30 May Getting creative with employee training
Does having safe operating procedures in your workplace equal engagement and understanding by your employees?
I wish the answer was yes, but it’s definitely not.
It is recommended (but not a legal requirement) for a business to have documented processes and procedures about how they are to safely use equipment, machinery, chemicals, and handle situations. By documenting this, this helps ensure consistency with process and product, and that safety measures are undertaken by everyone.
A business must (legally) also train staff on these processes and procedures. This is the most important part, as how can we use this documentation to best engage and train staff?
You must consider learning styles and literacy. No two employees are the same. Some learn through words on paper, some need to recreate a situation to learn. And when we consider literacy amongst working adults, other options for learning must be considered.
Complementary employee training options
Have you considered using any of the following in your training?
- Whiteboards
- Magnets – use these to describe situations, allowing employees to move the magnets around to show the best way of doing something
- Recreating real situations – without using the equipment/machinery/chemical
- Recreating real situations – using the equipment/machinery/chemical
- Videos
- Images and flowcharts
- Quizzes
Health and safety and employee training doesn’t have to be boring – work out what your staff responds to best.
We have a client that uses quizzes on iAuditor, as they can add images into the quiz and have a printable record too of the results. A great way to also analyze which questions staff regularly get wrong.
How often should I train staff on SOPs?
It is best to undertake employee training on SOPs before they use the equipment, monitor this learning, and then revisit if an accident, incident, or non-conformance occurs regarding this equipment.
Please contact us if you wish to discuss this further.