Health and Safety Worker Orientation: A Legal Requirement
As an employer, Northwest Community College is responsible for ensuring that workers are prepared to work
safely before they start working. Safety training must be specific to the workplace and should be an ongoing
process. Providing an effective safety orientation and training is the best way to prevent accidents.
More than half of workplace accidents involving new workers occur during their first six months on the job.
Even an experienced worker will require a new orientation if circumstances change or new hazards develop.
For example, there may be a new work process or new equipment or the employee may be assigned work at
a different campus, or assigned to a different task.
This Health and Safety orientation checklist must be completed whenever an employee is:
• New to the workplace;
• Facing hazards that have changed or developed while they were at work or absent from work;
• In a new workplace or location that has different hazards than the previous one.
The completion of this checklist for every new process/piece of equipment/new employee is now a legal
requirement under Part III of BC’s Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Regulations. 1 Fortunately, if an
employee is in a remote location, works unusual hours, etc., we are encouraged to use alternate methods to
ensure we meet this regulation. For example, email, fax and/or satellite phones could be used to cover all the
points on the checklist and then transmit the form back to Human Resources. Once completed the form is
signed off and initialled as appropriate, and forwarded to Human Resources (Terrace) for inclusion in the
employee’s personnel file.
The WorkSafeBC publication 3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Training is the short companion guide to
the new checklist.
Online training modules are booked through Tim Thomas, Learning and Development Officer, Human
Resources.
In some sections of the checklist, we refer to the guidelines and rules of working in the employee’s specific
“local work area.” Local work area guidelines would explain the rules for the specific job area, whether they
were stationary or mobile. For example, a CCP instructor needs to know about violence in the classroom, how
NWCC handles inappropriate students, etc. versus a yard worker needs to know how to operate the chainsaws
and how to dig in flowerbeds without back strain.
Finally, this form and the WorkSafeBC publication 3 Steps to Effective Worker Education and Training
publication are on the shared document site. We have made the form available in electronic form so that it can
be adapted (within reason) to make the process a little easier.
1
These requirements are also part of the OH&S Regulations in each Collective Agreement: BCGEU Support s.25.1;
BCGEU Faculty s.21.1; FPSE CUPE: s.12.7.1.
Employee Name: _____________________
Position Title: _______________________
Department Name: _______________________
Date Hired: _______________________
Date of Orientation: _______________________
Supervisor: _______________________
Telephone: _______________________
Trainer providing orientation, if not Supervisor: _______________________ Position
_______________________
Orientation Topics
Topic
Documents/Instruction
s
1. Internal Responsibility
Internal Responsibility
Courses-Required:


Internal Responsibility
(45 min)
The Right to Refuse
Work (25 min)
Rights and responsibilities
General duties of employers, workers, &
supervisors
Right to refuse unsafe work
Pages 9-10 of 3 Steps to
Effective Worker
Education and Training
Responsibility to report hazards
2.
Health and Safety Rules
Local Guidelines for work
area
Pages 13-16 of 3 Steps to
Effective Worker
Education and Training
Course-Optional:

WorkSafeBC Audio
SlideShows
http://www2.worksafebc.co
m/Publications/Multimedia
/Slideshows.asp
Comments
Initials
Initials
(trainer)
(worker)
3. Known Hazards and How to Deal with
Them
Workplace Hazards
Local Guidelines for work
area
Course-Required:

Workplace Hazards (25 min)
Course-Optional:


Forklift Safety (40 min)
WorkSafeBC
Audio Slide Shows
Page 11 of 3 Steps to
Effective Worker
Education and Training
4. Safe Work Procedures for Carrying
out Tasks
Local Guidelines for work
area
5. Procedures for Working Alone or in
Isolation
Guidelines for Working
Alone
http://www.nwcc.bc.ca/About/
pdfs/working%20alone%20proc
edure.pdf
6. Measures to Reduce the Risk of
Violence in the Workplace
Policy on Violence in the
Workplace for entire
College
http://www.nwcc.bc.ca/About/
Policies/Listpolicies.cfm?Policy=
Human%20Resources%20Policy
Workplace Violence & Harassment
Course-Required:

NEW: Respect in the
Workplace – Choose either
the Manager or Employee
course as appropriate

https://training.frameassoci
ates.com
Course-Optional:




Creating a Respectful
Workplace (15 min)
Workplace Violence &
Harassment (45 min)
Respect in the Workplace (35
min)
Workplace Violence &
Harassment Short Review
(15 min)
NEW: Discuss Bullying
1.
What your department
does to prevent and
minimize workplace
bullying and harassment;
2.
Explain procedures for
reporting incidents or
complaints of bullying
and harassment in your
department.
Explain how, when and to
whom a worker should
report a incidents if the
alleged bully is a
manager.
3.
Explain how NWCC
managers and
administration will deal
with incidents and
complaints of bullying
and harassment including
the roles and
responsibilities of VPPeople and Planning,
managers, workers and
others;
4. Inform workers of NWCC
three related policies:
1) Code of Conduct (New)
2) Harassment and
Discrimination
3) Violence in the
Workplace
5. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Personal Protective Equipment
Course-Required:

Personal Protective
Equipment (15 minutes)
Pages 11 of 3 Steps to
Effective Worker
Education and Training
6. First Aid
Guidelines for contacting
#4444
CAT Memo on Reporting
Injury (find in Policy page
on NWCC website)
7. Emergency Procedures
Emergency Procedures
Course-Required:

Evacuation Plans and
Procedures (15 min)

Fire Safety (15 min)

Using a Fire Extinguisher
(15 min)
8. Basic Contents of the Occupational
Health and Safety Program (Where
TBA
Applicable)
9. Hazardous Materials and WHMIS
Hazardous Materials
10.
Contact Information for the
Occupational Health and Safety
Committee or the Worker Health and
Safety Representative
Course-Optional:

WHMIS Refresher (15 min)

WHMIS (60 min)
Smithers: Rich DeRooy,
Kathie Williamson, Mary
Hiemstra, Regina Saimoto,
Tanya Fisher
Prince Rupert:
Terrace: Kerry Clarke, Lynne
Nordstrom, Don Hill, Kari
Eisner, Keisha Reichert,
Maggie Ballash, Tim Thomas
These topics have been discussed and explained.
Supervisor (or Trainer)
Trainee