Training is to learning as Boardwalk is to Monopoly. It isn’t the game, but it is an important piece, everybody wants to own it and it is hard to win without it.

Along the line, training became synonymous with learning, versus a step in its process, contributing to a malady of unsafe actions and behaviors. Often treated as a one-hit wonder or inoculation,
training is in need of a serious overhaul.

What is training, what is learning and how can companies increase their staff’s safety knowledge to positively impact the level of safety on current projects, as well as their safety legacy? First, it is
important to understand the overall safety picture of your company in order to evaluate a specific safety program such as fall protection.

Safety Culture.
A great place to start in understanding a worker’s safety behavior is your company’s safety culture. If this culture does not reflect or support its safety requirements, learning will not take place
or safety practiced. A company’s safety culture provides tremendous influence and value to its workers; and
• Creates buy-in to new information and plan of action;
• Is an integral part of workers’ safety value system;
• Reflects a caring, purposeful and committed culture, and;
• Connects people together and facilitates growth.

You can appraise your company’s safety culture using this barometer:
1. Identify the values of your safety culture.
2. Measure the level of teamwork to initiate or improve safety in your workplace.
3. Calculate how quickly your team accepts and implements change.
Use the following Scale of 1-5 (5 highest)
1. Values
_____ Assess Current Safety Knowledge
_____ Matches Worker Roles, Responsibilities & Management Expectations
_____ Reinforced by Management
_____ Matches Company Safety Policies & Procedures
_____ Incorporates Adult Learning Techniques
_____ Integrates Variety of Teaching Mediums
_____ Measured by Observation, Discussion and Testing
_____ Creates Desired Safety Changes, Actions & Behaviors
2. Teamwork
_____ Divisions are Represented in Introduction and/or Planning Meetings
_____ Committee Members Visit Different
Divisions to Observe
_____ Feedback from Division and Committee is Considered
_____ Management, Including Legal, Purchasing and Design Actively Participate in Safety Meetings
with Division Representatives
3. Change
_____ Information, Goals and Processes Are Clearly Outlined and Explained
_____ Staff, Resources & Deadlines are Assigned to each Safety Task
_____ Progress is Evaluated on a Frequent Basis
_____ Program is Updated Regularly until Goals are Achieved
_____ Annual Evaluation to Determine Program Effectiveness and Identify Updates to Implement

Score __________________

A frequent comment heard in training courses is the lack of upfront planning before unveiling a safety program to keep “flavor of the month” training out of the safety culture. These types of
training programs are typically a knee-jerk response — not clearly thought through, and end up negatively impacting employee morale. Training programs must provide an apparent value to the adult learner; clearly communicated and reviewing the win/win for the worker, safety program and company. It is imperative to the success of the program that the adult learner understands the relationship of the training to the safety problem and is given solid examples and evidence of how it is the appropriate solution to the problem.

Otherwise, workers become immune to these underdeveloped approaches and tend not to take safety efforts seriously since they believe the program will be changing soon. “Why should I bother to
take training seriously when I will be asked to change what I have learned in a matter of months.”

Keep in mind, students are not voicing a concern of making an effort to add to their safety knowledge or objecting to strengthening their skills, they are voicing a concern of having to learn information
not applicable or of no perceived value to the safety effort.

Their concerns/objections are validated when the safety program is scrapped and management moves on to the next “flavor.” This approach to safety only serves to lessen the credibility of everyone concerned and heightens the threat to worker safety.

Common Safety Guards
For the purposes of this article, let’s use examples relating to fall protection. The most recognized and used safeguards in fall protection safety programs are OSHA Regulations and safety equipment standards. However, the effectiveness of these safeguards is not at a desired level. How do we know?
1. Statistics and Real Life Indicators; and
2. Safety Leader Comments.

Statistics and Real Life Indicators
Information released by the Bureau of Labor reveals the highest recorded number of fatal fall injuries since 1992, occurred in 2004 while all workplace deaths rose only slightly. In addition the top three work-at-height activities with the highest fatality rates are: roofs, scaffolds and ladders.

Also, worker ages with the highest fall fatalities are: 35 – 44 years, 45 – 54 years and 25 – 34 years. This information strongly indicates training programs are not effectively transforming safety in
the workplace. Take a moment to calculate the top three work-at-height activities in your company and the ages of your workers performing these activities? How do the numbers look?

 Are your company and its workforce at a high risk level? Keep in mind the trends indicating the at-risk level of fatalities for workforce ages below 25 years may be on the rise due to lack of adequate fall protection training, fewer experienced safety mentors, downsizing of older workers and ‘bad’ safety habits perpetuating through the ranks.

