Enhancing Your Training Sessions

Many safety training sessions are like watching a cluster of snails move across a deck—it feels like there’s a lot of ground to cover and you’re not sure if everyone will make it to the end. And yet, making a safety training and information session can actually be a fun experience! If you generate a plan with an outline, you will find that it is much easier to make sure that you are covering all of the different hazards in your workplace. One of the best ways to jump into this project is to make a list (or several lists) of the specific information that you want to cover in your presentation.

First and foremost, you will want to identify the different fall and safety hazards that your employees will potentially experience while they are in the workplace. This list will be the base of your entire training session. Once you have a clear understanding of the hazards that you need to address, you can then identify what kinds of protective equipment need to be used.

After you have a specific list of what equipment employees will be using, you can discuss how to use that equipment and how to take care of it. Remember: any kind of safety equipment is only effective when it is used and maintained properly. And finally, you will want to familiarize yourself and your audience with the internal procedure for reporting any accidents or issues with the equipment. By encouraging employees to report problems, you will have a documented history of the quality of the safety equipment. These reports are often a positive contribution to equipment quality control.      

Once you have these lists of information developed, you will be more organized as you create visual aids for the training session. One of the most common ways to translate such information is to use a PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint can be an effective way to create simple, visually appealing presentations that condense large amounts of information into manageable portions. PowerPoint presentations are also useful because they can be printed out and turned into a supplemental handout where people can jot down notes and questions during your presentation.

If you decide to go the route of using PowerPoint, there are a few things that you should consider as you are making your slides.  First and foremost, try to avoid putting too much text on any of the slides. Your audience can’t read a small novel and listen to the things you’re saying at the same time. So, make sure that the slides use simple phrases that clearly identify the key points you are trying to make. And make sure that the font you choose is visible on the background that you choose. A bright font color that clashes with the colors on the background of a PowerPoint slide can cause eye strain and audience disengagement. Choose your colors wisely.  And finally, if you’re going to include pictures or video clips from the Internet, make sure that they are synced properly with your presentation and that they are of high enough quality that they will not get blurry if you expand the window or image size. 

If you decide to use a video as part of your training course, it is always a wise idea to sample the videos to ensure that they cover a majority of the topics that you want to discuss in your training session. Once again, you want to make sure that the quality of the video is reasonable and allows people to stay interested and focused on what is being discussed. At its core, the video needs to address hazards in your work environment, and the video needs to strike a chord with the employees. Although it may look classy to have a safety video that opens with a narrator sitting in an arm chair and swirling a snifter of brandy, your employees may not be able to connect with that personality. Make sure that the subject matter and style of the video matches the workplace. 

And finally, if you think it will be helpful to other people, consider making a handout for everyone who attends the training session. It’s generally beneficial for people to have a physical copy of safety information so that they can refer to it as needed after the training session is over.

There are many wonderful resources available on the Internet for safety managers who are trying to develop a cohesive safety training program for their employees. This blog is merely scraping the surface of all of the potential styles and methods that can be applied to creating a fully functional training program.  Feel free to explore other options and find the presentation style that best suits your facility needs and your personal style of teaching. 

In short, you want to make sure that your safety presentation identifies the following information:
• The specific dangers and hazards in the workplace and where they are located
• The equipment that will be needed for protection
• The appropriate use and care of that protective equipment
• How to properly report any issues with the equipment

As always, thanks for reading and stay safe up there!