Recently, we posted a simple question into a number of LinkedIn groups that deal with safety and/or EHS: "What do you do to make your safety training more fun and engaging for your employees?" A large number of safety professionals chimed in, and we’ve collected their replies in this article. It’s interesting to read the replies and to see how many of them work along similar themes. So, let’s get to it. Here’s how to make safety training more fun and engaging, with stories and tips from real-life safety managers and trainers. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with an extensive library of health and safety e-learning courses plus many other e-learning course libraries. In addition, we offer a series of learning management systems (LMSs) that are appropriate for companies of different sizes and in different industries. Finally, we also make custom training solutions specifically designed for your employees’ training needs. Check out our website or contact us to ask some questions and set up a demo. Games, Competition, and Rewards A number of people said they tried to include some form of game, competition, and/or reward in their training. We’ve included some of those replies below. One safety trainer used Jeopardy-style games, competition, and candy bars. "Training or reviewing OSHA standards can be dry and hard to swallow. We used the Jeopardy format and divided the sessions in half to do a review after the training. The different standards could have questions from easy to hard, with corresponding values. The teams alternate choosing Standard topic and question value. If an individual answers it correctly he/she gets a candy bar, when a team wins, everyone on the team gets a candy bar. Competition is always there, and points and candy bars mark the win. When the first session goes through it, the word is out and people show up with thinking caps on." Frank Fox, Retired EH&S, The Dow Chemical Company Another also used a TV game show as a model (this time The Weakest Link): "I teach Site Manager Safety training and I find quizzes work really well we have a show in England called the weakest Link and I base the quiz on that. It’s a process of elimination everyone in the group gets 3 lives and you keep going around the table if someone gets their question wrong the person next to them gets the chance to answer it. . I do quizzes on my SMSTS courses and it really gets them going we have a lot of fun, and information tends to stick, very similar to the way they do it on the weakest link." David Shanahan, Director of Collective Safety Solutions Here’s another for games, competition, and rewards: "When I do my trainings I try to make them more interactive rather than just listening to me go on and on and on. I like to play games with the quizzes at the end of the sessions. I also find giving out little gifts or incentives to the top 3 participants also helps to keep everyone awake." Kelly Myers-Mitchell, Regulatory and Compliance Coordinator at Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency This one makes a few points but stresses the use of puzzles and problem-solving: "Examples and hands-on during live-training makes them more vivid.  In my lectures of system / software safety, I also present the involvement of certification authorities (FAA, EASA & others). At the end of this session, and in order to assimilate this activity, I present the "think like the object" tactics, as part of the Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) approach.  After providing the strategy and examples in other areas (also from my hobby of free diving and hooks examples), I give them to build and solve a puzzle.  IMHO, you can solve this puzzle ONLY if you think like this specific object. I know - from feedback of the participants - that they remember the idea behind only because of the puzzle solving."  Kuper Haim, Software Safety Specialist at Elbit Systems Ltd Here’s another safety professional for games and rewards (and some public credit!): "Provision of assessment & reward after safety training. Winners names shall be published on notice board." Rishi Chaturvedi, Safety Inspector, Al Taver Group Humor Quite a few people brought up the importance of humor. Here’s one who uses humor, including photos of safety mistakes, to get people to explain the RIGHT way to do things. "I like to use funny photos and/or videos that show mistakes. Not gross ones mind you but funny ones. Then get the class to elaborate on how serious the incident is or could have been. It gets their attention with a little humor and results in more active participation in the topic." Timothy Johnson, Director of Safety and Quality Control, Murphy Industrial Coatings I could have put this below with "active participation" but I’ll put it here with humor: "I do agree. Funny videos. There are ton on the Internet. Also trying to get them involved in the training get them to have a discussion instead of a lecture. Taught a class once and didn’t talk except for the first five minutes. Awesome." Quentin Snook, Fire Chaplain I’ll place this one under good-natured humor: "I like to make posters with spelling mistakes and the operatives on development could not wait to tell me I had a grammar error in the poster, and then on a Friday buy the operative who told me about the grammar error received a kids happy meal it went down a treat with other operatives who then went about actually reading the H&S posters to spot deliberate mistake after awhile and a great sense of amusement certain operatives started to bring in the Scotsman and such likes for me to read to help me with my grammar it brought about such amusement to the boys on site, thinking I had a problem with my spelling but it brought about a great safety culture on site for the 4 years I was on it’s a tradition I hope to continue." Michael Loughran, Site Manager at MacTaggart & Mickel Timber Systems LTD Another for humor and engagement-but mostly humor: "It has been my experience that training should not be conducted in a somber atmosphere. If you can get people to laugh you will be able to get them to learn. Often times those that we are required to train are there against their will or may perceive the training as inconsequential to their job requirements, or for that matter, it is training that to them has become repetitious. If we cannot get them to engage in what it is that we are trying to deliver to them, I then liken it to trying to ram a stick up a dead dog’s a**. We are doomed to failure from the outset. I myself have been involved in courses that after the first ten minutes I am beginning to fall asleep. The facilitator is delivering everything by rote and drones on endlessly. If we take it upon ourselves to add a little levity to the course material, no matter how dry it may seem, people will perk up and pay attention and if they are paying attention chances are they will retain some of what it is you are trying to deliver to them." Laurie Bell, St. John’s Ambulance Active Participation Many of the replies involved different forms of having the trainees be active participants in the training. Here’s one person who replied with a neat example about having workers film things with video cameras. "Years ago I worked at a DIY retailer who had a chalk-and-talk health and safety session. I got agreement to change it for my stores, so I used a camera and asked them to film around each store. Some groups filmed real health and safety situations, whilst others set up situations, like putting a pallet in front of a fire door. We then debriefed what their findings were back in the training room (or canteen!) and the buzz was fantastic. I just filled in any gaps with questions. Head Office then used the film clips and made a video. It was used on Tuesday training sessions, made by our own people. I think learning by inquiry is the best way. The approach works well for refresher style training too. I did a room ‘set up’ once to see how many hazards people spotted when they came in (well, it was refresher training!)."  