Get With It – Modern Safety Training Challenges & Solutions

Across the workplace will be workers from various backgrounds. Some will be more educated than others, some may not speak English as their first language, some may struggle with accents and dialects, others will have differing religious and spiritual beliefs, some will have families. Safety training needs to consider all of these various aspects.

Holding training sessions after work or at the weekends might seem like a great idea, but will be a huge struggle for those with families. If you have to hold your training sessions outside working hours, make the content available remotely so that if workers with families cannot attend they can still access the content and materials.

It’s also important to ensure that training materials are available in the first language of all employees and that a translator is hired if needed for live safety training sessions. This prevents any miscommunication or misunderstanding of critical safety issues and ensures all workers can contribute to the sessions.

Not all workers will be WHS savvy and some may struggle with terminology. All safety content should be delivered using “layman’s terms” to cater for the needs of all workers. Complimenting text with graphic depictions of safety procedures can prove helpful here too.

All safety training materials and sessions need to be in line with current regulations. Dated materials are a key contributor to compliance issues as workers are misinformed as to the legislation they should be following. As painful as it seems, the best practice is to conduct training sessions and update training materials ahead of the introduction of new regulations.

As soon as regulatory changes are announced, it’s time to take action and get updates to safety training materials scheduled in and training sessions pencilled into everyone’s diary. This prevents any panic with compliance once the regulation is introduced as everyone will be fully prepared.

Safety training is difficult if you are using several different software tools and systems for the various safety management and compliance tasks in the workplace. Keeping up to date with features and functionality across all the different tools can prove a nightmare and make delivering safety training sessions incredibly difficult.

This is why the use of integrated safety management software tools like LinkSafe helps ensure more effective safety training delivery. Using just one suite of tools from one provider, training is much more streamlined. In fact, LinkSafe’s own team can assist you with training sessions. Too many cooks spoil the broth so just stick with one suite of safety tools.

Don’t let the challenges of modern safety training deter you from your efforts. Take our tips on board and talk to our expert team if you need further advice. You’ll soon be able to design safety training materials and deliver sessions which fully deliver on your company’s safety needs.