The New Worker's First Week
New workers get hurt at multiples of everyone else's rate — not because they're careless, but because nobody told them the things everyone else 'just knows' about this site. A free talk from Blue Crane Works in Hamilton, Ontario, with a printable sign-in sheet.
How to run it
Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens. Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act requires every employer to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect workers (s. 25(2)(a)). A talk like this, led by a supervisor or someone they trust, is one way to do it, and the sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.
Talk through these points
- Day one is an orientation, not a favour: site hazards, emergency muster, first aid, washrooms, who their supervisor actually is.
- Pair them with someone experienced — an actual name with actual responsibility, not 'watch the guys.'
- Tell them the site-specific stuff no card teaches: where the trench is, which floor's not decked, what today's crane picks mean for where to stand.
- Make asking questions cheap. The new worker who's afraid to look dumb is the one who improvises around a hazard.
- Check their tickets before their tasks — WHMIS, working at heights, equipment competencies. 'He said he's done it before' is not a record.
- Check in at the end of week one, on purpose. What confused them is what your orientation is missing.
Ask the crew
- Who's newest on this crew, and who's actually mentoring them?
- What almost got YOU in your first month that we should be telling new hires?
- Are the new guy's tickets on file, or in his other jacket?
The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard, write it down and assign it a name and a date.
Paper it
A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is concerned. Print these free:
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