A best practice guide to reducing risk and ensuring compliance.
$167 billion.
According to the US’s National Safety Council, this was the approximate total cost of workplace deaths and injuries to the US in 2022 (including both employers and individuals).
In the same year, 108,000,000 days were lost due to work-related injuries.
These are sobering statistics that paint a bleak picture of workplace risk. Not to mention the incalculable human cost.
The good news? With the right workplace health and safety training, your organization can reduce risk and protect your employees.
The first step to mitigating workplace risk is comprehensive health and safety training.
The consequences of a lack of safety training can be devasting.
In August 2020 an employee of an electrical services company died after a falling from a ladder while working on lighting fixtures. The power to the fixtures had not been turned off and the employee experienced an electric shock, after which he fell from the ladder and struck his head.
The OSHA investigation found that the employee had not been properly trained in hazardous electrical work.
In another case, well known confectionary manufacturer Hostess Brands faces a fine of up $298,000 following an incident in which an employee suffered the amputation of a fingertip in December 2022.
OSHA investigated and found the employer did not train workers on lockout/tagout procedures.
Common safety training challenges
There are challenges that come along with providing high-quality safety training. Many employers still rely on established manual systems to ensure safety training compliance, which can limit opportunities for improvement.
#1 Not integrating EHS and LMS software
Many organizations keep their EHS and LMS (Learning Management System) separate. This makes it difficult to assess whether training programs are making an impact and reducing safety events.
Separate systems also make it difficult for management to identify possible knowledge gaps. This can lead to training programs that do not fit the current needs of employees and that don’t address the specifics risks they face.
Finally, the administrative burden of disparate systems is a significant pain point for employers. Time spent on reconciling data and manually managing training programs can lead to increased costs, especially for organizations with dispersed workforces.
#2 Maintaining training standards for the entire organization
Manual systems leave little room for adapting to constantly changing safety standards and protocols. This is even more apparent in businesses with operations in several locations, both domestic and international.
Ensuring contractor safety training is up to scratch is made more onerous by having to manually follow up about documentation and records. This can cause significant delays in contractor onboarding and the commencement of work.
Relying on manual systems can also limit the scope and style of training that organizations offer employees. For example, keeping track of blended learning (classroom and e-learning) could lead to duplication of work as management must track progress over 2 different systems.
#3 Showing training compliance
As traditional training management systems tend to be paper based, there is the requirement for tracking and storing physical records.
Examples can include attendance records, proof of certification (for forklift driving, working at height, DOL/OSHA card etc), evidence of updated training, date of training expiration, and many more.
Keeping track of these records is vital, particularly if an incident occurs and the investigation requires proof of training compliance. Management also must keep up with training expiration dates and arrange for refresher training.
This is a time-consuming task for training managers, involving potentially thousands of documents in multiple locations.
How can organizations mitigate the risk posed by these challenges? By utilizing best practice measures when managing employee training.
Best practices for workplace safety training
We asked some of EcoOnlines training and learning experts for their advice on implementing successful EHS training programs. When making the move to software, it’s important to assess the following:
#1 Select an LMS that scales quickly
Ideally, your LMS will scale with the developing needs of your business. It should be easy to roll out to employees, with easy onboarding and self-serve enrolment (depending on how your workforce is going to be trained). Your chosen LMS should be able to cope with large-scale enrolment of employees.
Your LMS needs to let you track training compliance for both direct employees and external contractors. With recordable safety incident rates typically 3 times higher for contractors, they can be at greater risk.
An LMS that scales quickly will also let you remain compliant with changing regulations and policies, while also standardizing your organizations approach to training.
#2 Prioritize employee engagement in your training
Ultimately, you want your users to actively engage with the LMS, so fulfilling training requirements becomes less of a chore.
When choosing an LMS, it’s important that you are aware of what the end-user experience will be like. Is the software easy to navigate? Can it be accessed via mobile for employees to complete at their convenience?
The format of training that is provided is also key. Multi-modal learning (videos, quizzes, real-world scenarios) encourages engagement with subject matter. Classroom-based lectures aren’t effective for every training course, so it’s best to have a wide range of possibilities.
#3 Integrate your EHS and LMS
Integrating your EHS and LMS gives you a much greater understanding of training impact. You can view training metrics alongside incident reports, safety observations, audits, and hazard assessments.
This is especially useful in judging the effectiveness of your training courses. For example, by analyzing training completion rates and performance data against incident and near-miss trends, you can identify potential areas of improvement.
This level of oversight means that you can proactively re-assess your training content, rather than reacting after an incident has occurred. It also makes it easier to provide training relevant to employee’s day to day tasks, as you have a full understanding of the risks they face.
#4 Keep a detailed audit trail
Your chosen LMS should track training progress and completion for every employee. Crucially, it should be able to notify managers when training has expired or has not been completed – before an employee steps onto a worksite.
An LMS that can assign and manage actions means that employee training is less likely to slip through the cracks, whether on an individual or organizational level.
Having all training documentation stored in one central location makes proving compliance much simpler for training administrators, particularly in large organizations.
Conclusion
In this post, we have seen that manual systems create unnecessary risks. The right LMS eliminates compliance headaches, reduces incidents, and keeps your workforce safe.
EcoOnlines LMS gives you complete control over the safety training process. Available in 22 languages, it easily integrates with our EHS platform to deliver training tailored to your employee’s needs.
About the author
Laura Fitzgerald
Content Marketing Manager
Laura Fitzgerald is a Content Marketing Manager with EcoOnline. She has been writing about health and safety topics since 2017, with a focus on the areas of improving employee safety engagement and EHS legislation.
