When many people think of learning management systems, they think of "online training" or e-learning courses. But what many people don’t think about is instructor-led training, classroom-style training, face-to-face training, weekly safety meetings, and similar things that happen when people are working together to learn. But you CAN use an LMS to administer instructor-led training, and doing so makes life easier for training administrators and for average employees as well. In this article, we’ll look at some examples of how you can  use an LMS to administer instructor-led training and show how doing so makes work easier and more efficient. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider that makes a series of learning management systems (LMSs), hundreds of off-the-shelf e-learning courses in many different training libraries, custom training solutions, mobile apps for training and performance support, and more. Contact us to learn more and to set up a demo.   How to Administer Instructor-Led Training with an LMS How can you administer instructor-led training with an LMS, you ask? Isn’t it impossible to use an LMS, a tool for online learning, for face-to-face, instructor-led, classroom-style training? Nope, it’s not. In fact, an LMS is a perfect tool for administering training as a blended learning solution. Not sure what blended learning is? We recommend you back up, click that link you just whizzed by, and read the article. Even better, download the free blended learning guide. But, to condense the basic point into a few words, blended learning solutions provide training to people in many different training methods-e-learning, instructor-led, written materials, videos, webinars, task-based training in the field, job shadowing, following, and/or mentoring, online quizzes, and more. And you can use an LMS to administer all that training (not just the e-learning). You can assign it all. Your employees can see a list of everything that’s been assigned. You can give people credit for completing it all. You can run reports on it all. You can store records of completed training for all the training. So sure, you can’t use the LMS to deliver instructor-led training to your workers the way you can with e-learning. Your workers can’t complete instructor-led training online (unless you set it up as a webinar). But you still can take advantage of all the other administrative benefits that save so much time, effort, and money, and that make your training program so much more efficient and comprehensive. So, let’s take a look at some ways you can do this. Structuring Your Instructor-Led Training An LMS will allow you to create instructor-led classes with different "structures." What does that mean, you ask? It means the class may include one or more session. And it means the class may have only one instance of each session, or it means the class may have multiple instances of each session. Let’s make that even more clear by sketching out some examples. Different Class Structures In Your LMS One session, one instance-Have some employees come together one time for instruction. Send them on their way when it’s done. That’s it. One session, more than one instance-Have different groups of employees come at different times/places to hear the same thing. This works well when you want to deliver a single training message but can’t deliver it to a large group of employees at the same time. Multiple sessions, one instance of each session-Have the same group of employees come to several different sessions of instruction spread out over time (for example, one class a week for five weeks). Works well when you need to train a small group of employees a topic that takes more time than one session will allow. Multiple sessions, with more than one instance of each session-Spread instruction out over several sessions (for example, a five-session class that meets once a week) and have each of those sessions include two or more instances (so a group of workers can attend session one on Monday and a different group of workers can attend session two on Tuesday. Here’s what that might look like in an LMS: Scheduling Your Instructor-Led Training Use the LMS to specify the date and time that your class will be held (or, if it’s a multi-session and/or multi-instance class, as described above, specify the date and time of each session and instance). This date and time information is sent on to employees who are later assigned to attend the class. It’s also visible to other LMS administrators who may be scheduling their own class. Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Specifying the Location of Your Instructor-Led Training You can also schedule where the class is going to take place. Conference room A, the training room, an offsite hotel, a third-party training consultant, an OSHA or MSHA regional office, or anywhere else. You create a list of places where classes can be held-it’s as easy as clicking "New," entering some information, and clicking "Save." Then you can select a location when you’re creating a class. Here’s how that might look in your LMS: Allowing Workers to Self-Register for Different Sessions of Instructor-Led Training To Best Fit Their Schedule If you want, you can assign workers to complete a class and, if the class has multiple sessions and/or instances, you can specify which sessions/instances each employee has to attend. On the other hand, you can assign workers to complete a class but allow them to self-register for the different sessions and instances that they’d like to attend. Creating this self-registration process helps to put the employee in charge of his or her training schedule. This provides more flexibility so that the employee can fit the training in around his or her work schedule. It also generally makes the employee feel more respected, self-empowered, and accountable. If you do set up a class to allow self-registration, the employee that has been assigned to complete the class will be notified that he/she must self-register for the different sessions and instances. The LMS will "cap" registration for any session-instance at a maximum number of employees (selected by you). The self-registration process might look something like this in your LMS: Designating an Instructor for Your Instructor-Led Training Not only can you create and assign a class in your LMS, you an also select an instructor. If you’re creating a class with multiple sessions and/or instances, you can select the same instructor or different instructors for each session/instance. Here’s what that might look like in your LMS: Assigning Instructor-Led Training To Workers Once you’ve created a class in your LMS, it’s an easy process to assign various workers to complete that class. What’s better, your LMS should make it easy for you to select one or more individual employee, or all employees in a given team, department, or site, or all employees in a custom group of your own creation, or to mix and match to create your assignment (such as 3 individual employees, one custom group, and two teams). Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Letting Workers See a List of Instructor-Led Training That’s Been Assigned to Them (Along With Other Training Activities) Once you’ve assigned the class to the employees, they’ll be notified of the assignment and will be able to see the class on a list of their assigned training. Clicking on the class within the list of assigned training in the LMS will show them key details, such as date, time, place, instructor, and any other details you provided. Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Giving Credit to Workers for Completing Instructor-Led Training With an LMS, you can create a record of an employee completing a class with just a few keystrokes or mouse clicks. What’s better, the LMS will give you the flexibility to create a completion record for one employee, for a selection or employees, for all the employees in a custom group or on a team/department/site, or however you want to slice and dice it. Even better, those completion records are: Saved indefinitely (you won’t have to worry about losing them) All stored in the same central repository (say goodbye to a system of storing records in various spreadsheets, databases, and filing cabinets) Easy to search for and verify Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Storing a Scanned Sign-In Sheet After Instructor-Led Training Is Complete Many work places pass out a paper-based sign-in sheet during a training session. Employees print their name, sign the sheet, and write down the date, and then employers store these sign-in sheets in a seemingly endless collection of manila envelopes in metal filing cabinets, often in different rooms at different ends of a large facility. All of which makes these records hard to manage and retrieve when necessary. With an LMS, you can still hand out those paper-based sign-in sheets. And you can still collect those printed names, signatures, and dates. But what’s better is you can then scan that sheet and electronically "attach" the scanned sign-in sheet to the completion record you give to employees when they complete training. The LMS will store that electronic version of the sign-in sheet indefinitely, and it’s no more than a few clicks of a mouse to retrieve one when you need it. Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Running Reports to See Who Attended/Didn’t Attend Instructor-Led Training One of the great things about having records stored in a computerized system is that it’s easy to run reports on them. That’s no different when it comes to completion records stored for instructor-led training/classes within an LMS. And that makes it easy to see who’s done and not done with an assigned class. Here’s how that might look in an LMS: Running Reports to See If a Worker Has Completed Instructor-Led Training Along With Other Types of Training Of course, you’ll probably use a blended learning solution for training at work. Meaning, you’ll assign workers to attend instructor-led classes but also to complete other forms of training, such as e-learning, written materials, task-based training completed in the field, and more. So you’ll want to be able to run a report to see if someone has completed a series of training activities of multiple types. And an LMS makes it easy for you to do that as well. Here’s how that will look in an LMS: Permanently Storing Records of Completed Instructor-Led Training And finally, those records of completed training will be stored indefinitely in a secure, online location. No need to worry about fire or floods. No need to worry about hauling records back and forth from a back closet storage area. And no need to worry about computer malfunction-the records are backed up repeatedly onto two different servers in two different cities throughout the US. Wrap Up: That’s How You Administer Instructor-Led Training with an LMS When many people think of learning management systems (or online learning), they think it’s all about e-learning courses. As you’ve seen, though, an LMS lets you work with instructor-led training too. And even if the LMS can’t deliver the training for instructor-led classes directly online (unless you’re doing a webinar, which we’ll talk about in a different article), the LMS still provides you with tons of efficiency and power in terms of your training administration. If this is nothing new to you, use our comments section below to share your experiences and insights. And if this IS new to you, take a moment to consider expanding this new idea to other types of training, such as task-based training, written materials, and more. Because, yes, you can use an LMS to administer that type of training too. In fact, here’s another article that shows you more about what you can do with an LMS and "online training." If this article has made you curious to learn more, watch the 2-minute Enterprise LMS video overview and/or download the free LMS Buyer’s Guide Checklist below. The post 12 Ways to Administer Instructor-Led Training with an LMS appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

