Designing Digitally
04/10/2018
Workplace safety is of extreme importance for all organizations. Any illness or accident in the workplace can cause damage to the brand image of a company as well as affect employee morale. In the US, employers need to cough up roughly around $1 billion per week in worker’s compensation costs. With the increase in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) penalties, no organization can afford to take workplace safety lightly. It is not that organizations are not serious about safety training, as they do put in enough effort to organize these trainings. The challenge is to ensure that the employees retain the knowledge they learned during the training.
A good safety training must teach the skills and knowledge required to avoid any risky situation and complete the work safely. It should highlight the correct methods to report and control workplace hazards. If required, it should include training tips for employees whose duties include special risks and challenges.
OSHA has identified the construction and manufacturing sectors as high hazard industries. That makes it mandatory for the organizations in this sector to have safety training for their employees. But every industry needs to have some form of safety training and ensure that it is updated regularly based on changes. Introducing gamification to regular drab content is a great way to enhance knowledge retention for these learners. Business simulations are also user-friendly and effective. The American Red Cross has taken a leap ahead and is providing their students simulated training for their First Aid courses, allowing emulated learning to help the learners bolster their existing knowledge.
Here are some advantages that simulated safety training offers both to organizations and employees.
Online training has no restrictions in terms of time and place as it is available to all your employees 24/7. They can access it anytime they want and from anywhere. This means that they do not have to take time off from their work to attend training and then stretch to finish their work. They can learn whenever they want to during their free time or at the point-of-need. When learners are given a choice to learn at their pace, they are happier people as they feel in control and are more invested in the course. They can choose the topics that are more important to them, giving more focus on the subject matter.
Custom simulated training are much more engaging than PowerPoint slides. They make use of real-world scenarios that help learners identify with their work. The use of graphics and audio takes the learners to a virtual environment and keeps them immersed in the course. They experience the learning firsthand instead of just sitting and listening to the instructor explain concepts. When your employees learn by doing, they tend to remember it better and apply it to similar situations day to day.
All actions happen in a controlled virtual environment. That means there are no real-world damages associated with the mistakes made by the learners. Your employees can have unlimited attempts at mastering a topic and make mistakes while doing so. Simulated training allows the learners to test their skills repeatedly, at their own pace, and without hesitation that a classroom environment can cause. Learners have the option to make mistakes in a low-pressure setting and then learn from them. When they have to perform the task in real-life they are not intimidated because they have done it before and can recall the learning.
It is important to standardize training material in sectors that provide importance to safety. All your employees should be exposed to the training so the information should not vary from one employee to the next. That also means that the same training material must often cater to your employees all over the world. According to OSHA, the training needs to be in a language that the learner is most comfortable with, so you may need to translate it into numerous languages. This will make it easy to meet the linguistic needs of your workforce with online training.
Here at Designing Digitally, our realistic custom built Training Simulations are the perfect way to immerse your learners and teach skilled procedures that are too dangerous or costly to perform. Learners can practice in a safe environment and gain confidence without the fear of substantial consequences. We create each custom Training Simulation to emulate the exact scenario or situation the learners would experience in the real world. Offering 3D or 2D simulations will give you a substantial advantage in engaging and educating your learners.
Get in touch with our team to discuss ways we can make your organization safer through training simulations.
We bring a personal and effective approach to every project we work on.
