Online Course · Hazardous Energy Awareness
Lockout Tagout Awareness Training for Affected Employees
Not everyone applies locks, but everyone near the equipment must respect them. This online lockout tagout training is the awareness course for machine operators and coworkers whose jobs are affected when maintenance locks a machine out.
Where This Course Fits in Your LOTO Program
OSHA's control of hazardous energy standard, 29 CFR 1910.147, divides people into three groups. Authorized employees lock or tag out machines to service them. Affected employees operate or use that equipment, or work in the area where servicing happens. Everyone else whose work might bring them near it falls into the "other employees" group. Each group needs different training.
This course is built for the second and third groups. It does not teach anyone to perform a lockout. Workers who will apply their own locks need our separate lockout tagout for authorized workers course, which covers procedures step by step.
What Affected Employees Learn
- The purpose of an energy control program and why machines must be isolated before servicing
- The forms of hazardous energy — electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, thermal and gravity
- How to recognize lockout devices, tagout devices and the information on a tag
- Why you never remove, bypass or ignore a lock or tag that is not yours
- Why you never attempt to restart or reenergize equipment that is locked or tagged out
- The limitations of tags: a tag is a warning, not a physical barrier
- What notifications to expect before a lockout begins and before equipment is restarted
Why Awareness Prevents Injuries
Many hazardous energy incidents involve someone other than the person doing the repair. An operator, unaware a coworker is inside a guard, pushes the start button. A forklift driver needing a conveyor running pulls a tag off, assuming it was left by mistake. A cleaning crew restores power to a panel labeled with a tag they did not understand. Awareness training is designed to stop exactly these moments.
Learners also see what to do when they find equipment locked out and production is waiting: find the person whose name is on the lock or contact the supervisor, and wait. Only the authorized employee who applied a lock removes it, except under the specific, documented procedure your program allows when that person is not on site.
Tags deserve special attention
Where tagout is used instead of lockout, the warning is only as good as the people who read it. The course explains why tags must be legible, securely attached and never ignored, and why a tagout program needs extra protective measures to reach the same safety level as lockout.
Who Should Take This Awareness Course
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Machine and line operators
People who run equipment that maintenance locks out for repairs, jams or changeovers.
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Sanitation and cleaning crews
Teams working on or near equipment between production runs.
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Material handlers
Forklift and pallet jack operators working around conveyors, balers and docks.
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Supervisors of affected staff
Leads who coordinate production around maintenance work and handle restart questions.
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New hires and contractors
Anyone whose work may bring them into an area where energy control is used.
Rolling Out LOTO Awareness Online
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Classify your people
Use your energy control program to list who is authorized, who is affected and who falls in the other-employee group.
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Assign by role
Send this awareness course to affected and other employees and the authorized course to maintenance and technicians.
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Show your hardware
Have a supervisor show the actual locks, tags and colors used at your facility.
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Retrain on change
Reassign the course when job assignments, machines or procedures change, or when an inspection shows gaps in understanding.
Lockout Tagout Awareness FAQs
What is an affected employee?
An employee whose job requires operating or using a machine on which servicing is performed under lockout or tagout, or whose job requires work in the area where that servicing occurs.
Can affected employees apply locks after this course?
No. Applying locks requires authorized-employee training on hazardous energy recognition and your machine-specific procedures.
Is this the same as electrical safety training?
No. Lockout covers all energy types. For electrical hazards specifically, see electrical safety general awareness.