In yesterday’s Advisor, we heard from one expert on how to keep training lively and engaging. Today, we learn about the importance of peer training.
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Safety professional and author, Barbara Hilyer, is a former training program director of the University of Alabama (UAB) Center for Labor Education and Research in Birmingham. A big part of Hilyer’s work is training employees to train their coworkers. “We think peer trainers are great. They have ability, and they have credibility with their fellow workers.”
She and others have developed a number of techniques to transform a line employee into an effective safety trainer. The idea is to gradually get them accustomed to standing before a roomful of people.
One strategy is to start the trainer trainees in a group and gradually have them emerge as individual leaders. “We might give the group a folder of materials about glove selection, for example, and ask them to come back and teach a class using a nonlecture method, such as a scenario or a safety song.”
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For many people, increased exposure to an audience helps diminish the fear, Hilyer notes. “I also tell them they don’t have to know everything. I tell my own classes that we’ve been brought together to solve a particular problem; I know some things, and they know some things, and together we can do it.”
It also helps peer trainers earn the respect of their coworkers if they ask trainees to help plan a class or even lend a hand with the instruction.
Although not every hourly worker can become an expert trainer, Hilyer says there are ways to use those with less outgoing personalities, such as pairing them with more vibrant individuals.
“No matter how interesting they are, I wouldn’t put a single person in front of a room for an hour,” she says.
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Divide duties among members of a training team, and include plenty of hands-on activities. This can be especially important when training shiftworkers or others who are tired after having worked an entire shift.