Kay Bucky, Management and Leadership Trainer, The Development Company Limited Yet another EHS manager used video (he shot it), active participation by the employees, and some humor: "With all the technology available today, I found creating a training video worked really well to stimulate training interest. The video covered a meeting followed by a site visit using department employees. It was purposely created with flaws built into the script to emphasize key points in the training. Attendees were then asked to see what errors they could point out later in a discussion of what went wrong, what went right, etc. Interest was high since they knew they would be challenged to find the mistakes (Where’s Waldo?), they knew the employees in the video and some well placed humor. The downside: it required a lot of development work on my part, willing volunteers and some practice runs. However the upside was a very effective training tool that could be tailored to specific training needs AND keep interest levels high. Oh, did I mention I did it all with in house resources and ZERO budget? They still talk about the video today." Gary Moulder, EHS Manager, Haas Group International, West Point, Pennsylvania Here’s another advocate of getting the employees involved, this time with inquiry-based training (which has come up before): "If you truly want employee to be engaged then you need to actually get them involved. Scenario training is a great way to do this. For example, in an area where iron workers are involved, these guys live at height and are often looked up to by the other workers. Safety harnesses are mandatory PPE and yet many of them like to wear them loose. Put on your harness during your briefing and then start walking down the aisle as you explain why a loose harness is guaranteed death. As you do this, allow the harness to slip off your shoulder and then physically demonstrate how they would spin out of it and hit the ground. You do not need to explain step by step, instead, simply carry on with your presentation as you spin out of your harness. As soon as it hits the ground stop talking and ask, "So, how well does that comfortable harness style get me home tonight?" Another way is to get them involved by knowing your staff. If you know that Billy has a little girl at home find a way to tie that in. After all, what is more important to Billy than going home to his beautiful little daughter every night? That’s a powerful way to get buy-in. If John fails to use a tool lanyard up on a scaffold and his hammer falls and strikes Billy in the head his daughter will be attending his funeral instead of him attending her graduation." Collin McKnight, OSHA Construction Site Safety Professional This person offered lots of great ideas. We’ll put these under "active participation"  but they span the gamut: "You probably already have these on your list, but here a few of my suggestions anyway: Have trainees demonstrate or use the tools during the training. Examples include actually filling out a permit form or working in groups to work through the job safety analysis process for two steps of a common, easy task most people can relate to relate to - like gassing up a car or mowing a lawn. Have trainees play a game, do a crossword puzzle or otherwise compete to show that they know/have learned information being provided. Giving trainees rewards (even cheap toys) for reading some of the slides aloud or leading a quick stretch to break up lecture-only portions of the training when they can’t be avoided. Asking trainees to provide examples from their own work area, especially solutions, suggestions or learnings that they can share. Having a decorative theme. Years ago I did a bank compliance training on regulation B - the room was decorated with lots of bees-themed items. Participants that answered questions correctly were given bee-themed prizes. And, the group that was the first to successfully and correctly completed a relevant application form on their easel chart was awarded bee-themed prizes. Per an agreement with my supervisor to do something in training way beyond my comfort level, I actually wore a bee costume. These things may sound silly but they increased class participation, engagement and interest. And, the trainees walked away with a much greater understanding of the relevant forms and how they should be used than they would have if I had just showed slides on how to fill out the forms." Erin Perlow, Occupational Safety and Health Specialist Here’s another for active participation. This person makes the good point that it’s worthwhile making sure everyone knows one another (solid!): "Getting everyone to take turns introducing themselves and a little on what they know about the topic is quite useful as an ice breaker, before the start of the session. Making room for class activities e.g. discussion sessions, group work, practice sessions, etc. also make the class interactive. A little veering off with conversation cards enables some introverts to express themselves on issues raised on any card they pick." Bassey Akan, Training Manager at SMTS (NIG.) LIMITED Here’s another fan of creating an active, scenario-based, problem-solving situation for the workers. Again, this person suggests the use of self-shot video, which comes up a lot too. A video-based scenario elearning courseware that provides exaggerating/dramatic negative and positive feedbacks upon learners choice of decision. The story scenario can go inline with what the learner goes through in his/her daily life at work. This video-based scenario will captivate the learners’ attention and engage them throughout with various safety scenarios. This elearning material can either be ● utilise at the learners’ own time ● use during a face to face training session to get the whole class participate ● use as a challenge among groups during the class Alvin Fu, Consultant, Learning Designer & Trainer | eLC Pte Ltd Two-Way Discussions It seems basic enough, but often we forget to have discussions instead of monologues. Here’s one who hit that nail on the head: "In live training, I’ve found that anything that deviates from a lecture-style presentation will improve the odds of workers being more attentive and involved. Engaging in group discussion and allowing workers to talk about their personal experiences is a practical way to make things more interesting. Further improvements can be made if the discussions revolve around non-workplace scenarios that relate to scenarios in the workplace, such as sports and/or hobbies that your workers participate in. For example, I participate in what some may describe as "extreme" sports such as skydiving, snowboarding, etc. There are many analogies that I can make using the details of those activities that relate to the topics that are being discussed - mostly people find them interesting. I’ll usually quickly turn it over to the trainees and they’ll start finding their own analogies from their personal activities and hobbies, which in most cases are more interesting to them than work." Dave Cvetanovski, Director, Corporate Health and Safety at JMC Steel Group, Founder at Eversafe Media Inc. Here’s another voice in favor of two-way discussions: "I think often we as safety professionals preach, I try and make the safety meeting about them. Give them a bit of information but also interact with them about the safety in the field, ways of doing things safer and better on an every day basis. I think it is working and we talk about how incidents happen, how they can be prevented and they are more aware of their surroundings on an every day basis. One of our workers stated he felt much safer because he was not afraid to ask questions anymore." Patricia Murdoch, Health and Safety Manager, JPD Enterprises, Ltd Here’s another who likes active discussions (along with an "icebreaker" event at the beginning): Ice breakers at the start, group discussions on critical incidents and what are the possible ways of eliminating them, sharing personal experiences, could be one of the ways of engaging participants during the safety training. Alfie J. Fernandez, Maintenance Trainer at Qatar Chemical Company Demonstrations A common thread was the importance of giving real-life demonstrations. This is another that could have gone into "active participation"  but the demonstrations really come alive here. "Great topic. I hope to see a lot of people add to the discussion. One of the things I have done with trenching training is to have the group role soil samples out of play dough. I have also done electrical safety with a bucket of water and hair dryer. For the play dough we are doing the Plasticity or Wet Thread Test. This test is conducted by molding a moist sample of the soil into a ball and attempting to roll it into a thin thread approximately 1/8 inch (3 mm) in diameter (thick) by 2 inches (50 mm) in length. The soil sample is held by one end. If the sample does not break or tear, the soil is considered cohesive. It is kind of cheesy but it engages people. The bucket of water and hair dryer is used to show why we test GFCI before we use. I plug an extension cord into a GFCI and then use a hair dryer. Use a plastic bucket (must be plastic) and ask what will happen if I drop a running hair dryer in the bucket of water. Several times I turn dryer on and start to drop it in the bucket only to stop and ask questions. If you do drop the dryer in it will not trip the GFCI. Plastic bucket (no ground). I do use other safety precautions when doing this. But it is very well received." Mike Kane, Safety Consultant at LMC Inc Storytelling Storytelling is a proven way to capture people’s attention, and it came up in this aspect as well. Here’s one EHS director who knows the value of a good story well told, plus interaction and a bit of