Soft Skills Training” that sends Accounting Departments and C-Level Execs running for the exits? Perhaps it is an unwillingness to allocate training budgets to courses that many consider to be window dressing, or just nice-to-have learning. Perhaps it stems from an inability to properly calculate and ascribe ROI to such activities; after all, Product or Process training is so much more measurable, visible, and valuable, is it not? There is even a case to be made that the term “Soft Skills” lacks the punch one might expect from serious learning initiatives.

Regardless of what excuses you come up with for avoiding Soft Skills Training, they end up being just that: excuses.

The reality is that no matter how proficient a particular employee is within their job discipline, whether Sales, Development, or what have you, if they cannot interact effectively with their Teams, solve problems, and manage change, then a great deal of value and opportunity is lost.

It’s time to bravely step up and embrace the benefits of Soft Skills in the modern workplace.

What Are Soft Skills?

Soft Skills relate to the sociological development of what is referred to as EQ – a person’s Emotional Quotient, commonly known as Emotional Intelligence. These skills allow an individual to build relationships with others by leveraging their unique personality traits, social aptitude, communication expertise, inclusiveness and respect for others.

Different types of interrelated Soft Skills can be addressed through training:

Self Awareness Skills – Truly the starting point, these assist in understanding your personality makeup and provide insight to why you do the things you do. It is a critical benchmarking piece, and enables personal growth, while also providing tools to assist you with specific interactions and dealings with others.
Communication Skills – Assist in the accurate and efficient reception and transmission of information; a very short list of these skills includes listening, writing, talking, and delivering presentations.
Influencing Skills – Allow an individual to negotiate successfully with others, find solutions, and manage change through collaboration and communication. These skills are essential in order to bring innovative ideas to market.
Social Skills – Arguably the most important of all the Soft Skills; the ability to “play nice in the sandbox”. Includes the development of such character traits as patience, defusing skills, and the ability to demonstrate friendliness, empathy, and understanding. Given the Team-oriented nature of businesses today, the value of such skills cannot be overlooked.

Still, it can be shocking exactly how underdeveloped these skills often are amongst team members, and thus a seriously focused Soft Skills Training program should be part of any organization’s commitment to their employees’ Professional Development. When implemented properly, Soft Skills will complement and bolster Product/Process Skills to create an employee that is not only proficient in the specific requirements of their position, but also with the demands of a changing workplace, varied audiences, and diverse teams.

The Value of Soft Skills

In organizations where Soft Skills are an essential part of the job being performed, for example in a call center environment, there is no question as to whether or not supportive training budgets are necessary; without such skills, these types of organizations could not function. In this example, the need is obvious, yet in organizations where the need is not so readily apparent, it is mistakenly assumed that Soft Skills are not as critical.

The reality is that Employee Soft Skills acumen ties directly to organizational effectiveness and agility. Soft Skills better equip employees to deal with the immense levels of change that are a reality in the 21^st century corporate world.

Think about your day-to-day corporate activity… it isn’t just about building product or selling services… it involves massive amounts of human interaction, tact, negotiation, and sound decision-making in order to meet Strategic and Tactical Goals. Job Skills will only take you so far in pursuit of those goals; Soft Skills close the remaining critical gaps.

Employee Buy-in

We see it time and again: give an Employee a choice between Product Training and Soft Skills Training and they will pick Product every time. It makes sense, of course: the Employee is attempting to get the “biggest bang for the buck” around their training, and Product Training to enhance Job Skills is specific, measurable, and relevant. Soft Skills, not so much.

However, the relative importance of Soft Skills becomes apparent as the Employee approaches the milestones in their career. Employees must seriously ask themselves the following questions:

Do I want to get a promotion?
Do I want to be given more responsibility?
Do I want to build my individual reputation as a well-rounded contributor?
Do I wish to enhance my company’s image?

The answers will most likely be yes; consider, then, that lack of Soft Skills can hold you back in reaching these types of goals.

Organizations do not favour individuals with low Emotional Intelligence in leadership positions. That’s a fact (I have often been challenged on this viewpoint; in any company, there is always the story about “that one jerk who became shift manager”. I have to chuckle, since that is exactly the exception which proves the rule over and over again).

