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Recent research shows three areas in which many companies would receive “needs-to-improve” marks for employee training. How does your safety training program stack up?

Key findings from the study done by ESI International, which polled 3,000 training managers:

• 60% said they had no formal program to determine whether employees applied training to their jobs
• Only 20% said their employers offered financial rewards as motivation for completing training and applying the training to their jobs.
• Only 23% said their managers conducted follow-up to training sessions to determine if it helped and was being used.

ESI has this bit of advice for managers in charge of training: Don’t be the Lone Ranger of training. This is particularly true for safety.

ESI says for successful transfer of training to actual job performance, all managers, not just those in charge of training, must do more than just endorse the training program. They must have clear responsibilities and provide tactical support every step of the way, including:

• developing a plan for learning transfer
• holding formal pre- and post-training discussions, and
• ensuring post-instruction reinforcement.

Those surveyed aren’t doing so well on this part. On a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being high, trainees were asked if they discussed with their manager how they will use what they learned on the job. Sixty-five percent chose 4 and below.

How do you make sure workers apply their safety training to their actual jobs? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Tags: apply training, ESI International, Safety training