The importance of operator training

Jonathan Oldfield, MD of Riverside Waste Machinery, urges firms to remember the importance of training staff in the use of waste machinery, ready for when the time comes for businesses to burst back to life…

“While the UK remains in lockdown during the current pandemic, operator training may be far from the minds of those who own – and operate – waste machinery. However, due to the halt in ‘business as usual’ for many firms, training – and in particular refresher sessions – should remain a key consideration.

There are many reasons why training in the correct use of waste machinery is important. When equipment is first purchased and installed, all staff who will be working with it should be taught how to operate the machinery properly.

But it shouldn’t stop there. For example, long-serving employees may – over time – forget the stringent health and safety rules in place and become more relaxed, potentially passing on bad habits to newer members of the team. New recruits should automatically be shown how to correctly use the machinery, but it is also vital that regular – ideally annual – sessions are carried out, to ensure staff remain up to date on the correct processes to follow.

Machine misuse should be another major consideration for employers, but refresher sessions help to ensure people aren’t cutting corners or overlooking some simple operational protocol, which could compromise bale quality or machine uptime.

Recognising the need for regular training sessions for those handling waste machinery, Riverside launched its own training programme back in 2016, to boost skill-sets and safety within the recycling industry.

The intensive sessions – which last approximately one hour and cover everything from the dos and don’ts of waste baling, to sequence error troubleshooting and basic maintenance – are designed to equip operators with the knowledge they require to effectively run any of Riverside’s balers.

Anyone with a workforce that is gearing up to return to a fully-operational site should ensure they are fully prepared, with the right operator training in place, to avoid any of the above issues.”