show and tell: "When holding Safety meetings it is always fun to have a story to go with the topic. It could be something that happened to the trainer at home or traveling or an observation. Make it interesting to hold the attention span. engage with the employees as you are training to get their involvement. Have a meeting like in school with show & tell; interaction with a new face like one of your vendors participating is another great way to discuss your topics." Douglas Dennis, Corporate EHS Director, Qualico Steel Company Stressing the Importance of Safety It never hurts to let people know safety is serious. This person makes more than one point, but leads with the serious angle: "Simply tell them that they can save a life and earn rewards. Use new ways to get their attention by providing them free stuff like ppe kit, mobile recharge cards, free food after training sessions etc… Good HSE system can’t be implemented without providing respect and equivalent rights." Muhammad Ahmed, Health and Safety Manager, National Engineering Bureau, United Arab Emirates Keep it Job-Specific and Relevant It’s always a good idea to keep job training specific and relevant, and that came up here too. This guy makes a few points, and I could have included one in the "different types of software" section below, but we’ll put his comments here: "Here’s a secret worth considering when you plan your curriculum; people generally don’t dislike learning, but they do resent having their time wasted. Less vanilla ‘general awareness’ material and more focus on specific skills & knowledge that the participant can actually apply in his/her workplace is a good start. If I give you my time you owe it to me to provide information I can use when the rubber hits the road. No amount of games, gimmicks and freebies will compensate for content that wastes my time and yours. If you’re serious about engaging people and maximizing retention, do not use ppt… not one single slide. I’m not suggesting ‘no games’, only that they are a poor substitute for meaningful content. Ideally all training should be designed to be enjoyable (fun) but this probably shouldn’t be seen as the key deliverable. Ppt has a place. Its a reasonable aide for information sessions, progress updates, client presentations and the like but rarely as a training tool in an adult education setting; not if you’re serious about facilitating a learning environment where adult participants are partners rather than passengers. Investigate ‘Metaplan’… the applications are limited only by your creativity" Joe Monk, Furgo-TSM Review, Feedback, and Evaluation Some touched on the importance of reviewing training itself, getting feedback, and evaluating the training. Here’s one safety professional on that theme: "I feel that one of the general key points is review and feedback of the training session. Trainers in general do not always sit down and reflect on a session, listing what went well, what didn’t go so well, what was relevant, what was not so relevant etc. Then this reflection is to be used to improve the next session. I feel this is important as it allows a trainer to grow as a trainer, develop their teaching materials and teaching methods. A lot of trainers, myself included at times, rely on the end product, as long as the objectives have been met, your happy. This is not the best way forward and new methods need to be researched to keep up with the different learning requirements of each individual and to make sure everyone comes away from the session with the correct message. Reflection is the only way to achieve this. Student feedback forms are not always that useful and accurate and an honest personal reflection is invaluable. Also good old fashioned enthusiasm of the subject being taught goes a long way, no-one wants to listen to a trainer who can’t be bothered! Just my own thoughts as such, cheers!" Griff Jenkins, Tech IOSH Speaking Their Language It’s important to speak the correct language (like English and Spanish), of course. But it’s also important to speak in a way that your employees relate to. Here’s one trainer on that issue: "Well I work at a small DE mine in nevada, we hold a morning safety meeting every morning. Which can become mundane and boring, so as the mine shift supervisor I do the topics every morning, but as a working supervisor I speak the language of the miners, not of the managers. I am constantly looking for a new way to spin safety topics. So I don’t just use mining, I use construction, I use extreme sports and military experiences and accidents. And while accidents are never funny I try to remain up beat about the topic and throw in key phrases that will stick with the employees. I will thru out the week ask about those key phrases while doing walk arounds and 7 out of 10 regularly can repeat a phrase and have told me that phrase plays over in their head which in turn translates in action while at the same time maybe giving them a laugh. We are going on 3 years with out a reportable and have had 2 non reportable a on the same 3 years. Both those individuals have been never been able to answer a phrase question at all. Hope this helps any further info just let me know." Jason Rogers, Mine Shift Supervisor/ Kiln Operator, Construction experience, Military experience USN Different Types of Software Some suggested alternative presentation software intended to improve the training and/or make it more active. For example, this health and safety specialist suggested TurningPoint, Prezi, and YouTube videos. Along with our old stand-by, competition: "Competition is great, coupled with response technology such as TurningPoint it is even better. Prezi is also a great tool for A/V use. " Drew Douglas, Health and Safety Specialist, Rama First Nation Conclusion: There Are LOTS of Ways to Make Training More Fun So that wraps that up, at least in terms of tips from our repliers. If you notice, a lot of the tips focused on creating an active learning experience for the workers and getting them more involved. And doing something that was a little fun now and again came up a lot too. But what about you? What are your tips? We’d love to read your comments in the section below.   The post How to Make Safety Training More Fun and Engaging: Tips from Safety Managers appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Because we got our start in training workers at paper manufacturing facilities, and because that’s still a core part of our customer base (even if we’ve expanded quite a bit beyond that), we’ve been writing some blog posts recently specifically geared toward training at paper manufacturing facilities. If you’re not a paper manufacturer, it’s OK-what you’ll read below is true for any job training. So don’t let that introduction scare you away. What we’re going to cover below are a few things to make sure your training is doing what it’s supposed to do-preparing workers to do what they have to do on the job. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider that makes a large number of e-learning courses, offers a number of learning management systems (LMSs) for delivering/tracking/reporting on training, and offers custom training solutions as well.  We began in the paper industry and that’s still a core strength of ours. To that end, we have the world’s best libraries of paper, pulp, tissue, and corrugated e-learning courses, and our learning management systems (LMSs) were created for papermakers and in cooperation with the largest papermaking companies in America.  Contact us today to learn more or to set up a demo.   Training People to Perform Tasks on Their Jobs Managers and owners at paper manufacturing facilities (and other places too) are willing to provide training to employees because it makes the employees more qualified to perform tasks on the job. Maybe this means the employees can perform the job better, or faster, or with less waste, or with greater safety, but it still gets down to teaching people to do real-life tasks on the job. As a result of this real-world, job-driven, task-based focus, it helps a training manager to do two things before planning a training program for an entire site (or creating any training materials): Create a list of the job roles at  your site Create a list of the tasks that people in each job role must perform You can then move on to perform a task analysis, write learning objectives, create tests/evaluations, and create training materials to teach people in various job roles the tasks that they must perform on the job. We’ve covered some of those already in existing blog posts (just click those links you may have skimmed past) and will cover more in future posts. But for now let’s take a closer look at identifying job roles and the tasks performed by people in those job roles. Creating a List of Job Roles at Your Site This one should be easy enough. If your ultimate goal is to create training to prepare employees