Could You Use 9 Best Practices for Your Safety Training?

Training is a vital part of your safety program, it may be required by specific standards that apply to your workplace, and it can provide a natural environment for communication between management and employees about safety and health issues.
But not all safety training will accomplish these ends. Badly planned, poorly executed training may do more harm than good if it fails to convey necessary information or leads to misunderstandings between management and workers.
According to Cal/OSHA, effective training:
1.      Relates directly to the work being done by employees. Why waste time teaching workers something they don’t need to know, or that doesn’t relate directly to their jobs? Workers may very well tune out such training, missing the bits that are relevant to them and making the entire program a wasted investment. If you choose a video- or computer-based training program, make sure that it can be customized and that you take the time to see that workers get the training they need—without a lot of training that they don’t.
2. Provides practical and specific information about hazards and how to perform work safely. It might sound obvious, but many training programs don’t do this. Make sure each worker gets the level of detail that he or she needs.
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3.      Communicates information in a language and by methods understandable to all employees. Many workplaces have employees whose first language is not English. Because safety training frequently covers highly technical or specialized information, workers whose command of English is less than fluent can run into communication problems that did not affect them during the hiring process. You may need to tweak the content and the delivery of your training program for non-English-speaking workers.
 4.      Helps establish a relationship with employees to improve trust and communication. How one-sided is your training program? Do workers get the impression that you’re just trying to dot all of your i’s and cross all of your t’s, or do you convey the message that safety is more to you than just regulatory compliance? Do they understand that their employer is investing in them, and that the safety program is a way of protecting something—its workforce—that is valuable to the company?
5.      Is participatory and involves employees by drawing on their own real-life experiences. Workers need to understand how their training relates directly to them. Give them opportunities to participate in training, perhaps by operating equipment under the watchful eye of a trainer or acting out situations they might encounter. Help them relate their own experiences to the topic: Have they ever suffered a chemical burn? Do they know someone who was injured at work? Getting them involved will help them buy into the program.
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In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll go over Cal/OSHA’s last four safety training recommendations—plus, we’ll explore a dynamic, ready-to-use resource for conducting effective toolbox training in 7 minutes!