Developing and delivering a training course is an essential component of the typical environmental, health and safety program. It's also one of a safety professional's more daunting tasks. Last week, I outlined the first three steps you should take to get your training program started: Evaluating your training needs, developing course content and selecting an appropriate training method. Now let's look at the three remaining steps.

Step 4: Publicize Your Courses

Although you may have created the best, most comprehensive training courses, if people don't register and attend, your program will fail. Thus, it's critical to:

• Communicate the training schedule;
• Provide a list of course offerings;
• Outline requirements and pre-requisites; and
• Provide course descriptions.

You should be able to e-mail the information to a distribution list if you're with a small organization. If you come from a larger organization, consider using websites, intranet or a learning management system. In any case, be sure to send registrants enrollment confirmation and regular reminders before training occurs.

Step 5: Measure Effectiveness

You should implement an evaluation system to gather regular feedback on the course so you can make continual improvements to it. The training coordinator needs to collect data regarding the penetration and effectiveness of training. Communicating this data to management is also important not only in maximizing enrollment but in ensuring that supervisors and managers reinforce the training material in actual work situations. Focus on only a few key program areas to ensure that your message is clear and concise and that it does not overwhelm management.

Ideally, training course content should be correlated to changes in employee behavior that improve overall performance, for example:

• Increases in personal protective equipment use;
• Reduction in ergonomic injuries; or
• Growth in recycling with associated decline in solid waste generation.

Step 6: Review and Improve

Once the training program is underway, training coordinators must coordinate time intervals with workers' needs, including recertification requirements. Some regulatory programs define how often training must be provided to maintain certification; others specify competency expectation; and still others give no guidance. The onus is on the organization to ensure employees know and follow requirements.

Therefore, it falls to the training coordinator to decide what fits the business needs and employee turnover rate. The coordinator should also periodically evaluate training requirements and business changes to ensure training is up-to-date and comprehensive. Continuous improvement to the established process determines whether the EHS training budget is adequate for the business goals and demonstrates program efficiency.

Conclusion

Today's world demands that all programs run with an efficiency and cost-effectiveness not previously seen before. Establishing and maintaining an EHS training program that follows a set process enables the training coordinator to build a comprehensive and compliant program that can be aligned with the available budget. With careful planning and execution, your EHS training programs can meet current demands for cost and effectiveness.

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

WHO SAID IT?

Quotes Quiz

Helen Keller: The mortal enemy of self-pity

By Catherine Jones

Here are five quotes about human character. See if you can match the quote with its author.

1. "Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did or not."
2. "Men's natures are all alike; it is their habits that set them apart."
3. "Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."
4. "Self pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world."
5. "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

Choices

A) Mark Twain
B) Helen Keller
C) Woody  Allen
D) Confucius
E) Oprah Winfrey

Answers

1. E; 2. D; 3. A; 4. B; 5. C.

UPCOMING EVENT

Building a Sustainable Ergonomics Program Workshop

(Special Rate of $395 for SafetyXChange Members is extended to June 1.)

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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