If you’re in EHS, you’re probably also in EHS training. If so, you’re going to LOVE the free downloadable guide at the bottom of this article. The guide is going to walk you through all the steps of having a top-notch EHS training program that follows best practices. We think it will make your job easier and your workplace a safer, healthier place. Hope you enjoy it. You can download it now, or you can read the short preview article we’ve prepared for you below and download it from the bottom of this page. Such a life-so many options! Convergence Training is a training solutions provider. We have many libraries of e-learning courses, including a wide variety of EHS e-learning courses and mining safety e-learning courses. We also produce a number of different learning management system (LMSs) for companies of different sizes and in different industries. Contact us to ask some questions and set up a demo.   Best Practices for Effective EHS Training Programs (With a Hat-Tip to ANSI Z490.1) No doubt you recognize the importance of effective EHS training. And, maybe, you’re entirely on top of this and your EHS training program is excellent (although if your EHS program is excellent, we bet you’ve got a continuous improvement program built into it, which means you’re no doubt interested in reading and learning more to make it even better). But maybe you’re like a lot of people forced to wear many hats at work. Maybe your expertise is in environment, health, or safety, or some combination of those, but you’re less familiar with the steps and methods involved in effective training. Or maybe you’re familiar with best practices of training, but your EHS training program could still use a little brushing up. In either case, we’re all fortunate that ANSI Z490.1, the American National Standard with Criteria for Accepted Practices in Safety, Health, and Environmental Training, exists. ANSI Z490.1 spells out everything you should do to put together, deliver, and continually improve an EHS training program. At the bottom of this guide, we’ve created something like a "companion piece" to ANSI Z490.1. It restates what the standard tells you to do, perhaps in more familiar, conversational language. It provides in-depth examples and explanations. And it includes links to many additional resources that will make your job even easier. Here’s what the guide will walk you through: The Scope, Purpose, and Application of ANSI Z490.1 It’s best to start at the beginning. What is this standard, who does it apply to, and similar information. There’s a helpful FAQ in this section of the guide. EHS Training Program Administration and Management Learn the responsibilities involved in administering and managing an EHS training program and how to integrate it into your EHS management program in general. EHS Training Development Learn everything you need to know and do before you begin training. This includes: Performing a needs assessment Identifying course prerequisites Creating learning objectives Designing the course Designing the evaluation Determining completion criteria Making plans for continuous improvement EHS Training Delivery In this section of the guide, we’ll tell you what you need to know about: Criteria for effective EHS trainers EHS training delivery methods EHS training materials EHS Training Evaluation It’s not enough to develop and deliver EHS training. You’ve also got to evaluate your employees to see if they’ve learned and evaluate your training program to see how effective it is and how it can be improved. In this section, we’ll walk you through: General EHS training evaluation criteria Training evaluation approaches Continuous improvement of your EHS training courses and program EHS Training Documentation and Record Keeping Finally, we’ll discuss the importance of documenting and keeping records of your EHS training, and give some best practices for each. This will include: EHS training documentation and recordkeeping systems and procedures Confidentiality and availability Issuing EHS training completion certificates Our Free Online Effective EHS Training Guide: Download it Below Want to learn more on how to create, design, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training? If so, just click the download button below-we’ll send a free guide directly to your inbox. Nice! The post Effective EHS Training: A Guide to Creating, Designing, Delivering, & Evaluating EHS Training That Works appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

If you’re an operator or a production-operator at a surface mine in the U.S., you know you’ve got to provide safety training for your miners (if this is news to you, we’ll give you some relevant news and definitions about that in just a second). In addition, the production-operator and a contracting company share responsibility for making sure that contract employees working at a mine site get safety training as well. We’ve covered that all in our recent MSHA Part 46 Training Requirements for Contractors article. But in addition to that, you’ve also got to provide safety training to your employees who are not miners. And that’s what we’re going to explain in this article. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider that makes mining safety e-learning courses, other health and safety e-learning courses, industrial maintenance courses, a learning management system (LMS) specially designed for MSHA Part 46 compliance, and much more. Contact us to ask some questions and set up a demo. Hey, why not download our free guide to online MSHA Part 46 Training?   For Starters: Part 46, Production-Operators, Operators, Miners, and Contractors for Part 46 Because we threw around some terms above, we thought we’d give you the official MSHA definitions and/or other relevant information before we turn to the real topic of this article, which is mandatory training for non-mining employees at surface mines. Scope of Part 46 Part 46 applies in the following mines: The provisions of this part set forth the mandatory requirements for training and retraining miners and other persons at shell dredging, sand, gravel, surface stone, surface clay, colloidal phosphate, and surface limestone mines. source Operator Here’s what an operator is: Operator means any production-operator, or any independent contractor whose employees perform services at a mine. source Production-Operator A production-operator is: Production-operator means any owner, lessee, or other person who operates, controls, or supervises a mine under this part. source Miner Here’s