Periodic refresher training is required by many Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards as well as by some employment laws. And even when it isn’t, refresher training is essential for keeping skills sharp and preventing a dangerous sense of complacency. Varying your techniques during refresher training will keep learners engaged.
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Why do you need to keep training fresh?
- By its very nature as repeated material, refresher training can be an activity that workers feel is unnecessary.
- If workers feel they don’t need this training again, they may engage in presenteeism, i.e., being present at training sessions but not paying attention.
- You need to overcome this bad attitude by impressing on workers that the very reason refresher training is needed is that the topics are serious enough to merit reminders and verifications that workers know how to work safely in these operations or on this equipment.
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Here are a few suggestions on how to vary training to keep it fresh:
- Do a demonstration (e.g., demonstrate the effectiveness of a steel-toe shoe by dropping a weight on it).
- Incorporate real-life accident or near-miss stories.
- Have learners do an activity together, such as a joint lift of a heavy object.
- Show slides of different work areas, equipment, and operations related to your topic, and ask learners to identify any hazards they see as the slides click by. This “safety scanning” technique encourages and trains employees to continuously look out for hazards.
- Send trainees on a workplace scavenger hunt to look for and record as many hazards as they can find.
- Bring in props that learners can see and touch, such as a damaged tool that is unsafe, a hazardous chemical container that is missing a label, or samples of personal protective equipment (PPE) for inspection.
Get creative when refresher training rolls around again this year by trying some new methods. Innovative techniques will make your training more engaging and effective for both you and your trainees.