Safety training. The words alone can make an adult shudder. The thought of sitting in a classroom for hours listening to an instructor drone on about a boring topic is enough to drive even the most staunch safety proponent screaming from the classroom.

Yet safety training is arguably the most important training an individual will ever complete, and the safety training available today is markedly different than that delivered in years past.

Poorly designed and delivered safety training is rapidly being replaced by courses produced by skilled professional instructional designers and delivered via leading edge technology.

For many years, safety training that was focused chiefly on compliance with OSHA regulations required that employees be trained in a given subject, and many employers—while far from indifferent about safety—did just enough training to comply. The result was often safety courses that were created by safety subject matter experts who were rarely proficient in instructional design.

 “One of the biggest drivers (for an improvement in safety training) is that the ways we used to do safety training didn’t work very well,” said Rob Freeman, a Dallas, Texas-based Organizational Improvement Consultant. Freeman, who has developed safety training for international Fortune 500 companies, said that traditional safety training tended to be reactive and was rarely successful in changing the behaviors on the shop floor.

“Companies would conduct lock-out training, for example, only after a near miss or catastrophic injury. Yet after the training, people were still not locking out.” Freeman said.

But beyond better course design, cheaper and more effective technology is rapidly changing how safety training can be delivered. “In the past (my) experiences with e-learning and computer based training providers have been marginal at best. Often times the difficulties of working with programmers that were not familiar with a particular industry were counter productive and labor intensive.

Far too much time and effort was spent “schooling” the course designers, offers Matt LaFleur, senior Airfield Operations manager for Wayne County Detroit Metropolitan Airport. LaFleur believes that today’s new technologies have substantially reduced the design time required for courses and offer more time to focus on other training needs.

The ubiquitous nature of iPods, Blackberrys and other handheld devices is finding a training niche among organizations whose employees—because of the nature of their jobs—have a difficult time participating in a traditional training setting.

“In the Aviation Industry—like many other industries—the challenges of presenting training material to shift workers is a daunting task; it’s impossible for a trainer to be available 24 hours a day. New low cost computer applications and tracking software allows the trainer to offer materials around the clock with the added benefit of knowing that the materials are presented properly and on time,” says LaFleur.

But less familiar emerging technologies are making an even bigger impact on safety training. Electronic Performance Support Tools (EPST) are not only reinforcing safety training, but in many cases have safety courses embedded into the course. These tools greatly reduce the time required to provide individuals with reference for infrequently used skills.

More and more companies are moving away from traditional job aids or training for those tasks that are completed infrequently. Instead these organizations are adopting EPSTs.

These tools are growing in popularity because:

Studies have shown that as little as 20 percent of knowledge acquired in traditional classroom training may be retained long enough to be applied on the job. In most traditional training this is not a serious issue, as people tend to retain the information most meaningful or useful to them in their jobs, and training often provides skills that are not equally essential to all participants. In safety training, a 20 percent retention rate can be life-threatening.

Delivering refresher training to a large audience—while invaluable—is often impractical; electronic documents provide the worker with just-in-time, guided instructions.

Many skills taught in safety training are skills that are used infrequently and EPSTs can provide critical information in the context in which the skills are applied. EPSTs can also be used to create electronic Job Safety Analysis or Standard Work Instructions. The advantage to having these tools built using an Electronic Performance Support platform is that the tools become dynamic—they can be updated and disseminated to the workstation instantly.

However, EPSTs are not designed to replace training, instead, these tools are designed to augment training and provide refresher information that is easy to access and can be used in the context in which the skill is applied.

An excellent application for EPSTs is in support of lockout training. Traditionally tradesmen are expected to lockout equipment sometimes months after they were trained in doing so. EPSTs can be used after the lockout training to ensure that vital steps aren’t missed, allow for contextual reference on subtleties of the lockout of the specific equipment, and provide visual aids or video on the correct procedure for locking out.

Software applications like Go To Meetings or Webex are now being widely used to conduct distance learning that is far superior to the days when the painfully slow video conferencing prevented this delivery medium from ever being a viable alternative to Instructor-led training.

“With the advent of technologies such as Webex and Go To Meetings, I am able to immediately reach geographically distant colleagues/employees as soon as the training needs arise. I’m no longer limited by travel schedules and expense,” said Doug Clark, HR, IT & training manager at BAE Industries, Inc.

 Not all the technology that drives changes in safety training are emergent technologies. Kiosks, once considered by many to be a dying technology are regaining popularity among organizations that would like to leverage online or web based capabilities but do not want to allow unfettered access to the Internet.

Modern Safety Kiosks typically open a web portal that is restricted to just those sites required to complete online safety training. “As technology has advanced, hardware and software have become more reasonably priced. This has made it easier for training professionals to bring rich learning content to a wider audience,” says Clark.

Clark explains that these advances have created unprecedented access to training. “Whether through learning kiosks on the plant floor or through the employee’s computer, at home accessibility has made the task of delivering high quality learning content that much easier.” Clark continues.

Rob Freeman warns that despite the advantages offered by technology assisted learning (consistent delivery, wider distribution, reduced travel costs and improvements both in record keeping and results tracking) companies should not see it as a panacea.

“eLearning offers a lot of benefits, but companies looking to completely replace instructors will be disappointed,” he says, “there will always be a need for hands-on component (to safety training) to ensure that (the learner) can apply the skills being taught.”

He advocates a blended approach that he sees as better than a single medium approach. FSM Phil La Duke is director for Performance Improvement at O/E, a developer of training and performance improvement programs. For more, go to www.oe.com.