More than 100 of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) current standards require employers to provide training to their employees. The health and safety training is designed to help employees learn how to identify and respond to workplace hazards. In turn, training programs are aimed at preventing work-related injuries and illnesses, as well as empowering workers to advocate for safer working conditions.

According to OSHA, effective training should teach participants:

• How to identify the safety and health problems at their workplace
• How to analyze the causes of these safety and health problems
• How to bring about safer, healthier workplaces
• How to involve their co-workers in accomplishing all of the above.

To attain these goals, employee training must not only be conducted when recommended but presented and performed in an effective manner. To help you improve your training sessions' efficacy, keep these best practices in mind the next time you present training materials to a group. The best training programs are:

• Accurate: First and foremost, training programs must provide participants with accurate information. Training materials should be prepared, updated and facilitated by qualified and experienced individuals.
• Credible: In order for a training attendee to take the information seriously, a credible source must provide it. Make sure training is facilitated by someone with a background in safety and health or who is a subject Smatter expert in a health or safety-related field.
• Clear: No matter how accurate the information or believable the source, it would fall on deaf ears if not presented in a clear manner. To make sure everyone can understand the programming, avoid using industry jargon or overly complicated language. Training materials and presentations should also be tailored to meet the language requirements of everyone in the group.
• Practical: Every participant should walk away from the training program with information and ideas they will find helpful and relevant to their working lives. Whenever possible, facilitators should connect theoretical explanations to workplace applications.

For more tips on how to conduct effective workplace safety training, contact Safety Advantage today.