Analyzing your training program is important both at the development stage and at the follow-up stage. For training to be effective in helping employees work more safely and avoid incidents and injuries, you need to analyze your training from the start to ensure that it is appropriate—to the hazards and to the workforce. To test whether your training has been effective, you need to conduct informative post-training analysis.
If you’re involved in developing the training program in your workplace, make sure your training is appropriate. Cal/OSHA has established general rules that provide a useful benchmark for testing the appropriateness of training. Training should:
- Be specific to the hazards of individual job assignments.
- Clearly inform employees what conditions are infractions of departmental safety rules.
- Give supervised work experience before allowing employees to perform hazardous operations on their own.
One of the most important decisions trainers make is how the content will be delivered. Here are some options:
- On-the-job learning and one-on-one discussions with employees are often most effective when combined with on-the-job skills training.
- Safety meetings can be a good setting for training when group cooperation is required—for example, during training on how to organize in an emergency.
- Role-playing and using case histories are useful in group settings and are more effective with some audiences (for example, a more verbal group) than with others.
- Lectures are considered by Cal/OSHA to be the least effective means of training. Involving employees can help make the lectures more meaningful.
- Demonstrations work best when they are interactive and encourage audience participation.
- Audiovisual presentations and computer-based programs are an effective choice for refresher training or when live demonstrations are too costly or hazardous.
- Printed materials are best used as a supplement when individuals already have a good grasp of the subject material but need additional information to fill the gaps.
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A successful training program is a work in progress, and the cycle isn’t complete until you’ve evaluated the effectiveness of the training. Consider these steps for assessing how well you have done.
- Ask trainees what they think. Probably your best source of information about the effectiveness of the session is the trainees themselves. Make anonymous evaluation forms available immediately following the session.
- Ask participants to rate the session on a scale of 1 to 5. For any response below 5, ask for an explanation of what it would take to bring it up.
- Make your own observations during the session. Think about the degree of participation, number of questions, and overall enthusiasm.
- Use pre- and post-tests. Simple true/false pre- and post-tests can be an effective way to determine what participants knew before and after the presentation. If practical, ask trainees to explain principles, procedures, or rules they’ve learned. Have them demonstrate skills presented to give you an idea of skill gaps you need to fill before ending the session.
- Check to see if training is being used. Keep an eye out for employee behavior. How well are workers incorporating the safety principles, skills, and knowledge into their jobs? Continue observations for several months after the training.
- Evaluate the impact of training on overall safety performance. Is your workplace safer as a result of training efforts? Is your organization’s compliance program better as a result? Have the numbers of accidents and near misses, as well as related costs, gone down?
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Why It Matters
According to the report, Vision Problems in the U.S.,
- In one recent year, there were more than 5,000 fatalities from on-the-job injuries.
- There were 3.7 million cases of work-related injuries and illnesses.
- That equates to 3.9 cases per 100 full-time workers.
- Effective safety training that helps employees take proper precautions can cut down on these alarming numbers.
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