Who does OSHA say your Fall Protection & Rescue Trainer should be?

By Kevin Denis, Director of Special Projects

This title is a little misleading, but the OSHA hook usually gets people to look twice. OSHA requires a Competent Person (construction) and Qualified Person (General Industry) to conduct your fall protection and rescue training. I’ve already written about that in the previous blog that you can find here. I’d tell you that OSHA doesn’t provide much guidance so I’d like to fill in the blanks and tell you who Gravitec believes your fall protection and rescue trainer should be.  

We’ve developed this opinion from over thirty years of delivering training to people through our Train the Trainer (TTT) program. I remember one of the first TTT programs I delivered in the early 90’s was for a customer training replacement and new staff during a strike. Yikes, not the most enjoyable training environment. They had to train a thousand some people in a matter of days. The pressure was on to pick the right people who could convey a message, be credible, and increase the knowledge and skill base of the students to achieve desired changes in behavior…quickly. The job was a success because there was a lot of effort put into picking who the trainers needed to be. We made some mistakes along the way and some people realized they were not cut out for the job. Using what we have learned over the years, here are some suggestions for any employers selecting people to become fall protection and rescue trainers.  

1. Work Experience: select a person that has worked at height before. The trainer should be able to relate to other people having done similar work. The common theme to all who work at height is the risk of falling and that element is what you are looking for in your trainer. The messages are difficult to convey as credible unless you’ve been exposed to the risk. Your trainer doesn’t have to be a 20-year veteran, specific to the student group, but there needs to be a history of working at height.  

2. Communicator: select a person that has a communicating personality. You don’t need the trainers’ personality getting in the way of the message. I have seen excellent training results from many personality types, providing they teach from a point of sincerity for the topic and genuine care for the student. Aggressive, cocky, know-it-all, my-way or the hi-way, comedic or extreme personality types may work well for getting work done and seem attractive to be a trainer, but they are rarely effective in communicating a message that changes behavior. I have never heard “…after being called out and realizing how much more the trainer knew about fall protection than I did, I really understood how to calculate clearance”. You need a genuine personality that is confident and strong to keep the training moving, yet humble and patient to listen to students and explain content….sometimes over and over and over again. 

3. Technical and Physical Ability: select a person that has the knowledge and the physical ability. Fall protection and rescue involves skill. Training needs to include those skills. Your trainer must have the physical ability to conduct these skills.  Unfortunately, there are instances where trainers are selected based only upon their knowledge and they are unable to conduct the necessary skills. To provide a quality course, that is defendable, fall protection and rescue training need to include observations of performance that include the skills expected of the students. Anything short of this is a poor investment. Select a person that has the physical ability to conduct all of the skills necessary. They don’t have to be an American Ninja Warrior, but they do need to be able to put on a harness, climb, lift, and rescue a student if someone gets hung up or freezes during training.  

In January of 2018, Gravitec Systems is making changes to it’s TTT program to assist employers in providing the best fall protection training to their staff as possible. This program is the longest-running, most robust, and flexible fall protection and rescue training program available in North America. Candidates successfully completing the program will be able to conduct a needs assessment of the worksite and determine training needs (meeting ANSI Z359.2 and Z490.1) and will have all the necessary resource materials (Training Manual, 13 PowerPoint Presentations, Videos, Lesson Plans and Documentation) to conduct a course. With the authority given by the employer, candidates successfully completing the program will meet OSHA requirements as a competent/qualified fall protection and rescue trainer. You can find out more about the program here, and Gravitec is happy to help you achieve your training and fall protection program goals, just make sure you select a person according to 1, 2 and 3 of this blog. 

If you have any questions, contact Gravitec Systems at 1.800.755.8455