nsuring the safety of your employees is a top priority. Effective safety online training can give them the foresight they need to avoid on-the-job disasters. In this article, I’ll highlight 8 pitfalls of developing safety online training, as well as tips to avoid them.
Safety Online Training: 8 Common Mistakes To Avoid
One of the most crucial compliance
training topics is safety in the workplace. It helps to reduce
on-the-job injuries that can forever alter the lives of your employees.
Not to mention, cost your company countless resources, as you’ll have to
foot the bill for medical expenses, workers’ compensation, and employee
replacements. Fortunately, successful safety online training
can reduce the risk and keep your employees in the know about workplace
protocols. Here are 8 common mistakes to steer clear of when creating
safety online training courses.
1. Failing To Emphasize The Benefits Of Safety Online Training
Safety online training offers employees a
number of benefits, such as ensuring the well-being of your staff and
customers or reducing operational costs so that you can invest those
resources in other employee enrichment programs. However, your corporate
learners may not be aware of these advantages. Thus, they don’t
actively participate in the safety online training course because
there’s simply nothing in it for them. This is why it’s so crucial to
emphasize the benefits up front and tie them into practical uses.
Specify why they should complete the safety online training and how it
will help them in the workplace.
2. Not Keeping It Real!
Employees need to know how to apply their
safety online training in the real world. It’s not about memorizing
rules or protocols, but using the information to improve work practices.
For this reason, you have to give employees opportunities to experience
the real-life applications firsthand. This may be in the form of online
training simulations, real-world examples, or case studies that help
them put everything into context. It’s also crucial to assess your
employees beforehand in order to create more realistic and relatable
online training content. For example, stories that feature online
training characters or challenges they’re already familiar with.
3. Forgetting About Moment Of Need Support
Safety online training shouldn’t be
reserved for onboarding online training or yearly re-certifications. It
should be an ongoing process that provides moment of need support to
reinforce the main points. For example, a microlearning online training
repository that features a few online training tutorials or activities
for every safety topic, or groups online training materials by
department so that employees can quickly refresh their memory.
4. Providing Outdated Or Irrelevant Online Training Content
There’s always room to improve. Especially
when you discover new ways to safeguard employees and reduce
work-related injuries. Evaluate your safety online training course on a
regular basis to ensure it’s up to date and reflects your new policies.
You should also consider the local/federal regulations that recently
went into effect. Stale safety online training content could lead to expensive penalties if you’re audited.
5. Including Text Walls In Your eLearning Course Design
There’s really no room for lengthy text
blocks in any online training course. However, they can be particularly
hindersome in safety online training. Employees usually see a wall of
text and immediately switch off. Those who do make an attempt typically
suffer from cognitive overload, meaning that they are unable to
assimilate the information. Furthermore, text blocks aren’t the most
interactive or engaging approach. For this reason, it’s best to
incorporate multimedia elements that improve content comprehension and
knowledge retention. Video demos, online training tutorials, and serious
games allow employees to get the information they need without boring
them to tears. They also help to outsmart the forgetting curve by
rooting visual reminders into corporate learners’ mental schema.
6. Not Inviting Employee Feedback
Most people avoid criticism at all costs.
They don’t like to hear that their online training course is inadequate
or dull. As a result, these individuals don’t solicit feedback from
their target audience and simply choose to remain in the dark about
their areas for improvement. However, employee feedback gives you the
ability to adjust your approach and develop more personalized online
training resources. Conduct online surveys, polls, interviews, and focus
groups to get employee input. Online assessments are also a great way
to gather concrete data that you can use to improve your online training
strategy. For example, a high percentage of your employees are unable
to pass the workplace hazard exam. This indicates that the related
online training modules or activities require a closer look. You may
need to incorporate more real-world interactivity or break up the text
blocks.
7. Mistaking ‘Mandatory’ For ‘Memorable’
The fact that safety online training is
mandatory for employees doesn’t make it more memorable or engaging. It’s
true that most people understand the significance of safety online
training. But do they remember everything they learned, or simply brush
it off as obligatory training they’ll never use? You have to create
engaging safety online training courses that capture their attention and
help employees relate to the situation. For example, include real-world
examples or stories that create an emotional connection.
8. Missing Out On Mistake-Driven Learning Opportunities
The time for employees to make mistakes is
during online training, not in the middle of a busy work day when it
risks the safety of their co-workers or puts customers in danger.
Incorporate online training simulations and branching scenarios that
give employees the chance to learn from their mistakes and highlight
knowledge gaps. Mistake-driven learning
also involves immediate feedback. Identify areas for improvement and
provide employees with additional online training resources they need to
fill the gap.
Safety online training is essential for
every industry and job title. Even positions that may not seem hazardous
involve some degree of risk. For example, customer service associates
should know the protocols for evacuating the building in the event of a
fire. As such, you can use these 8 tips to keep every member of your
team safe and secure in the workplace.
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