Training and supervision

Apprentices are (usually) young and inexperienced, so ongoing training and supervision is needed throughout their programme until they are competent enough to carry out tasks alone.

For more complex and demanding work this may not be until their third or fourth year of training. During the first months of the programme your apprentice will be particularly susceptible to accidents or injuries as for many of them; this will be their first time experiencing a legitimate engineering environment. A thorough safety induction is vital to ensure the apprentice is aware of the dangers and potential hazards of the job.

Wellbeing

‘Wellbeing’ is one of those words we hear a lot these days, but what does it actually mean in practice?

Wellbeing is essentially how someone feels about various aspects of their life – their home life, their health, their relationships with others, their job and other activities. It’s about whether they feel well and happy.

These days, wellbeing in the workplace is a much broader issue. In health terms, as well as directly work-related health and safety, it’s about improving the health levels of employees generally. Employee wellbeing is about more than physiological or mental health – it’s about optimising the health of all employees, not just reducing the numbers of staff who are diagnosed with medical conditions. Employee wellbeing also extends beyond health, and into job satisfaction.

Factors outside employers control can have an impact on employee wellbeing, such as family circumstances, home environment, personal attributes and characteristics. But there are many factors affecting employees’ wellbeing which can be influenced by the employer.

Many of these factors centre around the job itself – does the employee have a degree of control over their work, clarity about their responsibilities, a variety of tasks, training and support? Do their working hours give them sufficient rest or flexibility? Other factors include the workplace environment, policies over fairness and transparency over pay and promotion decisions, and relationships with colleagues. People spend a large proportion of their life at work, and employers have the potential to significantly impact their employees’ wellbeing.

Employers can also influence the wellbeing of their employees outside those workplace-controlled factors. In forward thinking workplaces, focusing on employee wellbeing involves initiatives to improve the health and happiness of employees outside the workplace completely, such as schemes to promote cycling to work or giving up smoking.

It is crucial to understand that a focus on employee wellbeing involves a holistic approach, taking into account the numerous factors shaping how employees feel at work, and considering how as an employer you can influence these for the better. XR Training is here to advise and support with these factors wherever possible.

enquiries@xrtraining-wales.co.uk

01656 74 66 88