The Importance of Easy to Understand Safety Education
This is not a topic that is discussed or considered very often. Which is strange, because quality of safety is most dictated by effective communication. The “any training is good training” approach is a dangerous game. It’s not only money down the drain – it’s lives at stake.
A quality education program is not interested in transmitting information – its purpose is to transfer understanding. Accomplishing this is no simple task. The complexity of many work environments requires equally complex safety systems. Simplifying inherently technical processes, without omitting life saving guidance, is quite a precarious line to walk. But there are several reasons why we should all walk it nonetheless.
The first is pretty obvious – if people can’t understand what is trying to be imparted (and you have no method for confirming comprehension), they certainly can’t be expected to exploit the information to their benefit. Bottomline, they will not be empowered to protect themselves and others. When employees have not been effectively provided the skills and knowledge to execute their work safely, it has a cascading impact on the organization. Among those impacts – the cost of lost-time and shutdowns / stand-downs because of unsafe operation, the legal ramifications of not successfully providing your workers with their “Right to Know” about potential and actual hazards and, certainly the most dreaded of all, injuries or fatalities resulting from something being done improperly (totally preventable incidents). For these reasons, more than any, training and education programs should implement simple and clear language, so as not to stump or trip-up the audience.
The final reason I’d like to suggest for the importance of easy to understand education is ROI. That’s right – return on investment. And, I don’t just mean on the training itself. It goes without saying that there will be little to no return on the money dispensed for an overly technical, complicated program that does little more than induce a feeling of ineptitude and diminish morale. However, ineffective training also can devalue other company resources it is meant to support. For example, certain corporate policies and procedures must be supported by education to ensure comprehension – gone are the days where someone’s John Hancock on the dotted line of a policy suffices as proof of understanding. If the educational resources you implement to support these legally significant documents are not successful in transferring understanding (and do not provide a tangible piece of evidence to this effect – i.e., a certificate earned via an assessment mechanism), the organization will be left exposed, and their due diligence – called into question. Your workforce genuinely understanding important information (especially regarding safety) is an organization’s greatest insurance policy.
Think of it like this – when training someone to conduct work at height safely, you don’t provide content that aspires to make them an expert in physics. Or, when educating the workforce on the impacts of impairment in the workplace, you don’t seek out a resource that intends to make them accredited toxicologists or regulatory lawyers. You want them to have a solid understanding of the things that can impact their safety – it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. Provide your workforce with the path of least resistance so they may gain a strong grasp on the education that will prevent unnecessary tragedies from occurring.