Author: Jeffrey Dalto

Tracking Training-Related EHS Leading Indicators

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

tracking-training-related-EHS-leading-indicatorsIn a recent article on EHS leading indicators, we touched on the topic of training-related EHS leading indicators. Meaning, stuff directly related to EHS training that can be used as a leading indicator for measuring general EHS performance at a company.

Since we’re a training company and offer a lot of EHS training solutions, we thought we’d double-back to that issue and show you how you can track some of those EHS leading indicators that are related to EHS training.

By tracking these, along with other EHS leading indicators, you can really begin to gather meaningful and actionable data about the performance of your EHS management system as a whole.
(more…)

Read More

New Manufacturing Training Courses Available: Operator Basic Care; Lubrication Basics

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

Here are the new courses we added to our Manufacturing Training Library last month.

You can also just check all of the titles in our following libraries:

We’ll keep announcing new courses each month as they roll out, so stay tuned for more.

You can watch samples of the new courses below, or contact us to set up a demo and view full-length previews.

(more…)

Read More

How to Create Your Own Safety Training e-Learning Course-Recorded Webinar

Jeffrey Dalto 2 Comments

Create Your Own Online Safety Training eLearning Course Image

Ever wish you could create your own safety training eLearning course that fits your particular training needs and is based on your own site-specific information?

You can, and this recorded webinar (below) shows you how. The webinar runs almost exactly an hour, and you can listen any time.

Once you know how to do this, you can make your own eLearning course anytime you want. Maybe even combine it with some off-the-shelf safety training eLearning courses for a nice blend of generic and custom, site-specific safety training eLearning at your workplace.

If you’d prefer the same information in a different format, we’ve got the same information in a written blog post including lots of helpful screen grabs. Or hey, you can check ’em both out! Why not?

Note: This webinar shows how to use an authoring tool created by Articulate. Many companies make similar authoring tools, and the tool used below isn’t the most recent created by Articulate. That point isn’t too important, though–the main idea is to show you the general idea of how to make your own online safety training course and show how relatively easy it can be.

Also, there’s a free Guide to Effective EHS Training below the webinar that you’re free to download if you’d like.
(more…)

Read More

New Paper Manufacturing Training Courses: Fluidized Bed Boilers; Black Liquor Testing; Titration Fundamentals; and Paper Machine Doctor Blade Component and Troubleshooting

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

Here are the new courses we added to our Paper Manufacturing Training Library last month.

We’ll keep announcing new courses each month as they roll out, so stay tuned for more.

To set up a demo and see the full-length versions, feel free to contact us.

(more…)

Read More

10 Key Benefits of Online Safety Training

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

10 Benefits of Online Safety Training ImageWe believe the best way to provide safety training to your workers is to use a blended learning solution, mixing and matching the different types of training (instructor-led, field-based OJT, video, e-learning, written materials, social learning, webinars, etc.).

And that’s no surprise, since we write about it a lot, but also since it’s recommended by ASSE/ANSI z490.1, the US national standard for EHS training; by the noted learning researchers Dr. Ruth Colvin Clark (in her book Evidence-Based Training Methods) and by Dr. Will Thalheimer (in his Does eLearning Work? white paper); and by the US Department of Education, in their Evaluating Online Learning study.

But it’s also true that within a blended learning solution, when you select the type of training to use for each training need, you shouldn’t select randomly. Instead, you’ll want to look at the benefits and downsides of each training type, and try to find a match between training type and training need.

With that in mind, here’s a quick list of some advantages of online safety training. We’ve got 10 items on the list, and have given one or more examples or case study for each.

Hope you find some food for thought here.
(more…)

Read More

Best Practices for Contractor Management and Contractor Orientations

Jeffrey Dalto 2 Comments
Best Practices for Contractor Management & Contractor Orientations Image

We work with a lot of clients to create training materials for manufacturers, including general manufacturing training, industrial maintenance training, health and safety training, and learning management systems to administer, deliver, track, and report on all that training.

Within that context, we create solutions to help our customers provide site-specific safety orientations to their contractors, visitors, and vendors.

Providing contractor orientations is an important aspect of contractor management, but it’s just one element. As a result, we’ve pulled together this quick overview of best practices for contractor management.

Give it the once-over, see what you think, and please leave your own thoughts, suggestions, and insights at the bottom in the comments section.

And don’t forget to download the free guide to contractor orientations at the bottom of this article.

(more…)

Read More

Blended Learning for Manufacturing Training

Jeffrey Dalto 2 Comments
Blended Learning for Manufacturing Training Image

You can’t train a manufacturing workforce using just one “type” of training–just field-based OJT, just written materials, just instructor-led classroom-style training, just e-learning, etc.

Well, you can. But you won’t get the most effective training, and you won’t create a cost-effective training program. So you don’t want to.

Instead, it’s best to use a “blended learning” solution that mixes and matches different types of training. In fact, this recent and well-respected study suggests that blended learning solutions tend to lead to best learning results.

