Fireman’s Fund Arranges Special Training Package for Those in the Hospitality Industry

Hotel clients of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company can now buy an extended package of online employee safety training that satisfies all OSHA requirements for hospitality industry employees, such as housekeepers, clerks, and bellhops.

This comprehensive national service, which includes courses, testing and tracking, is offered by WebFire Training, an e-learning company endorsed by the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute. Fireman’s Fund negotiated a month of complementary service for hotel clients of its iCustomer Series coverage when they subscribe to a year’s safety training for their employees regardless of the customer’s property size or employee turnover rate.

“This online service streamlines training, testing and record-keeping of OSHA required safety mandates while improving potential liability problems from accidents,” said Peter Guichard, CEO of WebFire Training Inc. “The safety courses allow cost-effective training to be taken whenever and wherever the employees are available, versus expensive scheduling of seminar and testing sessions.”

This training is the latest in a series of 10 vendor relationships Fireman’s Fund negotiated for its commercial customers, in many cases allowing small firms to receive the same preferred pricing enjoyed by large companies whose vendor contracts often warrant economy of scale.

To qualify, customers must be among the specific industries where Fireman’s Fund has established dedicated iCustomer Series Web site portals for commercial customers. Besides vendor relationships, the proprietary Web sites deliver industry-specific information, including daily news feeds, the ability to file claims online, claims status checking, a library of loss control information among other services.

“Training is a sizable and constant chore for hoteliers,” said Guichard. “And some years are much worse than others. In 1999 the hospitality industry employee turnover was approximately 130 percent, which magnified the challenge in keeping employees trained, as required by law.”

WebFire Training’s bilingual (English and Spanish) courses include back safety, bloodborne pathogens, chemical safety, driver education, electrical safety, fire safety, ladder safety.