Health and safety induction software for UK businesses

Why induction is a legal duty — and a first-day priority

New and inexperienced workers are statistically more likely to be injured, often in their first days on the job, precisely because they do not yet know the hazards or the safe ways of working. The law reflects this: section 2(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to provide the information, instruction and training needed to ensure health and safety, and regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 specifically requires training on recruitment.

A health and safety induction is how you meet that duty at the point of greatest risk. It covers your safety policy and arrangements, the hazards and risk assessments relevant to the role, emergency and evacuation procedures, first aid and accident reporting, and who to go to with a concern.

• Legal duty: HSWA 1974 s.2(2)(c) and MHSWR 1999 reg 13 require training on recruitment.
• Highest-risk moment: new starters are most likely to be hurt early on — induction reduces that.
• Covers the essentials: policy, role-specific risks, emergencies, first aid and reporting.
• Must be evidenced: you need to prove each person was inducted.

Deliver a consistent induction every time

Inductions delivered ad hoc by whoever is free that day are inconsistent and rarely recorded. Featherstone Safety Hub includes a health and safety induction e-learning course you assign to each new starter; they complete it at the start of their employment and the completion is logged automatically against them, with a pass threshold built in so it means something.

That gives you a repeatable baseline induction every new employee receives — the same content, the same standard, the same record — without a manager having to run a session from scratch each time.

• Assign on day one: give the induction course to each new starter immediately.
• Auto-recorded: completion is logged against the individual with the date.
• Consistent standard: every new starter gets the same baseline induction.

Site-specific induction and contractors

E-learning covers the general induction, but most workplaces also need a site-specific walk-through: where the exits and assembly points are, the hazards in this building, who the first aiders are. The manual training log records those in-person briefings — who was inducted, when, what was covered and by whom — so the practical side is evidenced too.

Contractors need inducting before they start work just as employees do. Their induction status is tracked alongside their RAMS and insurance in the contractor register, so you do not let anyone on site who has not been briefed.

• Site-specific briefings: record the in-person induction in the manual training log.
• Contractor induction: track contractor induction status before work starts.
• One complete record: online and in-person induction sit together per person.

Prove every new starter was inducted

When the HSE asks whether a worker was trained, or a claim turns on whether someone was inducted before an incident, you need to produce the record. The training matrix shows induction status across your people at a glance, certificates are stored in the evidence library, and the audit trail timestamps every induction — so 'yes, and here is the proof' is always the answer.