Designing, administering, and executing an EHS training program is no easy feat, and all too often, it can become stale, under engaging or non-existent.

If you're looking to empower your EHS training program, you're taking a favorable step toward a more prosperous organization, as an increased focus on safety can potentially provide an 85 percent increase in workplace productivity.

Plus, taking your EHS training program to the next level doesn't beckon a hefty investment in time and money. All it involves is a few important transformational changes with context. Here are ten of our best ones that you can execute today.

1. Go Digital

The benefits of offloading your EHS training to an online training program are immense.

Online EHS training, commonly known as eLearning, is just as it sounds. It is a digital training tool featuring a database of safety training courses, content, and resources accessible via an online platform, computer program, or online portal. eLearning is just a blanket term for any learning or training done online, including EHS training.

Online EHS training can:

• Replace outdated hardware such as DVDs, VHS, and USB drives.
• Aggregate training reports.
• Be more accessible to employees.
• Provide "Refresher" training or safety shorts that can be used to brush up on specific topics before diving into the workday.
• Assist classroom training for more in-depth safety training topics.
• Provide a plethora of value-added materials such as handouts, toolbox talks, etc.
• Be more engaging.
• Nurture a positive safety culture through learning retention.
• Produce favorable ROI.

It's no wonder why today, 43% of global Fortune 500 companies are using online EHS training to train employees, making it an over 50 billion dollar industry. For a good reason, as companies using eLearning to train their employees have experienced a 50% increase in productivity.

2. Administer More Specific Training

If your EHS Training Program has lost its traction, it could be attributed to the fact that the content isn't specific or targeted to the audience enough. 

Your EHS training strategy should effectively target job tasks that are most relevant to the audience. That semi-annual warehouse training isn't specific or rich enough for a regular forklift operator. Ideally, they'd have their own, frequent forklift safety training courses. Successful EHS safety training explicitly targets an audience that can relate, as they engage in those focused job tasks daily.

Take a look at your EHS training strategy and see if it matches employees with the EHS training topics that are most relevant to them. If not, it might be time to introduce some newer, more specific topics.

3. Use Diverse Materials

There was a time where a DVD or VHS viewing once every few months was considered an adequate safety training program. Mostly because those were the only available resources until the technology boom of the early 2000s.

Now, you'd be hard-pressed not to find a myriad of great EHS training materials, both online and out in the market. Some of which are virtual training, online training programs, downloadable materials, and apps.

While we're not saying you should run right out and invest in virtual reality goggles, we are saying that it might be time to take advantage of the plethora of diverse materials that are right at your fingertips. 

Notable means for accessing such materials are online training platforms. Online training courses, hosted via a provider, are accessible by most modern devices, including mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers and often come with access to videos, downloadable materials, training PowerPoints, and more. Plus, they can assist in instructor-led training for a hybrid training model.

4. Make Sure No Employee is Left Behind

Fifty percent of workers felt that safety meetings are held less often than they should be. What

happens if on that rare training day an employee is absent? They get even less training than those that already had their safety trained.

An effective EHS training program is conducted often and has a safety net (pun intended) for workers who may miss training.

This is easier said than done, as a lot of traditional training methods involve pulling workers from the floor for training. However, modern methods of digital training allow safety professionals to assign online training courses to employees who have missed a training session or enable employees to take their training at an optimal time in the first place.

5. Invest More Money and Less Time

A few years back, we surveyed over 600 safety training professionals about their most significant hurdles to an effective EHS training program. Can you guess the number one answer? Time.

Lost production time, not enough time to complete the training, lengthy safety training courses, etc. were all obstacles for training efforts. 

If time is an issue for you, consider adopting an online platform that employs artificial intelligence and is accessible via modern technology. Typically, these EHS safety training platforms can populate related courses, suggest other courses your employees may need, or store reports and records. The best part? They're not all that expensive.

Plus, their flexibility allows employees to take specific training topics when convenient, and through any mobile device. If you're out on the field, you can access a training topic at the touch of a button through a tablet, which is only about $100 on Amazon. A third of the cost of a DVD.

6. Better Engage Employees

If engagement is an issue with your program, consider more engaging methods of delivery.

Currently, the two safety training methods that are the most effective at driving engagement are:

A safety trainer– An in-house safety trainer or traveling safety trainer is said to be the most effective at engaging a class. Unfortunately, it's not the most cost-effective option, and if an employee is absent, they miss the materials.

Online safety library– Safety training needs to be interactive so that it can be memorable. An online safety training course library from the right provider has interactive content and quizzes to keep employees interested and listening to help them recall the information.

7. Fight Harder for Funding

EHS professionals know that safety training is invaluable. Spending a few thousand dollars on cutting-edge equipment and training is worth it if it saves someone's fingers. Unfortunately, communicating the criticalness of EHS training may not always be well-received by organizational leaders.

This is where having a calculable ROI for your EHS training program transformations will help.

An ROI calculator can use to break down your ROI based on how many employees you have to train, your industry, and more. You can then use these numbers to build your case for better training to share with key stakeholders who will have more of an interest in the numbers. 

If you're looking for a calculable ROI for online EHS training, Atlantic Training has training development reps with access to one that'll help you break down just how much your company can save by investing in the right tools for your EHS training strategy. It's the perfect tool to aid you in requesting more budget space to make improvements your employees deserve.

8. Adopt Modern Record Keeping

Let's not forget, a better EHS training program means it's easier for you, too.

While you could continue to use that Excel spreadsheet and printed quizzes in files, we suggest adopting a better way.

Online safety training portals have made it easier than ever to keep records of employee safety training statuses, certifications, test scores, and more. They allow you to run reports on employee training statuses that you can download and print when needed, like if you need to send reports to insurance companies or OSHA.

9. Research Successful Companies

This ones a given, but you'd be surprised how many people neglect to use the resources that are right at their fingertips to make improvements in their EHS training programs.

The internet provides countless case studies, white papers, tips, and blogs from industry-leaders who've found immense success not just in their operations, but company-wide by adopting modern safety techniques. Seriously. Deriving a culture that values employees' safety and well-being has made huge transformational impacts for tons of companies. If you're looking for ideas and prompts, pop online to see what's been done, and how you can tweak it to improve your EHS training program.

10. Change Your Attitude

This might be hard to hear, but sometimes improving an EHS training program is as easy as changing an attitude.

If you regularly engage in thoughts like this, then this will be especially applicable to you:

• "No one takes it seriously."
• "They never listen anyway."
• "Safety training is boring."
• "This is the worst part of my job."

Those negative thought patterns from the organizational leader in safety have a profound impact on the attitude of others, and consequently, the culture. If you start looking at EHS training as an essential factor in employee's health and well-being, and you actively look for ways to empower employees to be safer, you'll make leaps and bounds.

Whether you're a safety professional or a manager or supervisor, you can effectively improve your safety training program three-fold. All it takes is a few tweaks and adopting a cost-effective, flexible, dynamic, and optimized safety training program. 

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.