for all the job roles at your site, you should create a list of all the job roles. Seems obvious enough, huh? So start by creating that list. There’s a good chance that your friends in HR have this already, or at least part of one. You can also touch base with department managers and supervisors to make sure you’ve got all the roles. For example, a paper manufacturer may wind up with some job titles like these on the list: Machine Tender Assistant Machine Tender Back Tender 4th Hand 5th Hand Winder Operator Assistant Winder Operator Creating this list will help the training program, but if nobody’s created a solid list in a while, you may wind up helping your coworkers in some other departments as well. Create a List of the Tasks that People in Each Job Role Must Perform To Do Their Job Once you’ve created a list of each job role at your site, now it’s time to sit down and come up with a series of related lists: the job tasks that people have to perform when assigned to each of the job roles you already listed. Ideally, you’ll create a list of all the job tasks for each job role. But it’s OK to start with the most critical tasks first. These might mean the ones that contribute most to creating a high-quality product at a low expense and/or the ones that are necessary for job safety. If you go this route and list the most critical tasks, you can still add more tasks to the list later. So for example, let’s consider that Machine Tender job role. People assigned to that role may have to complete tasks like those listed below: Startup the machine Shutdown the machine Change grades Test the paper Check centerlines Etc… Now just continue, creating a list of tasks performed by the people in each job role, and you’ll be good to go to the next stage, which is called the Job Tasks Analysis. Next Step: Perform a Task Analysis for Each Task In the next step, explained in our blog post about the task analysis, you’re going to take each of the tasks you’ve identified and break the task down into a series of steps. These steps will match the actual steps that a worker has to perform to complete the task on the job. Then you can use that task analysis to create your learning objectives, which is the set of things you want your workers to be able to do when training is complete. And from there, you can move forward to creating your tests and then your actual training materials. Conclusion: The Importance of Identifying Job Roles and Tasks For Training Hopefully, you see the importance of creating a list of the job roles at your work site and then creating a list of the tasks that people in each job role must perform. At its root, this all gets down to giving you some tools to help create effective training materials that help prepare employees to perform real-life, real-job, real-world tasks at work. And it will help you avoid creating a bunch of training materials that have no real-job value, too. This is even better for a few other reasons. First, if you’re preparing workers to do the tasks they need to do in their jobs, you’re helping your business reach its business goals. And ultimately, that’s what job training is for. And second, it helps set you up for the task analysis, creation of learning objectives, and creation of your tests and training materials, which we’ve already hinted at. The post Identifying Job Roles & Job Tasks for Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Job training shouldn’t be designed or delivered in a vacuum. And you probably know that. We’ve written a LOT about how training should be delivered with the learners in mind (the employees, that is). And that’s definitely true and important. But in this article, we’re going to look at training from a different angle: the connection between training and the business itself-in particular, the goals of a business. And we’ll do that by looking at business goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and job training. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with a series of learning management systems (LMSs), many different libraries of e-learning courses, custom training solutions, apps for mobile devices to support workers in the work area, and more. Contact us for more information or to set up a demo.   Business Goals and Job Training All job training should be designed so that it helps a business reach one or more of its business goals. The business goal or goals can be any number of things: increase revenue, decrease cost, improve quality, decrease machine downtime, improve regulatory compliance, decrease safety incidents, decrease absenteeism, etc. Whatever the goal or goals are, it’s important to remember that: You (the trainer and/or training developer) should know what those goals are before training development begins You should continually keep those goals in mind while designing, developing, and delivering training You want to create training that helps the business move toward or reach those goals Here’s an article about business goals that may prove helpful if you’re looking for more information about goals. Business Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) So now that we agree it’s important for training to directly relate to and support business goals, let’s turn our attention to how we can know if our training is doing that. And that’s where key performance indicators, also known as KPIs, come in. KPIs are ways to measure things. A simple KPI is profit, measured and tracked daily, weekly, quarterly, or annually. Another KPI would be operating cost. Another KPI would be the number of safety incidents tracked per month, and yet another would be any of the various metrics used to measure quality in manufacturing. The basic idea is that a KPI is a numerical way to measure progress toward a business goal. As a trainer, once you’ve identified the business goal or business goals your training should support, the next thing you want to do is determine which KPI is used to measure progress toward that goal. You can then find the value of that KPI before training begins, and use that as a baseline to compare the value of that same KPI after training has occurred. This simple before-and-after comparison will give you an effective way to determine if  your training materials are helping the business move toward reaching its business goal(s). How to Identify Business Goals and KPIs As a trainer, you may not always be "in the loop" about business goals and KPIs. And so you may not know which business goals your training should support, and which KPIs to use to measure before/after progress toward those goals. But that’s OK. When you’re working together with department managers and supervisors, ask them for help identifying these. In some cases, they’ll be able to tell you immediately. In other cases, you may catch them off guard. Maybe they haven’t thought this through either just yet. If that’s true, explain to them that you want to create training for a legitimate reason (to prepare employees so they can help the company move toward business goals) and you want to use KPIs to measure the effectiveness of training. With that explanation, the manager or supervisor should see the value in what you’re trying to do and should be able to help you identify some goals and KPIs. Remember this article about business goals might by a handy help here. Conclusion: Business Goals, KPIs, and Job Training Maybe you’ve been creating training key to specific business goals and measured by KPIs for some time. If so, great. But if not, now’s a good time to start keeping these in mind when you’re designing, developing, delivering, and evaluating your training and training materials. Let us know your thoughts in the comments area below. The post Business Goals, KPIs, and Job Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

