Efficient Plant March 2021 - 32

column | safety insights

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Training
As an
Investment
Ryan Dobbins
CSP, CHST, CIT, CUSP

If your company culture treats
training as a necessary evil, your
employees will disengage and the
education will likely fail.

Ryan Dobbins is a Safety Services
Manager responsible for developing,
managing, and providing
services in support of the Safety
Management Group, Columbus, OH
(safetymanagementgroup.com), Ohio
division. Dobbins supports large
owner and contractor safety and
health programs in industries such as
manufacturing, construction, supply
chain, automation, and electric power
utilities. Contact him at
RyanDobbins@
safetymanagementgroup.com.

EP2103safety.indd 32

| EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

HETHER YOU'RE the highest
ranking official or the lowest level
technician in an organization,
everyone needs training to be successful. Training can provide important information for safety
and health, production, or simply operational
tasks. Unfortunately, many organizations want
training completed as quickly as possible to cut
down on time and expense. Safety and health
training should not be viewed as a requirement,
but rather an investment in your team members,
your safety program, and your organization as
a whole.
To begin with, consider that training is the
best way to set employees up to be successful
and avoid injuries because the intent should be
to acquire new or enhanced skills, knowledge,
behaviors, and attitudes in the workplace. Since
training sessions are often viewed as a requirement by organizations, that culture will trickle
down to your employees. As a result, they often
become disengaged from the content because
leadership makes it an obligation.
The design and delivery of your training
content can help change that culture by knowing your audience and focusing on adultlearning techniques. Training should be
designed and delivered to meet your audience's
needs and organized to identify learning
objectives. Depending on your organization,
choose various training delivery methods to
understand how your employees learn. Some
examples include instructor-led/lecture, virtual
classroom, self-paced learning, and interactive
and/or on-the-job training.
No matter what method(s) works best in
your organization, always ensure trainers
include these key steps:
Provide the information with positive
communication techniques.
Demonstrate skills or knowledge in a
real-world scenario.
Evaluate and test trainee knowledge
for proficiency.

Perform a gap analysis to determine opportunities for improvement and feedback.
Adults learn best when the content is related
to them personally and they have an opportunity to practice with hands-on exercises.
Since training should be used to set
employees up for success, it's essential that the
training program is regularly monitored for
effectiveness. Using jobsite safety observations
or other leading indicators can help management determine whether the training was
effective. When employees fail to demonstrate
specific skills or competencies they learned in
a training course, they should not be blamed
or punished. Instead, management should first
assess the actions and behaviors and compare
against the objectives outlined in the training
curriculum. If management finds that the
training content may have been lacking in
certain areas, this is an opportunity to update
the content, share the changes, and coordinate
a refresher training course to verify ongoing
competencies.
Proper recordkeeping and organization also
help drive an effective training program. All
required training topics, such as hazard communication, hazardous energy control, and fall
protection, should be maintained in a database
that tracks when and how employees completed the training so refresher courses can be
scheduled. In addition, these databases should
store all training certificates for each course.
At a minimum, certificates should provide the
name of the topic, the date completed, and the
instructor's information to verify training was
complete.
Employees are exposed to risk and hazards
every day and your training program should
reflect that ongoing dynamic. Identifying internal trainers or " champions " within the organization to assist with developing or facilitating
sessions can create ongoing accountability
and ownership in your organization's training
program. EP

MARCH 2021

3/1/21 9:29 AM

http://www.safetymanagementgroup.com http://www.safetymanagementgroup.com http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Efficient Plant March 2021

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