A critical element of every environmental health and safety (EHS) program, and one that company executives expect from their EHS managers, is the development and delivery of training courses. Meeting this expectation in today's resource-constrained, outsourced world is a challenge for even the most proficient of EHS professionals. It's especially daunting for training coordinators whose responsibilities are not limited to the realm of EHS. This article outlines six steps to help you implement a new training program or jumpstart an existing one.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Training Needs

The first step in designing a comprehensive, affordable and efficient training program is to complete a Training Needs Assessment. This involves evaluating the risks associated with the various job categories and/or tasks performed at your operation. The most effective tool available to the training coordinator is the JHA, or job hazards analysis (an assessment of the hazards and controls needed for a worker's job description).

Whether determined through the JHA or other means, training requirements specified by regulations, codes and standards must be considered. Unless the operation has a training coordinator knowledgeable in EHS hazards and controls, OSHA, EPA, DOT and related government agencies and industry organizations, this step is often challenging. In the absence of this resource your options are to:

• Use online search capabilities to find applicable information;

• Use knowledgeable personnel (internal or outsourced resources); or

• Obtain EHS training content development and enrollment implementation services from an outside provider on a contract basis.

Each option grows increasingly more expensive in up-front costs. However, when the solutions are comprehensive, consolidated and blended between computer-based and instructor-led learning, cost-effectiveness improves. By combining an appropriate set of classes with an effective training method, both learning time and training are optimized.

Regardless of which option you choose, your training requirements must meet the needs of your target audiences. The training coordinator can use JHA and regulatory requirements to match the correct safety topics to affected populations. To ensure that the appropriate population is identified, the coordinator should work with area managers to carefully match the audience with the curriculum. That's the easy part. Tracking the training requirements against completion rates (also known as training penetration) can be an ongoing and time-intensive challenge. Again, this can be done in-house with a spreadsheet, hired out to systems analysts or managed through an online learning management system. Likewise, the costs of these options vary greatly and will increase as technology-based solutions are used.

Step 2: Develop Course Content

The next step is developing and organizing the training program. Ideally, course offerings should be organized so that employees encountering similar hazards are provided the same training "package." For example, office workers typically need ergonomics, evacuation and emergency procedures, and an overview of the hazards at their work location. In contrast, a manufacturing employee has different ergonomic risks but similar evacuation and emergency training needs. They may also require additional training such as controls for chemical and electrical hazards in their work. Here you will find the best opportunity for productivity gains through the creation of comprehensive and consolidated course bundles designed for learning efficiency.

A list of your operation's EHS training courses should be cross-referenced against personnel job classifications to identify consolidation opportunities. This process is iterative and must be periodically reviewed to monitor business, workforce and hazard changes that would possibly impact the combination of classes.

Step 3: Select the Best Training Method(s)

Based on the demographics of the audience, the training coordinator must determine which of the following three methods will be the most effective in delivering EHS training.

• Classroom training;

• Online computer-based training; or

• Blended learning of classroom and online training.

The upfront costs of classroom training are the lowest of the three methods because once the class materials are developed they can be easily modified with updates and revisions. In addition, the instructor is usually the subject matter expert and the amount of preparation time per hour of instruction is generally pretty low (it may range from 2 to 8 hours of preparation per hour of instruction). This method does have long-term recurring costs for instructors and classroom facilities. You also need to consider the longer instruction time per student, the difficulty of scheduling around production demands and in the case of dispersed workforces, (e.g., field personnel), very high travel costs.

Online training reduces long-term costs and increases overall enterprise productivity because each student logs on at a time convenient to his or her work schedule. In addition, it generally involves only half of the time otherwise spent in classrooms. Furthermore, if the courses are designed properly, with interactions that make the learner think during the training, the learning experience can be of a higher quality than a classroom lecture. Online training is expensive to develop, though, and requires specialized programming skills to perform updates and revisions.

Another option is blended learning, which combines online training for knowledge-based learning and classroom training for skills development courses. Blended learning offers two key advantages: Its effective use of time and the improvement of overall student comprehension and retention. The awareness level components can be easily and effectively performed online, bringing all the students to a common knowledge level. Then skills can be covered in interactive classroom or practical settings. For example, if you are training personnel in emergency response, you could cover basics about chemicals, incident command, PPE and so on through eLearning. Then when all the learners have covered the "general education" elements, they can learn the skills of actually using PPE, detection, cleanup and decontamination equipment in hands-on, classroom and practical settings.