In an earlier post, we mentioned the importance of creating (1) a list of the job roles at your site and (2) a list of the job tasks that people in each of those job roles have to be able to do to perform their job. In this post, we’re going to start with that list of tasks, and we’ll show you how to perform a task analysis for each task on the list. The idea is that you’ll "break down" each task into the smaller steps or sub-tasks that a person would have to perform to finish the task. The point in doing this is that once you’ve identified the steps or sub-tasks that make up a task, you’ll know what you need to teach employees who will have to perform the task properly on the job. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with a series of learning management systems (LMSs), many different libraries of e-learning courses, custom training solutions, apps for mobile devices to support workers in the work area, and more. Contact us for more information or to set up a demo. Example Task Analysis Let’s look at a quick example of a task analysis from my own job. One of the tasks I have to perform every day at work-this may be true of you, too-is to start up my computer. It’s easy to think of this as a single step, but really there are several. For example: Push power button on computer Wait for prompt Hold down the Ctrl-, Alt-, and Delete keys on keyboard at the same time when prompted Enter password So that one task-turn on computer-has at least three sub-tasks. In a nutshell, that’s all there is to a task analysis. How to Break Down a Job Task Into Smaller Steps You might be thinking to yourself, "I’m the trainer, how do I know the smaller steps that make up a job task?" Good question. And we’ve got a few answers for you. First, you don’t need to know everything. One good place to start is by talking to department managers and/or supervisors. In many cases, they can tell you the steps or they may have it documented already. Another good source is to go to an experienced worker who is known for doing the task well and ask him or her how it’s done. A word of caution, though, if you’re asking managers, supervisors, or very experienced workers. Many times they have the information in an "automatic" status and they may accidentally leave out steps because it comes so naturally to them as a result of repetition and experience. As a result, it may also be a good idea to go out into the field and observe people who do the job well. You might want to take pencil and paper or even a video camera out with you when you do this. Tasks, Sub-Tasks, and Smaller Steps When you’re analyzing a task, and you break it down into different sub-tasks, you may still find that a sub-task includes two or more smaller steps. That’s OK-include each of the smaller steps so that you fully document the procedure for completing the task. Exactly how much detail to include and how much to leave out is as much an art as a science. You want to include enough detail so you know you can teach a novice, but not so much as to make it ridiculous. How to Write Your Tasks and Sub-Tasks Here are a few style tips for writing your tasks and sub-tasks: Start each task with a verb (an action word), not a noun. The emphasis is on people doing things. Write clearly and avoid confusion Be concrete and objective; don’t be vague and subjective Next Steps: The Task Analysis and the Learning Objectives of Your Training Materials Once you’ve got your job tasks identified (as discussed in the earlier post), and you’ve broken tasks down into a series of smaller steps using the task analysis (as discussed earlier in this article), now you can move on to create your learning objectives and your training materials. You will use your list of job tasks to create learning objectives for various training activities. For example, if you were going to create some training to teach me to turn on my computer, the learning objective would be something like "by the end of this training, you should be able to turn on your computer." Likewise, you’ll use the task analysis to help you identify exactly what you need to train your workers to do. During the task analysis, you identified the various steps involved in turning on a computer (to return to our example), so now you know what exactly you need to teach when teaching someone to turn on a computer (or perform another job task). The post Task Analysis for Job Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

A kaizen event is one arrow in the lean manufacturing "quiver." Or one tool in the lean toolbox-pick your favorite metaphor. But just what is a kaizen event? This article will spell it out for you: we’ve got the goods in the sections immediately below. If you’re just getting into lean, you may be happy to know that this is part of a series of articles we’ve written on basic lean topics. Here are some others: 6S and Safety What is Kaizen? How "Lean" Value Stream Mapping Can Improve Job Training And we’ll be adding more from time to time in the future. Hope you enjoy our look at lean topics. But now, to business-let’s learn about kaizen events. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider, largely to manufacturing and industrial customers. We provide a series of learning management systems (LMSs) for assigning, deliver, and tracking training; many different e-learning course libraries geared to industrial and manufacturing customers; custom training solutions; mobile device apps for performance support on the floor; and more. Check out our website, give us a call at 1-800-619-2280, or click this link to contact us to set up a demonstration and get your questions answered. Defining the Kaizen Event Kaizen, Kaizen, and Kaizen Events: What’s the Difference? The Japanese word kaizen can be loosely translated to mean something like "change for the better" or "good change." Within the world of lean, kaizen (not the Japanese word kaizen, which we just discussed, and not kaizen event, which we’ll get to shortly) means a philosophy of continuous improvement, especially one guided by actual workers on the floor and not their managers. So kaizen is an ongoing, never-ending process of constantly making the workplace better by using observations and ideas from workers. If you’re curious, check our article that’s specifically about kaizen. By contrast, a kaizen event is NOT an ongoing, never-ending process aimed at improving the entire workplace. Instead, a kaizen event lasts for only a short period of time, typically just a few days. And it’s usually focused on one particular part of the work flow instead of on everything. And, it’s performed by a kaizen team instead of just by all workers on their own. So those are three pretty significant differences between kaizen and a kaizen event. Of course, even with those differences, the end goals remains the same: to decrease waste and increase value as perceived by your customer. How Are Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen Events Related? Lean manufacturing is a school of thought and a set of principles intended to make businesses more efficient. The basic idea is to increase value, as measured by the customer, by reducing waste in the production process. There’s more to it than that, of course, but that’s not a bad quick synopsis. Kaizen events are one aspect of lean manufacturing. So a kaizen event is one of many things you can do at work to be more lean. Holding a Kaizen Event In the following sections, we’ll give you a quick overview of what happens during a kaizen event. We’ll separate the information into three distinct times: Before the event (when pre-kaizen-event planning occurs) During the event (when you hold the kaizen event) After the event (when you follow up on the kaizen event) Before You Hold Your Kaizen Event Before your actual kaizen event, there will be a period of extended planning to prepare for the event. A kaizen event facilitator will help lead this pre-event planning period. You can have an in-house employee act as your kaizen event facilitator. However, the person who fills this role has a lot to do, and the success of a kaizen event can be closely related to how well the faciliator facilitates. When people think about hiring an outside expert to lead a kaizen event, this is who they’re thinking of hiring. That doesn’t mean you have to hire a kaizen event facilitator, we just want to get that on the table. There are also other roles that people in-house can fill during this pre-event planning period. These aren’t as critical as the role of the facilitator, and they’re beyond the scope of this article to cover. But for now, know that some other people will be doing some other things to help prepare for the kaizen event. Many things will happen during this time. Two of the most important will be selecting the scope of the event and selecting the actual kaizen event team members. We’ve included additional information about each of those below since they’re critical to the success of the event itself. Selecting The Scope or Focus on the Kaizen Event Above, during our contrast of kaizen and kaizen events, we called out a critical difference. While kaizen by definition focuses on all aspects of the workplace, a kaizen event is going to be more focused. It may focus on just one process-maybe materials delivery or warehouse and shipping. Typically, the focus of the kaizen event would have been chosen because there’s waste or inefficiency in that area that’s reducing value to the customer. The specific focus may be chosen because lean techniques such as value stream mapping, and lean metrics such lead time (LT), process time (PT), activity ratio (AR), percent complete and accurate(C&A), or rolled first past yield (RFPY) have identified it as an area for improvement. Or maybe other key performance indicators (KPIs) have been used to identify the focus. Or maybe there’s just a general sense that something could be made better. But however you’ve chosen the area, the goal is to select an area or process that could be improved to increase value to