Teen Restaurant Worker Safety

School’s out for summer. Hopefully, I am not the only one that hears the Alice Cooper song when they read that phrase. But this is the season where teenage applicants and new hires increase. A study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that 63% of teen worker compensation injuries occur in fast food restaurants. Here are some quick and dirty tips for keeping those new teenage applicants as well as any new hires safe.

1. Be clear you have a safety-first culture. Any new employee is more likely to complete tasks more slowly than a seasoned one this includes a teen employee with no prior job experience. Managers should be trained on how to encourage efficiency and improvement in these new employees, without pressuring them so that they began to cut corners. In addition, your onboarding process should really emphasize completing tasks safely.

2. Give them skill-appropriate tasks they can successfully perform. Where your employee has prior work experience, it is key to monitor them closely. You want to know that they haven’t brought any bad habits from the prior work experience and are, not only successfully accomplishing their tasks, but doing so in accordance with the best practices.

3. Consider scheduling your annual sexual harassment training during this period of time. Although full-time employees may fully understand how to be pleasant and appropriate with different genders and sexual orientations, a new teen employee, especially those that are completely new to the workforce may not understand. More importantly, to the extent that one of your teenage employees is the victim of said harassment the severity of such a claim may be much more than for an adult. So, prevent the issue by providing a more in-depth discussion about sexual harassment than may be in your handbook or employee orientation.

4. Be sure any protective equipment fits adequately. Although teens come in all sizes, summer hiring is a good time to be sure the protective equipment fits all bodies.