Trainers should be "competent" in developing and implementing the various elements of a safety training program.
Trainers can gain competency by achieving an appropriate level of technical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) in the subjects they teach. They can gain these skills through training, continuing education and, of course, on the job experience.
Trainers should be:
It's important to document trainer competency by maintaining course completion certificates, experience records, licensing, and other documents. The methods used to document trainer competency is left to the discretion of the employer.
Instructors should be deemed competent on the basis of the criteria below:
OSHA rule 1910.120(e)(5) Qualifications for trainers: Trainers shall be qualified to instruct employees about the subject matter presented in training. Such trainers shall have satisfactorily completed a training program (train-the-trainer) for teaching the subjects they are expected to teach, or they shall have the academic credentials and instructional experience necessary for teaching the subjects. Instructors shall demonstrate competent instructional skills and knowledge of the applicable subject matter.
Instructors should be required to maintain professional competency by participating in continuing education or professional development programs or by successfully completing an annual refresher course and having an annual review by a training director or other competent manager.
The annual review should include an observation of the instructor's delivery, a review of those observations with the trainer, and an analysis of student evaluations during the previous year.
Source: 1910.120 App E, Training Curriculum Guidelines - (Non-mandatory)
First-line supervisors and managers play a crucial role in safety and health protection because of their responsibility for workers and the work being performed. Effective training of supervisors and managers will address their safety and health management responsibilities as well as information on hazards identification, hazard prevention, and response to emergencies. Although they may have other safety and health responsibilities, supervisors and managers should be fully involved in training safety to send messages of strong personal leadership to employees.
Bottom line: Only if supervisors have adequate knowledge, skills, and abilities (SKAs) needed to train safety requirements, can they effectively supervise for compliance with those safety requirements.
Throughout the rest of this module, we will discuss the various principles and best practices of developing safety instruction and hands-on training. For a more complete discussion, see OSHAcademy courses 721 Developing Safety Training and 723 Conducting Safety Training.
The first step in the safety training development process is a basic one; ask questions to determine if training can solve a problem. Whenever employees do not perform their jobs safely, we might assume training will bring them up to standard. However, training may not actually be the solution.
Let's say supervisors in the maintenance department come to you and complain that their employees are not using safe work procedures. Your first assumption might be that they need training. Don't just roll over and agree with that assumption. It is possible that the supervisors may need to accomplish one or more of the following non-training strategies to help make sure their employees use safe procedures:
Who knows, maybe the supervisors, themselves, need the training! Let's not always assume employee safety training is the solution for unsafe behavior.
Check out the online decision-tree checklist exercise at the end of this module to ask the right questions if someone requests safety training. You can download a similar checklist (pdf) to help you determine if training is the answer to a performance problem.
If the problem can be solved in whole or in part by training, the next step is to determine what training is needed. For this, it is necessary to identify what the employee is expected to do and in what ways, if any, the employee's performance is deficient.
When designing a new training program, or preparing to instruct an employee in an unfamiliar procedure or system, a job hazard analysis can be developed by examining engineering data on new equipment or the safety data sheets on unfamiliar substances. The content of the specific OSHA standards applicable to a business can also provide direction in developing training content.
If learning needs can be met by revising an existing training program rather than developing a new one, or if employees already have some knowledge of the process or system to be used, appropriate training content can be developed through such means as:
Employees can provide valuable information on the training they need. Employee responses to the following can help identify safety and health hazards:
Some organizations consider the safety and health function as a human resource or staff responsibility. They fail to understand safety as an integrated part of overall operations (production or service). Even worse, they believe safety education is not required for line managers because it's not a "line" responsibility: it's a "staff" function. Consequently, some employers may not adequately educate managers about general safety and health concepts and how to apply them in the workplace.
Managers who understand both the manner and the extent to which effective safety and health protection impacts the overall effectiveness of the business itself are far more likely to ensure that the necessary safety and health management programs are designed and performed well.
First-line supervisors play a critical role in safety and health protection because of their first-line responsibility for workers and for the work their employees perform. Effective training of supervisors will address their safety and health responsibilities as well as information on hazards, hazard prevention, and response to emergencies. Click the button below to see a short list of topics for supervisor safety training.
One of the most important, yet for some, the most challenging activities in the training process is writing clear-cut, competency-based learning objectives that describe what the learner will be able to do at the end of the training session. Some trainers believe goals and objectives are the same things; not so. Let's take a look.
A goal is nothing more than a wish. We've all stated goals like, "I wish I could lose some weight," from time to time. Goals are broad in the sense that they state general intentions. They are not specific enough to be measured. There are two basic types of goals:
Objectives are much more specific than goals. Objectives state observable measurable outcomes describing what we do and how well we do it.
Writing learning objectives is required by ANSI Z490.1 guidelines when hazardous procedures and practices are taught. Virtually all technical safety training involves testing.
Once the objectives for the training are precisely stated, then learning activities can be identified and described. Remember, when OSHA uses the terms "demonstrate" in their standards, the intent is that employees must be able to prove they can do something by actually doing it in the learning environment. This means you'll need to include a "hands-on" learning activity to show employees how to do things. It also means you'll need to give them a chance to practice.
You now know what subjects you're going to present, but which presentation strategy will work best for you? Click on the button below to review a number of training presentation strategies.
No matter the training strategy used, it is essential to ensure employees get practice before being exposed to actual hazards in the work environment. Some of the key requirements are stated or implied in OSHA rules. Three of the most important are:
The employer needs to keep complete and accurate records of all safety and health training by the provider (like OSHAcademy) because more than 100 OSHA Standards require it. It's also recommended by ANSI Z490.1. Here are just a few reasons why strong documentation is important:
If a class or safety meeting presents general information related to safety, an attendance roster will likely satisfy documentation requirements. If a class or safety meeting includes testing, document the results.
When safety training requires employees to demonstrate adequate knowledge, skills, and ability to perform hazardous tasks or procedures, an attendance roster may not be legally sufficient to document the training.
Technical safety instruction and training should include written certification. This involves issuing a certificate of competency or qualification. Click on the button to see the recommended information to include in a written training certification.
Written training certification should include:
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