the customer. The Kaizen Event Team Another difference between kaizen and a kaizen event has to do with who’s involved. In kaizen, everyone’s involved every day. The emphasis is on having all workers contribute. By contrast, in any single kaizen event, there’s a defined kaizen team assigned to tackle the problem. Typically, you’ll need at least six people on a kaizen event team, and possibly as many as ten. You can go as high as twelve, but be careful about adding more, as this can cause the classic "too many cooks are gonna spoil the stew" problem. In addition to the facilitator (the facilitator plays a role during the pre-event planning, during the event itself, and during follow-up as well), here are some other tips to keep in mind when selecting kaizen team members: At least half of the team should be made up of the people who currently perform the work that the kaizen event is intended to improve. Limit the number of managers/company leaders on the team. Make sure the team includes people from several different departments (whose work "touches" the process or area being improved). Try to include "internal suppliers" of the process (people who provide input to that part of the business) and/or "internal customers" of the process (people who receive output from that part of the business). Include subject matter experts (SMEs) who have special knowledge about the process If appropriate and possible, consider including contractors, vendors, suppliers, and/or customers Bring in someone who’s not directly involved in the process to serve as an objective third party/outside voice. This may be a good role for someone from management/leadership. Holding Your Kaizen Event Your actual kaizen event may last a few hours or a few days. It’s typical to spend 2-5 full days on the actual event. During your kaizen event, you should complete the following phases: Start it up: The facilitator should explain to all team members the purpose and scope of the event. Everyone should introduce themselves to one another. General principles of lean manufacturing, such as waste reducing and increasing value as perceived by the customer, should be explained. And then basic structure and the agenda of the kaizen event should also be explained. Map the current state: Have all team members work together to map the current state of the process. Then, analyze the current state and identify parts that don’t add value (in other words, identify the waste). Design an improved future state: With the current state mapped, and its non-value-adding aspects identified, work together to brainstorm and design a leaner, more efficient future state. Perform some form of "tests" on the designed improvement: This may be simply reviewing a diagram, or it may involve giving a simple new process a test-run, but check to see if the new idea really is better. If you can catch a bad idea that seemed like a stroke genius "in the lab" before you put it on the floor, that’s going to save you in the end. Put the new plan into action: Now, put the new ideas into place and begin working with the new process. After Your Kaizen Event You’re not done when the short 2-5 day kaizen event is over. Instead, you’ve got plenty of observation, measurement, and monitoring to do. First of all, you want to observe the new process in action and see if it’s really being implemented as planned. You may also find that you may have to make some quick (and minor) on-the-fly adjustments at this point. Next, you’re going to want to monitor and measure the process you just changed. Remember that the goal was to increase value, and you can’t just take that on faith. So use your lean metrics and other business metrics to measure the process, compare it to your measurements before the kaizen event, and make sure there really was an improvement. And finally, you’ll want to keep tabs on the newly changed (and hopefully improved) process to make sure the changes "stick." Sometimes new changes have a way of disappearing as we backtrack to our old ways. But if your measurements show that the change did create improvement, then you want to make sure to stick with it. Conclusion: The Kaizen Event We hope this quick overview of the kaizen event gave you a general understanding of what a kaizen event is, how to prepare for one, how to hold one, and how to follow up after a kaizen event. Of course, there’s much more to be said about kaizen events, and entire books have been written about them. If this article has got you interested, then we definitely suggest you pick up a book and read more (or consider hiring one of those experienced kaizen event facilitators we mentioned earlier). If you have experience holding kaizen events, or have thoughts or comments about them, we’d love to hear what you have to say. There’s a comments section immediately below this article-type away and let yourself be heard.       The post What is a Kaizen Event? appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

In today’s economy, effective manufacturing training is a necessity. If you’re not training your workers to do their jobs properly, you’re pouring money down the drain and losing your competitive advantage. To help you out, we’ve created a free Manufacturing Training Guide you can download. It’s right at the bottom of this article. The guide will walk you though a step-by-step process in which you: Identify business goals the training supports and KPIs to measure effectiveness of training Analyze your training needs Create learning objectives and assessments Create training materials Evaluate and revise training materials Follow the steps in this guide will help move your training program in the right direction. The post Effective Manufacturing Training: Free Manufacturing Training Guide appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

A lot of people wonder how they might be able to use online  tools and courses for MSHA Part 46 training. Or, they wonder if they CAN use online learning as one part within their Part 46 training. Those are questions we’re going to answer in this article. Even better, we’re going to provide a free downloadable guide at the end of this article that you goes into a ton of detail about how you can use online training as part of your MSHA Part 46 solution. If you’re not familiar with MSHA Part 46, or if you need a refresher, here’s a helpful What is MSHA Part 46? article. Otherwise, continue on to learn more about online MSHA Part 46 training. Convergence Training is a training company that provides training solutions, including LMSs and e-learning courses, for mine safety, other safety and health topics, and much more. Check out our web page or contact us with questions or to set up a demo.   Does MSHA Allow Mine Operators to Provide Part 46 Training Online? Yes. Here’s what 46.4(d) says (note that "computer-based instruction" is explicitly OK’ed): " Training methods may consist of classroom instruction, instruction at the mine, interactive computer-based instruction or other innovative training methods, alternative training technologies, or any combination of training methods." Two Parts of an Online Solution: e-Learning Courses and a Learning Management System (LMS) People often think of "online learning"  as a single thing, but there are really two parts to it, as explained below: A Learning Management System (LMS) An LMS is an online software application that allows you to assign training to your workers, deliver some of it online, determine if your workers have completed it, give them credit for completing the training, run reports, and create documentation required by MSHA. A learning management system can really simplify a lot of the time-consuming and frustrating clerical, organizational, and scheduling tasks that you are probably managing by hand (and Excel spreadsheets, and paper-based training records stored in manila envelopes, etc.). If you’re struggling with the time, organization, and clerical tasks associated with Part 46 training, and the expenses that come with them, then an LMS can really be your friend. For more about LMSs, read this What is an LMS? article or check out an LMS made for MSHA compliance. e-Learning Courses e-Learning courses are what people often think of when they think of online learning. They are the actual courses on actual workforce training topics. An e-learning course is not the same as an LMS, but you can import e-learning courses into an LMS and then use the LMS to assign and deliver the courses to your workers. An good analogy is that an LMS and e-learning courses are similar to video game players (like X-Box or PlayStation or Wii) and the games you buy to play with the players. The video game player is like an LMS; the video games are like the e-learning courses. For some examples, check out this collection of e-learning courses for MSHA safety training compliance. Sample e-Learning Course for MSHA Part 46 Training Here’s a sample of an e-learning course that covers a topic required by MSHA Part 46. This course is about the physical characteristics of surface mines. You could have your miners view this course as PART of your "introduction to the mining environment" training required by New Miner and Newly Hired Experienced Miner. Then you could follow that up with some site-specific training about your site and, of course, a mine tour. Our Free Online MSHA Part 46 Training Guide: Download it Below Want to learn more about how an online solution, including an LMS and e-learning courses, can help you out with Part 46? If so, just click the download button below-we’ll send a free guide directly to your inbox. Nice! The post Online MSHA Part 46 Training Compliance: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

