Page 12 - OHS, October 2021

TRAINING: MATERIALS HANDLING
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Digital Training:
A Modern Method with Real Benefits
One thing that helps streamline the process for trainers, and helps improve the quality and interactivity of hazmat compliance training is an online eLearning platform.
Online training has been embraced across many industries for years, but it can be especially useful in helping employees digest complicated DG shipping regulations. Specific benefits of embracing an eLearning platform include:
Cost savings. Companies spend less by eliminating travel costs associated with bringing employees to a centralized, in- person training location.
Greater productivity. Anytime, anywhere training access means employees spend less time away from the workplace and from performing job tasks.
Faster onboarding. Organizations can experience high employee turnover. Online learning makes it easier to train new workers quickly and effectively, without waiting until enough learners fill a physical training session.
Employee convenience. Workers get to follow the training materials at their own pace and can even re-review on-demand training materials as-needed.
Interactivity. Online training content is flexible, scalable and customizable to the specific compliance requirements of each worker’s role. Because it’s interactive, it encourages greater retention. It’s also easier to harmonize and standardize training globally while meeting compliance requirements.
Using Virtual Learning to Bridge the Generation Gap
Many organizations find themselves having to train four generations—Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z— in one class, with each generation accustomed to a different learning style. Adding digital eLearning to the DG training mix allows organizations to take a blended approach to instruction by offering an array of learning options from classroom (live or virtual) to webinar, eLearning modules to augmented and virtual reality applications.
This helps ensure training evolves to be more inclusive so that each generation feels like you’re speaking their “language,” whether that’s a Baby Boomer who wants paper instructions or someone from Gen Z who prefers to learn via smartphone app.
Turning to Virtual Reality
for an Immersive Digital Training Experience
One particular type of eLearning—VR (Virtual Reality)—is gaining traction as a way to overcome many online learning challenges and better engage employees. VR, and its close counterpart the 3D online experience, creates an immersive environment that mirrors an employee’s actual workplace, leading to a more effective, realistic training experience than any book or PowerPoint slide can provide. This heightened interactivity can reinforce a faster understanding of training content, and caters to how the younger generations are already consuming content.
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The key to improvement lies in creating impactful, engaging content presented on interactive, intuitive platforms that make learning easy and convenient.
just because something is required, doesn’t mean it’s effffectively implemented. In fact, 25 percent of respondents to a 2018 survey felt their company’s DG training did not adequately prepare people within the organization to comply with DG shipping regulations.2
One of the major barriers to effective DG training is that many view it as simply a “necessary evil.” Consequently, minimal effort is directed towards it. Another barrier is that many companies lack the necessary infrastructure to put forth value-added training that supports compliance across the supply chain in the first place.
As a result, what training employees do receive can be ineffective and insufficient to add business value or drive compliance success, leaving organizations vulnerable to putting their brand and customer relationships at risk. In fact, 15 percent of survey respondents said “insufficient or ineffective training” is their greatest compliance challenge, and 53 percent ranked it in their top three.2
Reinventing employee training can be a challenge, especially when it comes to DG training. The key to improvement lies in creating impactful, engaging content presented on interactive, intuitive platforms that make learning easy and convenient.
The Need for Better Hazmat Training
Here are three key indicators that could signal a need for your DG training to be updated:
■ A high number of violations and interrupted shipments
■ Recent changes to your product offerings, your teams or the regulations your organization must follow
■ An increasing number of occasions where employees are unable to perform tasks correctly
If any of the above indicators are present, it’s a sign you need a training program that better prepares your supply chain personnel and enables them to train and recertify employees remotely.
Organizations must also continue to adapt their training progress to keep pace with the changing business environment—a fact spotlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, a 2020 survey found that 74 percent of DG professionals agree more effective remote training is needed to adapt to today’s current
12 Occupational Health & Safety | OCTOBER 2021
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