In this article, we’ll give a few reasons why you should consider a blended learning solution for your workers; give you some tips for creating the right blend to help workers acquire basic knowledge, develop skills and learn procedures, and develop advanced job skills that really create value for your company; and show you some tools and techniques for making this all happen smoothly.
(more…)

Read More

Training Manufacturing Workers for Next Job in Line of Progression

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

training-manufacturing-workers-for-next-job-inline-of-progressionAt many manufacturing companies, employees enter the workforce in a role reserved for new hires, then work their way through an organized line of progression from their first job to the next job and so on throughout their careers.

As a result, it’s helpful to have a plan in place, and some tools to use, to help train workers at each position and better prepare them for success at each new job during their career with your organization.

In this post, we’ll give some tips and introduce some tools you can use to improve the line of progression training at your facility and make administering it more efficient.

By the time you’re done reading, you should have enough information to help you deliver (a) more effective training to your employees in each job position, (b) at a lower cost, and all while (c) spending less time administering the training. You’ll be better prepared to move new employees from one position to the next in their line of progression, and as a bonus you’ll find some tools to help you cross-train employees so they can fill multiple job roles if necessary.

(more…)

Read More

Using Scenario-based Training for Workforce Learning & Development

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

using-scenario-based-training imageIf you read current literature on training, one of the things you’ll read about a lot is scenario-based training. This goes by other names, too, including immersive learning and problem-based learning. For this article, we’re going to stick with scenario-based training.

No matter what you call it, there’s a reason why people talk about it a lot. Because it’s an effective way to learn. Within the context of job training, scenario-based training has a couple big advantages. These include:

  • Creating training that more directly matches true performances expected of the employee on the job
  • Making compliance training more active, fun, engaging, and effective
  • Reducing the amount of time it takes for an employee to develop expertise in his or her job (moving employee  from basic, foundational job knowledge and skills to advanced skills that create value for the company more quickly and efficiently)
  • Providing a safe learning environment in which employees can practice and learn from mistakes without harming themselves, machines, or business goals

This article will at least touch on all four of those points. But we’re going to primarily focus on how scenario-based training can reduce the amount of time it takes for an employee to develop advanced job skills and become an expert in his or her field, something everyone wants.

Along the way, we’re going to be focusing our lessons from a book by Dr. Ruth Colvin Clark. And we’ll also provide some examples and helpful resources from other influential writers on workforce L&D, including Anna Sabramowicz, Cathy Moore, and Christy Tucker. Hats off to all of them, and please do check out their work and articles (in particular, this interview we had with Anna Sabramowicz about using Storytelling & Scenarios in Job Training).

(more…)

Read More

Online Options for MSHA Part 46 New Task Training

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment
MSHA Part 46 New Training Training Online Image

In an earlier post, we gave an example of how you could use online training tools as part of the MSHA Part 46 New Miner safety training requirement.

That post got a lot of attention, so we’re circling back to do the same basic thing for MSHA Part 46 New Task(s) training.

What we’re going to do is give some ideas of how you can use online tools–a learning management system (LMS), eLearning courses, and other online learning activities–as part of the training you deliver for MSHA Part 46 New Task training.

What we’re not going to do is try to tell you that you should use only eLearning courses for your Part 46 New Task training. We recommend a “blended learning” approach in which you use a variety of different kinds of training. For example, you might have your workers do some reading, watch an e-learning course, attend some instructor-led training in a classroom setting, and do some task-based procedural training in the field. Or maybe you’ll sprinkle in a mine tour. You get it–mix and match.

So let’s get to it. And before you leave, don’t forget to download the Free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements at the bottom of this article.

(more…)

Read More

Using Leading Indicators for Safety Performance Measurement

Jeffrey Dalto 10 Comments
Leading Indicators for Safety Performance Measurement Image

You work hard on your safety & health/EHS program at work. You give it a lot of thought, you spend a lot of time on it, and you care a lot about it (and about the people and environment it’s intended to protect).

But how do you know if what you’re doing is effective? How do you know if it’s working? How can you measure your own performance?

One thing you can do is to keep track of the number of incidents at work. Things like work-related fatalities, injuries, or illnesses. Or chemical spills to the environment. As a group, these are known as lagging indicators. They’re called lagging because they tell you about things that have already happened.

Lagging indicators have their place, and they’re important to track. But they have their limits, too, and it’s helpful to track other stuff as well in order to truly measure the success of your EHS program.

As you may have guessed, we’re “leading up to” the subject of leading indicators here, and the use of leading indicators for EHS measurement. Ha! Did you get the little joke? 🙂

But jokes aside, what are leading indicators, in general? What are some good examples? What’s the point of using them? How can you get started using them? Those are the kind of questions we’re going to address below.

If this article is of interest to you, once you’ve read all we have to say about leading indicators for safety, you may also find some articles we have on Safety Differently and HOP (Human and Organizational Performance) interesting as well. Check out the links at the bottom of this article for more on Safety Differently & HOP.

(more…)

Read More