We work closely with customers in the pulp, paper, tissue, and corrugated industries. In fact, that’s where we started-partnering with a local paper mill to create a learning management system (LMS) to deliver training online and track its completion. From there, we quickly began creating e-learning courses for the same industries, covering papermaking processes, EHS topics, and more. That’s why we thought it would be nice to create a handy guide for companies in the pulp, paper, tissue, and corrugated industries who want to fine-tune their training programs. The guide below presents a step-by-step approach to creating and/or improving your training program at work. Hopefully you’ll find it helfpul. Let us know if you have some thoughts in the comments below. Also, feel free to check out our training solutions for these industries, including: Enterprise learning management system (LMS) Contractor LMS Pulping e-learning courses Paper Manufacturing e-learning courses Tissue e-learning courses Corrugated packaging e-learning courses Health and safety e-learning courses Custom training solutions   The post How to Develop an Effective Paper Manufacturing Training Program appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

We’re all in favor of safety training. But even better, we’re in favor of EFFECTIVE safety training. Safety training that employees learn from. Safety training that causes them to perform more safe actions at work and fewer (or better-no) unsafe actions. Safety training that drives down our number of accidents, injuries, illnesses, near-misses, and property damage. Maybe all the way to zero. That’s the kind of effective safety training we’re all in favor of. But effective safety training doesn’t just happen. It comes from a focused, concerted effort that involves lots of know-how and planning. In this article, we’re going to look at some things you can do to make your safety training more effective, and as a result make your workplace safer. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with many libraries of e-learning courses, including a large library of health and safety e-learning courses. We also provide a variety of learning management systems (LMSs) so you can manage all types of training (not just e-learning, but classroom, task-based, on-the-job, etc.). Contact us to set up a demo or to learn more.   Tips for Effective Safety Training Below are some tips you can use to make your safety training more effective. If you follow these tips, you’ll definitely be heading in the right direction. You’ll notice the first two steps aren’t directly related to safety TRAINING but to safety in general. But we think you’ll agree they’re logical starting points. Identify Your Hazards: The first thing you can do is inspect the workplace for hazards. Your safety training won’t be very good unless you know what hazards you’re trying to protect your workers from. Performing a job hazard analysis is a great way to get started. During a JHA, a team of people investigate a work area and look for hazards associated with a particular job. They’ll then work to reduce those hazards, a point we’ll get to shortly. Click to read our entire article about the job hazard analysis (JHA). There’s even a free guide there waiting for you. Control Your Hazards: It’s good to do a JHA and identify your hazards. But it’s even better to control your hazards. If you don’t talk "Safety Manager 101," that means to make the workplace safer by eliminating or reducing the hazards. One great model you can use to do this is to follow what safety folks know as the hierarchy of controls. The hierarchy of controls gives you a simple pattern to use when trying to control hazards-try elimination first, substitution second, engineering controls third, work practice controls fourth, and PPE fifth. Note that PPE is always a last resort, and recognize that in some cases you may well use different types of controls in combination (for example, an engineering control and PPE). We’ve got a hierarchy of controls article for you here. And we’ve got a free hierarchy of controls e-learning course for you here. Know Your Safety Training Regulations: It’s also a good idea to find out the safety training requirements that regulatory agencies like OSHA or MSHA place on your work site. First, because the law’s the law, and compliance with the law is a good thing. But even though compliance with the law is a good thing, two even better reasons to check those safety training regulations are (a) to make sure you’re not overlooking something the regulation may help you identify and (b) to set a "baseline minimum" for training that you can then then exceed with your own training. Here’s a website where OSHA identifies its safety training requirements (although I think it’s a little dated and perhaps inaccurate, but it’s the latest one they have). And here are the MSHA Part 46 and Part 48 safety training requirements. Have a Method for Your Safety Training-ANSI Z490.1: It’s a good idea to follow a proven, trusted method for delivering your safety training. If you haven’t heard of ANSI Z490.1, the national standard for accepted EHS training practices, now’s a good time to get familiar with it. The standard provides a step-by-step method for safety trainers like you. Here’s an article that introduces you to ANSI Z490.1. This article serves as an introduction, but you’ll find it includes links to lengthy discussions of each of ANSI Z490.1’s multiple sections as well. Know Your Learning Objectives: Early in the process of designing training, you’ll want to create a set of learning objectives. Your learning objectives are the things you want your employees to do on their job as a result of your training. If you pick the right learning objectives (for example, to lock and tagout machinery before performing maintenance), you can then design your training to teach employees to perform those actions and create tests that evaluate if employees can perform those actions during training. So in short, your learning objectives are what everything else in your training supports. Here’s a helpful article about learning objectives (there’s another handy downloadable guide waiting for you there) and here’s a shorter article that covers similar ground. Know Your Employees: There’s a much better chance that your employees will "get" your training, and be safer workers as a result, if you create training with their characteristics in mind. Do they prefer classroom-style training or training in the field? Do they like to start training with some e-learning and then talk about it as a group? Are they comfortable with written material, or is that a struggle for them? What is their level of previous knowledge on the topic-and what existing knowledge can you use to make comparisons while introducing new knowledge? The more you know about your employees, the more effective your training will be. Know and Acknowledge the "What’s In It For Me?" Issue: Your employees are going to pay attention to training and care about it if they know how it’s important for them. If you start by explaining how training will keep them safe in their jobs (or better yet, ask them how it’s related to their jobs), you’re off to a good start. And remember to design the training so it’s focused on how your workers actually work. Avoid simply reading off a safety regulation-that’s too abstract. Make it personal. Know about Active Learning: One of those adult learning principles we talked about earlier is the importance of active learning. The idea is that people don’t learn by passively sitting and listening to a lecture. Instead, they learn when they’re being active. This can mean leading the training session themselves, actively participating in a Q&A session, sharing their thoughts and experiences, performing hands-on training, and similar stuff. If you design training knowing that it’s important for the workers to be active participants, they’ll get more out of it and you’ll have a safer work place. Here’s a great article full of tips from real-life safety managers about how to create engaging, fun, effective safety