Real life indicators of the need for proper and adequate fall protection training include:
• Number of hazards designed into the workplace;
• Maintenance activities performed without fall protection;
• Unidentified anchorages;
• Unsafe work practices;
• High number of non-compliance violations;
• Rising number of product liability cases;
• Number of workers not wearing or improperly wearing their fall protection equipment;
• Lack of safety language in design, construction and purchasing contracts; and
• Lack of site specific fall protection training.

An informal poll of safety professionals generated significant insights regarding fall protection specifically and safety in general.

Some of their comments include, “I am expected to provide more safety guidance without the benefit of the right training.”

“I was trained for other work responsibilities, but safety has been added on as well.”

“Our managers care, they just don’t know what it takes for our fall protection program to work so we don’t receive the right training.”

“The staff in charge of fall protection safety was only trained on equipment.”

“We use fall protection equipment instead of training to keep our people safe.”

A reoccurring theme throughout these statements is the lack of specific and adequate fall protection training for workers, supervisors and management. This trend does not appear to be generated from a lack of care, as much as, a lack of familiarity or understanding of the components of an effective fall protection program.

Lack of training has a propensity to promote a sole reliance on fall protection equipment to take care of fall protection issues. Equipment alone cannot solve all fall hazards. Fall protection equipment sometimes creates a false sense of security and with a higher level of defeatability (Hierarchy of Control and ever present gravity) threatens the worker’s level of safety.

Learning versus Training
“A video or an on-line course by itself isn’t enough. I want my team to know, without a doubt, how to be safe when they are working at heights. Our existing training program isn’t enough.”

As in most disciplines there are principles to provide guidance and direction for the development
and implementation of learning. B.F. Skinner provides us with the basis of positive and negative reinforcement: “A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.”

Jean Piaget’s work indicates the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures advancing from less powerful logical structures into higher and more powerful
structures. A good way to look at this is the act of forming metal parts in order to build machines, which are in turn used to build a factory. Carl Rogers, best known for his work in adult education, provides
us with two categories of learning:
1. Meaningless or Cognitive Learning – memorizing multiplication tables, and;
2. Significant or Experiential Learning: applied knowledge addressing the needs and wants of the learner – performing first aid on your child.

These principles demonstrate the need to provide learners with a complete learning system versus relying on a single medium or act to accomplish effective learning and/or the reinforcement or
changing of safety behavior.

Learning
• Takes the guesswork out of how to work safely. Expectations and responsibilities are clearly outlined and addressed;
• Provides the safety requirements of OSHA, ANSI, Industry Best Practices, Project Work and Company Safety Program;
• Reinforces safe work practices ;
• Educates the learner how to identify and correct improper work safety practices; and
• Teaches how to properly use safety equipment.

Learning serves as an aid to students understanding their safety role, how to perform their work in a safe manner and what to do when a work hazard is present. Training is a step in the learning process.

Training provides the learner with the opportunity to practice and apply what they have learned and also to evaluate their skill sets. Training should be reinforced through coaching or mentoring and requires recognizing when re-training is needed due to improper safe work practices; change in work activity and time.

One of the best questions to ask is: Does our safety training satisfy the knowledge and skill sets of the work activities we require our workers to perform? Do we accommodate adult learning styles: kinesthetic, visual, or auditory? Do our trainers know the learning personalities of their students and provide programs that accommodate those traits along with their learning styles? Do we provide a variety of learning venues that connect back to and support the principle-learning objective?

Do we provide opportunities for students to practice newly acquired skills? Do we have a program to evaluate knowledge and application on a daily or project basis? Do we have clearly defined learning objectives?

Year after year statistics, legal cases and safety conferences point to the need to keep our workers safe, which clearly indicates something, is missing. Experience teaches us that when something
isn’t working, it is time to return to the chalkboard and review the basics.

Everything from construction – “don’t build your house on sand” to fashion – “don’t wear a $100 outfit over 50 cent foundations” teaches us a solid foundation of learning will accelerate safe work
practices and safe worker behavior.

Spending solid, upfront time in planning your safety training program will definitely prevent your company from ‘stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime’ and definitely improve the safety of your team. FSM Michael C. Wright, PE, CSP, CPE, is president and Moniqua Suits is chief learning
leader of the Safety through Engineering, Inc. consulting team for engineering, safety and training. www.ste4u.com. They can be reached at (moniqua@ste4u.com) or (mikewright@ste4u.com).