3 Ways to Make Workplace Safety Training More Effective

In 2020, 2.7 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses occurred in private industry companies according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How do you stress the importance of safety training in the workplace? How do you get your employees to take it seriously?

Every employer wants to motivate their employees to work safely and to update new employees on the company’s safety practices and procedures.

Workplace safety training is usually required by law, but how do you guarantee your employees reap the benefits of safety training? Ensure your employees are getting the highest-quality training with these tips to make it more effective.

1. Evaluate Your Current Program/Find Ways To Improve It

Safety training is not a one-and-done concept. You need to evaluate what works and what has failed and how you can make continuous improvement.

Safety professionals need to spend time with people in the company to evaluate their changing needs and to gauge the effectiveness of the training. Anyone can pass a test, but can they apply what they’ve learned when they’re on the job.

Ask yourself is everyone applying what they learned to real work situations? If not, it’s the trainer’s job to investigate and find out why not and make necessary changes.

2. Make Sure It’s Relevant

There are certain OSHA-required regulations that companies have to cover during safety training. How can you connect these general rules and regulations to your company and specific jobs?

Include job-specific incidents to demonstrate a concept. Educate your employees on your company’s safety record and statistics. Talk about the most common types of injuries related to your type of work and how they can be prevented.

Have the resources you need in place to offer the employees the best safety training program so they realize the importance and relevancy of it.

3. Find Creative Ways to Ensure Understanding

Some of the information presented in safety training seminars or training videos can be confusing. If you’re the safety professional, it’s your job to make sure employees grasp the concepts and procedures that are going to keep them and others safe on the job.

Create checklists, used hands-on activities, make notecards or tags for quick reference, and present in an easy-to-comprehend way.

Another thing to remember is when you require safety training for your employees, it’s important to consider their native language. When people engage in learning, they learn better and faster when the information is in their native language.

Workplace Safety Training

Workplace safety training needs to be more than what you read off of a list of talking points. Use what you see in everyday work situations and common workplace accidents. Use the knowledge gained from each experience to create safer work environments to keep your employees safe.

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