WHAT’S WRONG WITH SAFETY TRAINING . . . AND HOW TO FIX IT

It was often tough, because I would disagree that the part time receptionist at a plant in Montreal would need 16 hours of Problem Solving training, and yet, that was the requirement. I finally realized that compliance was not the anathema of skill building, and in fact, with a little thought compliance can be your friend.

Never tell an adult that the reason they are in your safety training is because the law says they have to be. That may well be an accurate statement, but it sets a tone where the participants are being treated as convicts or children.

Take Hazard Communication training. Haz Com used to be, for me, the symbol of pointless compliance training. I believed that we did it yearly, not because it was necessary, or valuable, but plain and simply because the law said we had to, and if we didn’t we risked a big fine. Can you imagine how effective I was teaching a topic that I was just presenting because I had too? How receptive do you think the adults who were dragged into the class against their will were to the course?

The evaluations of the course accurately derided the training as a waste of time. Having such a fragile psyche, I really took the criticism to heart and decide to do something about it. I sat down and did some soul searching, and when I started to focus on the skills I wanted the participants to learn, instead of the compliance box I was going to check, I was able to make some significant and important improvements to the course.

I started by asking why OSHA required the course. I reasoned that the course was probably required because people were getting injured because they inadvertently exposed themselves to hazards, and did so because their employers — either out of ignorance, maliciousness, or negligence — never warned them of the dangers. This realization helped me to retool the course to meet the goal of warning people about dangers in the workplace and informing them of their rights under the law instead of merely checking the box. Over night the participants got more excited, did better on the posttests, and were more involved in the course.

For my part, I enjoyed presenting the course and felt the time I spent was worthwhile.

RULE 6: STAY FOCUSED ON THE NEED TO KNOW AND GET RID OF THE NICE TO
A fair amount of safety training was developed by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and SMEs often have difficulty separating the “need to know” from the “nice to know”. Many SMEs are convinced that a skill can only be required once an individual fully grasps the scientific principles behind the skills and has a complete understanding of the topic presented.

These courses bog down intechnical minutia that does nothing to increase the proficiency with which the participants will apply the skills being taught. I once worked with an engineer to develop a course on the operation and maintenance of a machine that made magnets. The engineer insisted on an 8-hour course that covered every conceivable element in the magnetizing of strontium ferrite.

The engineer insisted that the participants learned all the fine points of magnetism, the physical and chemical properties of strontium ferrite, how compounds and alloys are made, and a host of other information that had no direct connection with the operation of the machine. So much information was shared in this course, that many participants could not perform the four skills associated with operating the magnetizer.

RULE 7: OPEN WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND CLOSE WITH A SUMMARY
Like any good presentation, a good safety course follows the simple structure of (a) tell them what you hope to accomplish and why they should listen to you, (b) tell them and (c) tell them what you have told them.

There are five elements of an introduction:

1. Housekeeping. Housekeeping is a catch-all phrase for basic information that doesn’t really fit neatly into any other category. It’s important that you model the behaviors that you expect from the participants so you should always start a safety course with safety information, like emergency evacuation procedures or similar information.

When sharing the housekeeping information don’t take it for granted that people will know where the restrooms are, how long the course is, and if breaks will be provided. Be sure to get the participants to sign the sign-in sheet, and in many workplaces housekeeping may include a pre-evaluation of some sort.

2. WIIFM. I’ve already mentioned how important it is for adults to understand the WIIFM — “What’s In It For Me?” but it’s important enough to briefly revisit. To be truly effective, a training course must provide irrefutable value to the participants. The participants are asked to sacrifice their time and attention and they need to know up front what benefits they will derive from this sacrifice. If the participants don’t find the WIIFM particularly compelling they are likely to leave the session, if not physically than mentally.

3. Establishing Expertise. Almost as important as the WIIFM is the speaker’s credibility. Subconsciously (if not consciously) the participants in your class are wondering why they should listen to you; specifically, what makes you such a darned expert?

Until you establish your credibility on the topic you are presenting many in the audience will check out and stop listening. You needn’t go to extremes to demonstrate your expertise, but a short explanation of your background and familiarity with the topic will go a long way to getting people to listen to what you have to say. You should keep your explanation of your background short, but be clear and specific—as hard to believe as this may seem not everyone in the world knows what a CSP is or what being one has to do with lock out!

4. Establishing Expectations. A good introduction will quickly and definitively establish the participants’ expectations of the course. The simplest way to establish expectations is to cover the objectives. Many instructors will read the objectives to the participants quickly and without comment; this is a mistake.