Health and safety is a big part of any modern company. Most businesses now have a rigorous induction procedure that includes teaching people about staying safe in the workplace, and spot checks are usually done on a regular basis. However, health and safety rules change all the time, and you’ll need to stay up to date with things in order to be compliant with new rules. That’s why ongoing training is so important, and it’s often worth taking staff off the floor for a couple of hours now and then to top up their training. But how do you ensure this is interesting and relevant to them? Here are a few tips to help make the training process more fun for staff.
Do Short Sessions Where Possible
Many companies do safety training days where a mixture of new staff and long term employees sit in a classroom and learn about health and safety for the day. The advantage of this is that they get all their information in one go, and it’s easier to organise. However, the human mind isn’t really designed to take on so much information at once. If possible, try to break the training down into smaller sessions so people are more likely to absorb the facts. Your employees will thank you, and trainers will find it easier to keep people’s attention.
Allow Them To Study At Home
If you want to ensure minimal disruption by training time, then consider letting people study at home. You can have Take 5 books printed for your procedures, and then have a simple test to make sure the information is absorbed. Many people prefer to study independently but with a bit of backup, and having information printed into books makes it easier to read.
Keep Things Fun
Mandated safety training isn’t the most interesting thing in the world, and so adding some fun elements is essential. You could:
- Show DVDs
- Have short quizzes
- Do some group tasks
- Use visuals such as a presentation
- Book a professional trainer
This will help you to keep people’s attention, which makes it more likely they’ll remember things. The average attention span for a person is very low, some say as little as 20 minutes, so make sure you mix up your tasks and don’t just have a person giving a long lecture.
Safety training is mandatory for many businesses, and while it can feel like an inconvenience, it’s actually a very important part of training in general. It doesn’t have to be a day of boring speeches, there’s a lot you can do to make things more fun and engaging, and staff will no doubt be relieved that you’ve taken the time to make things more interesting. There are also options like having staff study at home, which for some people is a much better way to absorb information. Whatever you decide, try to keep things interesting and relevant, and make sure employees have the most up to date information.