Training

Are Your Safety Training Programs Cost- and Learning-Effective?

If you’re like most EHS managers, you’re increasingly concerned these days about defending the value and cost-effectiveness of training programs. You need to get good value for your safety training dollars.

In the context of training, "cost-effective" means providing solutions to identified needs (compliance, safety, etc.) at a cost that is a good value for the money at the required volume [Clive Shepherd, "Three Roads to Cost Effectiveness," Training Journal, 2000].

Cost, effectiveness, and volume must be balanced to deliver a complete training program. Shepherd says that managers who want to increase cost-effectiveness have three options:

  1. Reduce cost while sustaining effectiveness and maintaining volume (cheaper learning)
  2. Improve effectiveness while holding costs and volume (better learning)
  3. Increase volume (greater number of trainees and amount of access they have to continued training) while sustaining effectiveness and holding costs (more learning)

Progress is made in cost-effectiveness when these options are implemented alone or in combination.


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Training Delivery

An important factor in both cost- and learning-effectiveness of safety training is the method in which training is delivered.

There are advantages and disadvantages to various training delivery methods and formats (e.g., classroom, slide show, computer, hands-on) and learning aids (e.g., videos and handouts). Given the multitude of training requirements a company must address, it is best to have available various training delivery methods and tools.

The flexibility of mixing and matching training program components allows you to easily and efficiently adjust to changing regulatory requirements, budget constraints, training schedules, and training audiences.

For example, often the delivery of well-designed computer or Internet-based training can offer dramatic cost savings and flexibility for trainees concerning when they access training and which specific topics they access.

For some types of training, however, skill-building is required and training must include hands-on experience through practice sessions or on-the-job training. In other cases, demonstrations, discussion groups, or problem-solving sessions provide the best learning results.


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Learning Effectiveness

No matter which training methods you use, however, your safety training must be effective in terms of results. Employees must learn what they need to know to prevent accidents and injuries—and to comply with OSHA regulations.

Therefore, effective training programs evaluate learning and don’t stop until employees demonstrate the required level of understanding and/or skill required to work safely. Evaluation is critical to success. If employees haven’t learned what you think they’ve learned—or haven’t learned it as well as they need to—that’s likely to create the kind of trouble you don’t need.

Part of evaluation is making sure employees understand training content. OSHA’s policy is that training must be conducted in a manner that employees can understand. In other words:

  • If an employee receives job instructions in a language other than English, for example, training and information must also be conveyed in that language.
  • If an employee’s vocabulary is limited, safety training must account for that limitation.
  • If an employee is not literate, telling him or her to read training materials will not satisfy the employer’s training obligation.

Many of the training provisions in OSHA standards contain specific requirements that ensure employees comprehend required safety and health instruction.

For example, standards covering lockout/tagout, respiratory protection, and bloodborne pathogens each require that employers toke measures to ascertain the level to which the employee has comprehended the safety rules.

In fact, in its instructions to inspectors, OSHA states: "If a reasonable person would conclude that the employer had not conveyed the training to its employees in a manner they were capable of understanding, then the violation may be cited as serious."

Tomorrow, we offer some more suggestions on improving the effectiveness of safety and health training programs.

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