training, with an emphasis on active learning. Know Your Adult Learning Principles: The "What’s in it for me?" issue and active learning are part of what learning experts call adult learning principles. Adult learning principles are things that make adults more likely to learn, as you might have guessed. If your training includes these adult learning principles, it’s going to be more effective and lead to a safer work place. Here’s a full article on adult learning principles, and here’s another about applying adult learning principles in safety training. Know How to Write and Talk: When you write training materials, or when you’re speaking during a training session, it’s important to use the right kind of language. And for effective training, that means a few things-primarily, conversational and the kind of language the workers themselves use. Here’s a longer article that gives more tips about how to write (or speak) for effective training. We’ve even got an article about formatting your written training materials to improve your training. Know About the Combined Power of Words and Pictures: We’re visual creatures-most of the information that comes to us comes from our eyes. And so it’s no surprise that training with good visuals (pictures, movies, real-life objects, etc.) can be very effective. Even better, many studies show that training that includes well-designed visuals and words together is even more effective-this is because our brains have two "processing centers," one for images and one for words. Here’s a helpful article about visuals in workplace training. And here’s a sample of forklift safety training e-learning course from Convergence Training and their health and safety e-learning library. You can see how this blending of spoken words and images can be really effective. Know the Value of "Chunking": Humans can only keep a small amount of information in our working memory-maybe only four-at any one time. If you give your workers more than that to handle, they’ll get overwhelmed and nothing will "stick." The solution to that is to organize your training into tiny, bite-sized "chunks." (Yep, that’s what it’s called in learning and development.) Doing this will give your workers a better chance of retaining the information. Here’s an article about safety training and chunking (it specifically relates to MSHA safety training, but the point is universal). And here’s a longer article with more details about chunking and training. Know the Importance of Testing: Training is good, but it’s also important to test your employees to make sure they understand the important concepts and/or can demonstrate that they know how to perform job tasks safely BEFORE you send them out on the floor to work. Don’t forget to test-without it, you’re only hoping people have learned. Here’s a helpful article to get you started with testing. Know How to Evaluate Your Training Effectiveness: And here’s one last thing you want to know about effective safety training. To know if it’s effective or not, you’ve got to evaluate the results-you can’t just assume it worked. Get out on the field and observe behaviors and see what workers are doing. Check your near-miss numbers and your injury/illness/incident counts. Make sure your training is having the effect you’re hoping for. If you can get data of key performance indicators (KPIs) for safety both before and after training is held, that can be a real benefit because it allows you to compare your data. Here’s an article about training and KPIs. What Are YOUR Tips for Effective Safety Training? Well, those were a few tips from us, but what about you? What tips do you have to share that we didn’t mention above? Or what thoughts do you have to add? We’d love to hear what you have to say-just use the comments section below. And while you’re at it, why not download the free Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) guide we’ve got for you below? The post Tips for Effective Safety Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

When a contractor is working at a surface mine, it brings up a lot of questions regarding the MSHA Part 46 training requirements for contractors. For example, who’s responsible for what in terms of providing the MSHA Part 46 safety training? And, of course, there are questions about the type of training the contractor needs to receive, who pays, etc. If you don’t know all the ins and outs of this issue now, you will by the time you finish this article. So let’s get started with this overview of MSHA Part 46 training for contract employees. Who’s Who in the Part 46 Contractor Training Picture There are three roles to consider in this discussion. They are listed and defined below: The production-operator: As defined in 46.2(2)(m), this is "any owner, lessee, or other person who operates, controls, or supervises a mine under this part." The independent contractor: As defined in 46.2(2)(e), this is "…any person, partnership, corporation, subsidiary of a corporation, firm, association, or other organization that contracts to perform services at a mine under this part." Employees of the independent contractor who work at a mine site: These are the people who work for the independent contractors defined immediately above and who work at a mine site where Part 46 training requirements apply. These employees are considered "miners" as explained in 46.2(g)(1)(i) and (ii)-"Any person, including any operator or supervisor, who works at a mine and who is engaged in mining operations. This definition includes independent contractors and employees of independent contractors who are engaged in mining operations; and any construction worker who is exposed to hazards of mining operations." That may make you wonder what "mining operations" means. Here’s how that’s defined in 46.2(h): "Mining operations means mine development, drilling, blasting, extraction, milling, crushing, screening, or sizing of minerals at a mine; maintenance and repair of mining equipment; and associated haulage of materials within the mine from these activities." The Production-Operator’s Part 46 Requirements for Contractor Training The production-operator has two primary responsibilities when it comes to the employees of independent contractors who will be working at their site as miners. The first is that the "production-operator has primary responsibility for ensuring that site-specific hazard awareness training is given to employees of independent contractors who are required to receive such training under 46.11…". That’s from 46.12(a)(1). You can read more about the Part 46 requirements for site-specific hazard awareness training here. The second is to "provide information to each independent contractor who employs a person at the mine on site-specific mine hazards and the obligation of the contractor to comply with our (‘our’ means ‘MSHA" there) regulations, including the requirements of this part." That’s from 46.12(a)(2). The Independent Contractor’s Part 46 Requirements for Contractor Training Now let’s look at the independent contractor’s responsibilities for Part 46 training for his or her workers (who are considered "miners" under 46.2). The independent contractor "has primary responsibility for complying with 46.3 through 46.10 of this part, including providing new miner training, newly hired experienced miner training, new task training, and annual refresher training." That quote’s from 46.12(b)(1), and those links take you to the MSHA site that explains each of those Part 46 training programs in more detail. In addition, the independent contractor "must inform the production-operator of any hazards of which the contractor is aware that may be created by the performance of the contractors work at the mine." Note that because 46.12(b)(1) says the independent contractor is responsible for complying with 46.3-46.10, that includes creating a training plan (46.3) and keeping records of training (46.9). Who Pays the Workers While They’re Training and How Much? The independent contractor. In 46.12(b)(1), it says the "independent contractor…has primary responsibility for complying with 46.3-46.10," and in 46.10 it says "Training must be conducted during normal working hours. Persons required to receive training must be paid at a rate of pay that corresponds to the rate of pay they would have received had they been performing their normal work tasks." Conclusion: MSHA Part 46 Training for Contractors That’s our little overview of MSHA Part 46 training for contractors. If you had some questions or confusion before, we hope we’ve addressed them. Of course, feel free to use the comments section below to write any of your own thoughts or other questions-we’d love to hear from you. Also, if you’ve got other questions about MSHA Part 46, download our free guide to MSHA Part 46 below. The post MSHA Part 46 Training Requirements for Contractors appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.