Online health and safety training is a great alternative to a traditional classroom course, as it is much more time-flexible and provides a definitely more engaging user experience. Occupational health and safety (OHS) training rarely evokes positive associations, as it is usually delivered as a low-engaging presentation accompanied by an instructor’s lecture. The unexciting nature of the basic health and safety training can be easily turned into an appealing encounter with safety regulations thanks to an LMS platform. If you’d rather not see your employees dozing off during the lengthy theoretical classes, go for the e-learning solution, which will pay back in better knowledge retention and employee safety.
What is online health and safety training?
Health and safety are a major priority for companies as they are obliged to protect their staff. Every new hire’s duty is to go through an OHS training covering the safety basics. The training covers the prevention of unfortunate incidents, knowledge of how to behave when an accident occurs, and awareness of dangerous work-related situations. Course material can be, and in most cases probably still is, presented in the form of classroom training, where vital knowledge of a life-saving value is forwarded as a monotonous stream of slides. We’ve got a legitimate suspicion that the attendees’ focus will start drifting away after the first hour.
Luckily, training possibilities and formats have evolved within the last decades, and we no longer have to rely on outdated methods. Thanks to modern e-learning tools, you can turn even the most attention-challenging course into an engaging experience. The online OHS training foundations and assumptions are exactly the same as in the traditional approach; however, the diversity of knowledge delivery offered by LMS safety training is taking the OHS course to a much higher and much more interactive level.
Online health and safety basic training guarantees great flexibility regarding time and place of learning. You don’t have to gather employees in a classroom and engage an instructor every time you need to train the new hires. Hence, online LMS safety training proves to be not only convenient and accessible but also cost-effective. On top of that, online classes involve learners through various interactive formats, which greatly impact knowledge retention. If you’re interested in virtual hands-on courses and their benefits, check out our article on virtual on-the-job training.
What does online OHS look like in practice?
Basic health and safety training is designed to make employees aware of the risks and hazards they might come across at work and, simultaneously, equip them with knowledge on how to remain safe and deal with accidents if they ever happen. OHS training is not exactly a grateful topic, but rather a tough nut to crack to make it interesting. It is based on norms, regulations, generally applicable and industry-specific standards; we won’t skip that. However, with an LMS platform, we are able to make it interactive and even involving.
A typical OHS course consists of two parts: initial training and on-the-job training specific to the job position. During the initial training, learners are instructed on first aid, fire safety and emergency procedures, workplace orientation, and current safety legislation. The first part is supposed to help the new employees settle into the new workplace environment and make them complacent with safety procedures. It usually lasts no more than three hours. The second part, called on-the-job training, covers the safety measures and procedures assigned to the specific job. Position training also includes workplace risk assessment, accident reporting, and investigation. The second part is considerably longer and takes up to eight hours. Getting familiar with the scope can already give you a thrill, though it’s probably not the exciting one. You have probably experienced OHS training at some point in your work life, so you know what to expect from a whole day spent with the subject. Unless you choose to do it the digital way.
Online health and safety training provides diverse possibilities for enhancing course material and serving it in an approachable way. Instead of making your employees listen to a lengthy lecture and follow a low entertaining value presentation, provide them with an engaging experience, including interactive AR tutorials. Augmented reality enables users to practice possible scenarios, recognize potential hazards, and exercise procedures when encountering an accident. Training that activates learners and makes them enact what was learned is way more effective than traditional passive knowledge acquisition.
What does online fire safety training look like?
Fire safety is an integral part of the OHS training program and has to be completed by all employees. By definition, the training consists of a set of practices to reduce the devastation caused by fire. Prevention and limiting fire expansion are the primary safety measures discussed during the course. In this part, employees are trained to use fire extinguishers in early-stage firefighting and determine if they can handle the blaze on their own. Fire safety training is required at least once per employment, and depending on local legislation, it might be necessary to repeat it annually. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
Despite the hot topic, the materials used during traditional training are not exactly engaging, nor do they provide much realism to the subject. However, when dealing with online OHS courses, you actually do get to play with fire. Presentation accompanied by video examples is still one of the options, but since we are dealing with digital, we can do much better. Knowledge acquisition works best when aligned with practice; in this case, it is possible through deploying AR in safety LMS online training. Immersive learning using Augmented Reality allows for practicing appropriate behavior in dangerous situations and enables experiencing possible scenarios in a real-life working environment. In both cases, employees put their learning into practice in a safe space, leading to improved knowledge retention.
Taking OHS training to the next level
Workplace health and safety are the non-negotiable conditions to be guaranteed by any employer. Thus, effective OHS training is vital for any company aiming to keep knowledge retention high when it comes to safety. On the bright side, with the right tools, developing your employees’ practical health and safety competencies in a secure environment is possible, even if we’re dealing with hazards and fire outbreaks scenarios. Using an LMS for OHS training, you’re able to structure the content freely and make it an immersive experience with wearable technology utilizing AR and VR. By this means, the training passage will definitely be more impactful than a monotonous lecture. On top of the obvious benefits, online OHS courses enable learning progress tracking and knowledge assessment. Thanks to LMS solutions, employers can finally provide truly effective training, not just a health and safety session they’re obliged to supply. OHS is certainly not worth saving on; hence consider investing in LMS safety training, as it’s better to be safe than sorry!