It's always best to run pilot courses for all newly developed material, whether they are classroom or computer-based. Feedback from pilot audiences provides the training coordinator with valuable information on clarity of the message as well as effectiveness of the delivery. If pilot classes cannot be conducted, make sure that course evaluations of the initial classes are carefully monitored for critical feedback.

Conclusion

Assessing your facility's training needs, developing the content and selecting the training methods is only half the battle. Next week, we'll look at your three remaining steps to a successful EHS training program.

"Six Steps to Developing a Successful EHS Training Program" is reprinted with permission from Priority Press, an EORM, Inc. publication and was originally published in March 2006.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 25, 1955

Udall Tornado, May 25, 1955.

On May 25, 1955, the small town of Udall, Kansas was leveled by the deadliest tornado ever to hit the state. The F5 tornado destroyed almost every home in Udall; nearly half of the families in the town lost at least one family member in the disaster. According to the City of Udall's website, 170 homes were destroyed, 270 people were injured and a patch now worn by the Udall Police has 83 stars - one for each life lost in the tornado.

The tornado occurred in the early days of the Storm Prediction Center and there is some discussion over whether or not the town received sufficient warning of the tornado. As one survivor put it, "The first warning we had was the noise."

TORNADO SAFETY

According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, approximately 1,000 storms are reported each year in the United States. And some tornadoes do occur without a tornado warning. Here are some signs of a tornado that you can watch for:

• Strong rotation in a cloud base
• Whirling dust or debris on the ground, beneath a cloud base
• Heavy precipitation followed by either calm or an intense wind shift
• Loud and continuous roar, which, unlike thunder, doesn't fade in a few seconds
• At night, small and bright flashes at ground level instead of in the clouds. These could be power lines being snapped by a strong wind.

5 Tornado Safety Tips

1. Get to the basement, lower floor, under a stairwell or into an interior room
2. Avoid windows
3. If possible, try to position yourself so that you are not below heavy objects (appliances, piano, etc.) on a floor above you, which might fall through a weakened floor
4. Use a blanket, sleeping bag or mattress to protect yourself from flying debris
5. If you're driving, safely park your car and get to a building. If you can't get to a building, lie flat and face down in low ground and stay far from cars or trees.

UPCOMING EVENT

Building a Sustainable Ergonomics Program Workshop

(Special Rate for SafetyXChange Members is $395 if registration is received by May 30)

EORM is once again presenting the Building a Sustainable Ergonomics Program Workshop, led by Scott Smith, June 7-8 in Newport Beach, CA.

This two-day workshop gives you the proven strategies and tools necessary to build a successful and sustainable ergonomics program. Course study provides you with innovative tools, methods and tactics to objectively quantify ergonomic risk factors, calculate operational efficiency gains of ergonomic solutions, and develop customized business cases for ergonomic improvement projects.

Recent attendees rated the November 2006 Northern California workshop as "excellent" - here's what they said:

"One of the better courses I have attended over my career."

"Thank you for sharing so many great ergonomics tools."

"Very good class.  Lots of useful information and practice activities."

"Scott Smith is an awesome presenter - would like to see more ergo training by him."

"It was gratifying to attend a seminar that didn't repeat what every other seminar offers on ergonomics."

Earn Continuing Education Credits!

The Building a Sustainable Ergonomics Program Workshop has been approved for 2 certification maintenance (CM) points through the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH). Attendees will receive a certificate with the ABIH approval code upon course completion.

The course also earns 1.0 Continuance of Certification (COC) as allowed by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and 8.0 COCs from the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE).

Certificates of completion will be provided at the conclusion of the workshop

Registration

• Register using either of the following methods:
• Register online now!
• Call 800.648.1506 and reference the Ergo Workshop
• Complete the form and include it with your check (payable to EORM) or credit card information and mail it to:Ergo Workshop
  EORM, Inc.
  283 East Java Drive
  Sunnyvale, CA 94089
• Fax the completed form to 408.822.8001

Don't forget to mention that you're a SafetyXChange member to get your special rate. (Note: Special rate is available only to SafetyXChange members who have not yet registered for the workshop.)

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