Since Soft Skills speak directly to a person’s attitudes and personality, it can often be a difficult conversation to identify opportunities for improvement. With that said, success for the Employee of the Modern Workplace relies on a paradigm shift in thinking: Job Skills and Soft Skills should not be viewed as two separate elements of disparate value; they must be considered one in the same and receive equal attention.

The Various Options for Soft Skills Training

The good news in our discussion is that EQ is something that can always be honed and developed. This is important since overall, people want to do the right thing and behave in an appropriate way. Often, it is simply a matter of the person in question not REALIZING that there are opportunities where they can improve their EQ.

Soft Skills training to address such issues come in many shapes and sizes. Numerous books on the subject from recognized experts are readily available online and in bookstores. These can provide a Best Practice and/or evaluative approach to recognizing opportunities and closing gaps.

Classroom learning is often an effective avenue of developing EQ, as it provides an instructor to whom questions can be posed, and a collaborative environment in which strategies can be tested. The best classroom environments will always have plenty of interactive workshops to help develop the talents and traits required to increase a person’s EQ.

Offsite courses can be very valuable for someone who may be embarrassed by the gaps they have identified; it allows them to improve their Soft Skills away from those that may have been directly impacted by those gaps.

The fact is, regardless of the avenue you choose to enhance the Soft Skills of your Employees, every company should commit to providing such options to everyone that needs them. The responsibility may be that of the Employee, but the Company’s responsibility is to facilitate that process as much as possible. These are OUR Employees, and we owe them the opportunity to grow.

The Intelex Approach

At Intelex, we believe in Soft Skills Training for all who need it; and guess what? We ALL need it! This is why we provide Soft Skills training directly as part of our Onboarding Program.

Outside of Onboarding, Soft Skills training is always available for our staff. We provide that training internally whenever possible, and will seek out external vendors when necessary. We are in the process of expanding our course offerings to include Time Management, Effective Communication, Negotiation, and Risk Management, with many more courses to follow. We believe strongly that robust Soft Skills are an essential ingredient for a happy contributor, and we strive to ensure that all Intelexians have access to the same tools for success!

Intelex provides an Annual Education Allowance administered by the Professional Development Office, which helps create a focused learning path for Employees. Yes! Intelexians can use education budgets for additional Soft Skills Training!

The majority of this training was conducted one-on-one with the PDO. We’d love to see that number increase, and so we challenge you to help us increase it! Come see the PDO today and we can assess your Soft Skills learning needs.

A Final Thought…

Innovation within an organization is fueled by elements far beyond mere product knowledge and tactical job expertise. Innovation thrives on Communication and other ingredients that can only be cultivated by a commitment to Soft Skills Training. It isn’t about “building” a better Employee; it’s about showing an Employee exactly what they are capable of, and then giving them the tools to flourish.

We need to make sure that our Product Knowledge is where it needs to be first and foremost, and we must make a commitment never to forget about Soft Skills.

Intelex is emerging as the Thought Leader within a number of areas related to the EHSQ Industry; our desire is that we will also be the Thought Leaders when it comes to Training, and that includes placing due importance on the EQ and Soft Skills Training we’ve talked about. This is one of the great many things that differentiate Intelex from other companies, and that is something we should all be proud of!

In the heat of the moment

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Maxim Ivlev

‘Water, rest and shade’ are the three key components U.S Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis, will be focusing on promoting to outdoor workers in the upcoming summer of 2012. It’s all part of OSHA’s recently launched national outreach initiative to raise awareness over the dangers of working outside in hot weather.

Every year, heat exhaustion reaches thousands of outdoor workers in industries such as roofing, construction, transportation, utilities, and landscaping, to name a few. While onsite, what employees may initially discover with simple heat rashes and cramps can often result in severe heat stroke or even fatality.

Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, says these are workplace hazards that can be easily avoided with simple precautions. “Anyone who works outside is at risk”, adds Michaels, “Drinking plenty of water and taking frequent breaks in cool, shaded areas are incredibly important in the hot summer months.” To add to this awareness, OSHA has developed heat illness educational materials in English and Spanish, as well as a curriculum to be used for workplace training to provide more knowledge to employees who are at risk.