If you have an in-house safety training staff such as an EHS manager, safety trainer, safety manager, or HR manager, then you probably leave your safety training program in their hands. 

If you are in any of those roles, however, then you effectively handle the safety training in your organization, which means you’re in charge of a rather robust training program and you rely on company budget for the resources you need.

The challenge for any of these roles is maximizing the ROI of your resources with measurable results, which can be challenging to produce. Often, a safety training staff doesn’t have the resources to do so, creating a vicious cycle where the value of extensive safety training is hard to convey as a safety professional, and hard to perceive as a manager or supervisor.

Filling this discrepancy is what’s missing from your safety training program. Fortunately, there is a solution that effectively fills in the gaps, while also offering other key benefits commonly sought in a modern safety training program, such as the ones we outline below. 

Updated Training Courses

The constant updates to OSHA standards and industry safety “best practices” in general warrants the need for continuous updates to specific safety training topics and courses.

Often, training updates can fall through the cracks or get pushed to low priority, making employee safety training familiar, unengaging, and, due to the styles and trends of the actors, a bit comical.

Mikaela Delia, former Marketing Manager of Atlantic Training, a workplace safety training provider, says that their customer base ran into these challenges all the time.

“It was marketing’s job to discover the challenges with their safety training programs, and to listen to feedback from our training development reps. We would hear a lot of concerns that their existing training programs were outdated, not just regulation-wise, but clothing styles, haircuts, and equipment. Quite frankly, I can imagine it is difficult to educate and engage a classroom full of employees when the safety training video is showing mutton chops, vintage fax machines, or obsolete equipment,” she comments.

“Not only that, but it says a lot about the organization’s commitment to the safety of your workers. If your safety training program is outdated, most likely, so is your outlook on safety in general.” 

More Effective Methods

Due to the increase in commerce competition, the workplace now comes in many different settings. For some, it’s an agricultural setting, for others, below the ground. Each workplace presents its own unique body of safety hazards that need addressing.

Because of this, safety training has to be dynamic, flexible, and most importantly, accessible. While safety training staff does their best to administer training in any setting, they don’t always have the necessary resources and training material to do it effectively.

Fortunately, the challenge of lacking more effective safety training administration methods is solved with the emergence of new training technology. For example, online safety training libraries, online learning portals, or other EHS training software is typically accessible through any mobile device with a connection to WiFi or a data plan. Additionally, on days an employee is absent for classroom training; they can still be assigned an online course, so no one gets left behind.

What’s important to know about online safety training is that it can be used in tandem with classroom training. Featuring safety training videos, instructor materials, texts, quizzes, handouts, and in many cases, and an arsenal of tailgate talks, online EHS training is the perfect tool to assist in instructor-led training courses.

Increased Engagement

Engagement and participation with EHS training programs remain a challenge for safety training staff.

In fact, in an Atlantic Training survey of over 600 safety training professionals, over 10% said that participation was one of the top challenges of their safety training efforts.

While instructor-led training is viewed as the most engaging administration method of safety training, it relies heavily on the safety trainer or the safety training staff themselves to present the material engagingly. Because safety professionals, and, adults in general, aren’t keen on public speaking, it can be a challenge to administer training naturally and engagingly.

If engagement is what you’re missing from your safety training program, there is a solution. Modern methods of safety training such as online safety training libraries can help supplement instructor-led training, and provide them with outlines and materials to help them with their course. If your organization relies mainly on online safety training courses, or a learning management system, advanced training courses with interactive quizzes and tasks are also available.  

Efficiency

In the Atlantic Training survey of over 600 safety training professionals, the number one answer for the most significant challenges with safety training efforts was time.

Lost production time, not enough time to complete the training, lengthy safety training courses, etc. can all provide obstacles for a safety training staff’s training efforts. 

Being that time of the essence, this has created more efficient safety training methods that can save valuable resources such as time and budget space. These safety training methods are made more efficient through artificial intelligence in modern technology.

That might sound a bit daunting, but the truth is that artificial intelligence, or AI, is present in a lot of different areas of your life, and safety training is no different. Safety training completed primarily through various technology sources is as efficient as it is because of AI, as it can populate related courses, suggest other courses your employees may need, or store reports and records.

More Resources for a More Safety-conscious Attitude

Safety training staff only have access to so many resources to effectively do their job, unless a company has created an influential culture of safety and is willing to invest ample budget for their safety training program. That, of course, is a best-case scenario and isn’t that case for a majority of organizations.

An alarming statistic from the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health shows that only about 1 in 5 workers remember receiving safety training when they first started — suggesting that safety isn’t necessarily at the forefront of a lot of organizations and that a poor safety culture is nurtured right off the bat.

Creating your best-case safety training scenario is easier than you might think, and it falls on the shoulders of the safety training staff. Unfortunately, they can only ignite real change if they remove all the hurdles they have to face to make safety a priority, often, management and supervisors being one of them.

Whether you’re a safety professional or a manager or supervisor, you can effectively fill in the gaps in your safety training program. You can do this by adopting a cost-effective, flexible, dynamic, and optimized safety training program that successfully leverages online safety training courses or course libraries. SafetySoft by Atlantic Training is your safety training solution. SafetySoft offers online safety training videos, online safety training courses, downloadable materials, record keeping, a myriad of tailgate talks, quizzes, checklists, and more. It is your blanket solution to anything missing from your safety training program, and it can aid safety training staff in whatever they need to produce the ROI that safety can offer any organization.