EBOOK | 10 MINUTE READ
Building a Successful Safety Training Program for Your Workforce
Are you looking to build a successful safety training program for your workforce?
Engaging workers who aren’t tied to regular means of communication, whether email, phone or messaging platforms, is difficult. Take that one step further to ensure their health and safety, and most organizations find themselves in a jam.
This guide shares HOW to build an engaged workforce through a well-rounded and blended approach to safety training that fits with the changing market.
Turn training into something your workforce actually uses
Get the guide to build a program that sticks and drives real behavior change.
How To Deliver Impactful Training: Switch to Learning "In The Moment"
We all know that feeling. The one where you’re deeply engaged in whatever you’re doing, you’re absorbing new information and making use of it right away. But did you know this approach can be utilized and integrated into your health and safety learning programs to reduce incidents and improve compliance?
Learning and development expert Josh Bersin first officially coined the phrase “in the flow” in 2018 as he developed a new model for corporate training, while Andy Lancaster also referenced it in a discussion about “learning in the moment” in his book about driving performance and developing employees through effective workplace learning. The key for both men was clear, the best learning happens in the moment.
It’s clear people really resonate with learning in the moment compared to traditional methods, but why? Traditional class-based learning, which is still used by many businesses today, puts people in a passive role where they learn about theory, rather than in practice.
Research points to experiential learning as the most effective means to train and learn. By this we mean that hands-on training that applies directly to the work being performed is retained, while last week’s conference is largely forgotten.
The Importance of Worker-Led Learning
In addition to learning in the moment, making information bite-sized and relevant by showing it at the right time is also critical to absorbing and learning. New information, skills and resources should be worker, rather than business focused. What do we mean by this? It’s simple: give workers the instructions and resources precisely when they need it, not when it suits a business.
Making Health & Safety Training More Accessible
For health and safety training, using methods that means new information, processes and behaviors stick is crucial. Making your workforce aware of health and safety is one thing, but for them to absorb vital information and be able to apply it in practice instantly is just as, if not more, important.
This is why accessible training can be applied successfully to health and safety programs. For example, if you learn about lockout tag out procedures in the first week on the job, then go to use them six months later, you may not recall that specific training. Whereas if you have access to a QR code and a brief refresher video, you can access timely content that is consumable, can trigger the memory and help mitigate risk right away.
In short, it’s all about giving your frontline workers the ability to extract the information they need, when they need it, and without interrupting their process. The result? Huge improvements in performance and valuable learning experiences that they’ll remember.
Want to learn more?
Download our guide to start delivering safety training that’s timely, relevant and effective.
FAQ
Why is safety training important if we already meet compliance requirements?
Compliance training covers baseline requirements, but it does not guarantee engagement or behavior change. Programs that treat training as a box-ticking exercise often miss the opportunity to build proactive habits, reduce risk and strengthen safety culture over time.
How do you engage deskless or frontline workers in safety training?
Many frontline workers are not tied to email or traditional communication channels, so training needs to meet them where they are. Mobile delivery, short formats and worksite-relevant content make it easier to reach workers consistently and support learning on the job.
What is microlearning, and why does it work for safety training?
Microlearning uses bite-sized content that workers can complete quickly, often on mobile devices. It reduces mental fatigue, fits into real schedules and can improve retention by breaking information into smaller segments that are easier to recall and apply.
How can EHS teams make safety training more relevant to the worksite?
Relevance improves when training reflects the actual environment, equipment, tasks and risks workers face. Site-specific examples, role-based learning and hands-on practice reduce disengagement and improve the likelihood that workers apply what they learned.
How do you know if safety training is working?
Look beyond completions and assess whether workers can demonstrate the behaviors and decisions the training was designed to improve. Follow-up observations by supervisors help verify effectiveness and identify where additional coaching or refreshed learning is needed.
How can safety training support change management?
Training helps workers understand what is changing, why it matters and how to operate safely within new processes. When learning is ongoing and reinforced in the flow of work, it can reduce confusion, improve adoption and strengthen consistency during transitions.
