How to Conduct Physical Health and Safety Training Most Effectively?

Despite the new and exciting technological possibilities of conducting instruction digitally, many work environment professionals still prefer physical health and safety training.

By physical, I mean health and safety training, where the supervisor and the employee sit together in the same room at the same time, and the employee is instructed in occupational health and safety.

How to Build the Physical Health and Safety Training Process

In the case of physical health and safety training, the supervisor must take into account that it is up to him or her to decide how much of the material the employee will remember or not. The supervisor must be very engaging and have a systematic approach to the training. 

The Environment is Important

Make the employee feel that there is not an exam ahead, but a conversation on an important topic where his / her input is needed. In this way, the worker is not feeling fear or being concerned about saying something wrong. To make the environment even more pleasant, offer the employee coffee, tea or water and if possible, then have some cookies or candies.

Let the Employee Read the Manual on Their Own First

Take the instructions one by one and have the employee read it himself first and then discuss the content together. Do not interview the employee in such a way that he or she feels that he or she is on an exam, but try to maintain such a friendly and discussion-friendly atmosphere. At the end of the article, you will find a small help with questions you could ask the employee.

PowerPoint Presentations Could Still be Considered

There are two options. Does the supervisor take over the content of the training and pass it on through a PowerPoint presentation, or does the employee start by reading and then summarizing the most important content with the presentation? Here, it depends primarily on the time and the readiness of the supervisor.

Divide Health and Safety Training Into “Bites” 

If the employee has a lot of material to remember, then divide the instruction into so-called “bites”. This means dividing the health and safety training material over several days, with each “bite” followed by training and some time of independent work. After that moving on to a new “bite”. Otherwise, the employee will not remember most of the discussion or presentation that was given during the supervision and that may end in a work accident or work related disease. 

What Questions to Ask After Reading the Guide?

The questions can also be presented to the employee in advance, because then he or she will read these instructions, focusing on finding answers to these questions.

1. Name the three most important safety requirements for yourself that you remembered?
2. Was there anything surprising for you?
3. Compared to the previous job, what is different from the safety requirements of this job?
4. If you were to teach your colleague about safe work, what would you particularly emphasize about this machine / job?
5. Describe what is most likely to happen to you when doing this work / using this device? And how can you prevent that?
6. What is important to consider/observe/do before you start working?
7. What is important to consider/observe/do before you leave your job?
8. Name what you should definitely not do when doing this job / using the device.

These are some questions that could be asked in order for the employee to review the content of the instruction for himself and really understand the content and the responsibilities that come with it.