what a miner is: 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 (ii) Any construction worker who is exposed to hazards of mining operations. source Part 46 Training for Contractors We’ve got an entire article on this. Check it out. Mandatory Part 46 Safety Training for Non-Mining Employees at Surface Mines Keeping in mind some of the definitions above, we’re now going to spell out to you the mandatory safety training that non-mining employees must receive while working at a surface mine. Who Are Non-Mining Employees? If  you’ve got an employee at a mine site, and if that person doesn’t fit the definition of miner above, then he or she is a non-mining employee. Here are some examples listed in Part 46: Office or staff personnel Scientific workers Delivery workers source-46.11 (note that others are also listed in 46.11, and we’ll address them in later articles, but feel free to check out the list now) In addition to that list of examples from MSHA, non-mining employees might also include "normal" production workers working on a process that’s not covered by MSHA regulations. For example, I have a customer in my office today who’s the safety manager at a surface mine for gypsum. Part of their operation is covered by MSHA, but at a certain point of the process MSHA regulations no longer apply and workers in that area are covered by OSHA regulations. This is another example of a non-mining employee. (Hat tip to Russ for the example.) What Kind of Mandatory Training Must Non-Mining Employees Receive? You’ve got to give "site-specific hazard awareness" training to these workers. According to Part 46, here’s what that means: Site-specific hazard awareness training is information or instructions on the hazards a person could be exposed to while at the mine, as well as applicable emergency procedures. The training must address site-specific health and safety risks, such as unique geologic or environmental conditions, recognition and avoidance of hazards such as electrical and powered-haulage hazards, traffic patterns and control, and restricted areas; and warning and evacuation signals, evacuation and emergency procedures, or other  safety procedures. source How to Provide Site-Specific Hazard Awareness Training to Non-Mining Employees MSHA’s pretty flexible on this (as with other trainings). Here’s what they say: You may provide site-specific hazard awareness training through the use of written hazard warnings, oral instruction, signs and posted warnings, walkaround training, or other appropriate means that alert persons to site-specific hazards at the mine. source Conclusion: Part 46 Site-Specific Hazard Awareness Training for Non-Mining Employees at Surface Mines You don’t have to give your non-mining employees the same amount of safety training that you give your miners. But, you DO have to give them some training so they know about the hazards at the site where they are working. There are many ways to do this, and we encourage you to use a blended learning approach in which training is delivered in various different methods, such as e-learning, instructor-led, written materials, and more. Using one or more e-learning course in that blended learning solution can really pay off in terms of training effectiveness and efficiency. And what’s more, using that as part of a total online solution that also includes a learning management system designed to deliver, track, credit, report, and otherwise manage all that Part 46 training will make your training department much more efficient-making training more effective and more compliant while also saving you time and money. Read more about online MSHA Part 46 training by downloading the free guide below. The post MSHA Part 46 Training for Non-Mining Employees appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Job trainers have a lot of things to check off their to-do list. One is to evaluate the learning of employees who have completed training. This means things like assessments and tests, seeing if people can pass tests, have necessary knowledge, and (most importantly) have acquired necessarily skills/can perform necessary tasks. The second is to determine if the training is having a positive effect on the relevant performance metrics for the company and, if possible, to determine an ROI for the training (this is how you’re going to really prove your worth and really prove your training is effective). In terms of Kirkpatrick’s training evaluations, we’re talking about the elusive but equally important Level 4 here. But a lot of trainers go to school and learn a lot about instructional design theory while learning next to nothing about performance metrics (this includes me-guilty). As a result, it’s not always clear how to start showing if training has had a positive effect on those performance metrics. To help solve this problem, we thought we’d give you an introduction to some of the theory behind the development of meaningful workplace performance metrics, and in particular to what are known as "balanced performance metrics." This will be one of a series of articles we’ll write on how training is related to performance metrics and KPIs not just for the training department but for the company as a whole, so keep your eyes on future articles for more on this topic. What you’ll learn here is based off a handy little guide called Designing Metrics: Crafting Balanced Measures for Managing Performance by Dr. Bob Frost. We found this book to be really helpful, pleasantly brief, and to-the-point. We recommend you buy a copy if this article sparks your interest, and we note that Dr. Frost has written a few other books that look interesting as well. In particular, Measuring Performance: Using the New Metrics to Deploy Strategy and Improve Performance looks like it might be good and a logical next step to this book. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider that offers a large number of e-learning courses, a number of learning management systems (LMSs) for companies of different sizes and industries, mobile apps for m-learning and on-the-job performance support, custom training solutions, and more. Contact us to ask some questions and set up a demo. What Is a Balanced Performance Metric? Frost begins his book by breaking performance metrics into two very broad categories: The old way to do it The new way to do it (Frost wrote this book in 2007, and he repeatedly notes that this "new way" originated in the 1990s or so) The primary difference, according to Frost, are explained below: The Old-School Way to Design Performance Metrics Older performance metrics: Are focused primarily/solely on financial aspects Present just one perspective Are "lagging indicators" that take a snapshot in time and give information only about the past Aren’t "leading indictors" and don’t give actionable information Don’t present enough context to know the all-important "why?" Are poorly presented in tables that are hard to read/make sense of Tend to lead to unintended consequences in which workers ignore important things at work simply to improve measured metrics The New-School Way to Design Performance Metrics On the other hand, newer methods create performance metrics that: Are focused on multiple aspects of the company Present a variety of perspectives Aren’t just "lagging indicators" but provide "leading indicators" as well Give actionable information Do give enough context to know or get closer to the all-important "why?" Show trends Are presented visually in tables and graphs (not numerically in tables or in text) Balance forces that have a natural tendency to contradict and/or be in conflict with one another at work Frost explains that these newer metrics are "balanced," meaning that they look at many parts of a company’s performance instead of just focusing on financials. This allows companies to evaluate their performance from more perspectives or "angles," to gain more insight into what they’re doing, and to better anticipate what they should be doing next. We’ll learn more about these various balanced performance metrics in the next section. Six Balanced Performance Measurement Frameworks According to Frost, measuring performance begins by selecting a measurement framework. Your measurement framework(s) will help you identify your company’s critical success factors (CSFs), and your CSFs will help you identify what you measure (your key performance indicators, or KPIs). Frost then presents six different balanced measurement frameworks. They are: Balanced scorecard Strategy maps Stakeholder framework Program logic model Enterprise performance framework Cascading framework Let’s look at each in more detail, leaning on Frost’s explanations in his book. Balanced Scorecard The Balanced Scorecard is a popular framework for performance metrics. According to Frost, it’s the most commonly used at Fortune 500 companies, and Mobil Oil’s use of it is especially well known (it was critical for helping a once-floundering Mobil turn things around, according to Mobil execs, before they merged with Exxon). Companies that use a balanced scorecard measurement framework should ultimately create performance measures in four different categories: Financial Customers Internal Learning/Growth Let’s look at each in more detail. Financial performance measures: Nuts and bolts financial measures. Internal performance measures: How are your internal processes progressing? This includes things like quantity, quality, speed, cost, and so on. Customer performance measures: What do your customers think of you? Customer satisfaction measurements, things like customer service wait time, etc. Learning/growth performance measures: These items ultimately address whether or not you can sustain growth and/or retain your current market position (or improve it). Can include "nuts and bolts" things like training time, training completed, and training costs, but also things like major changes implemented and new strategic dimensions. Want to know more about the balanced scorecard? Check out The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, available at the Harvard Book Review. Strategy Maps Strategy maps are really just a "repackaging" of the balanced scorecard to make it clear how the balanced scorecard and the performance measurements lead to the business achieving its business strategy. The strategy map was developed by Kaplan and Norton, big players in performance measurement, in their book The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment. A strategy map looks at the same four aspects that the balanced scorecard does, but with each leading to the next.This makes it easy to see the company’s strategy as laid out in the measurement framework. From "bottom" to "top," these are: Learning/Growth Internal Customer perspective Financial Let’s look at how each leads to the next. Learning and Growth: Focused, strategic changes in the company’s knowledge and skills leads to… Internal: New and/or improved processes, which lead to… Customer: Better results for customers and increased customer satisfaction, which leads to… Financials: Better financial bottom line(s)! Stakeholder Framework This framework is a three-step process: Identify your stakeholders Figure out what they care about Figure out how to measure what they care about Program Logic Model This one is more common in government agencies and non-profits and not used much at all in business. There are different ways to use the program logic model. In one of the most common, you break things down into four categories: Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Let’s look at each. Inputs: Inputs include resources use to "do" things (human, financial, facilities and technologies). Activities: Activities include the things that get done. Outputs: Outputs are short-term results of getting those things done. Outcomes: Outcomes are the ultimate, long-range goals of the organization or program. Enterprise Performance Framework The enterprise performance framework is fundamentally based on the recognition of economic pressures and competition within a market. It looks at three aspects of a company: Effectiveness Efficiency Strategic Improvement Let’s look at each a little more. Effectiveness: How well is the company (or organization) doing in terms of completing its ultimate goal or mission? Efficiency: How efficiently is the company doing in terms of reaching its ultimate goal or mission? Or few (or many) resources is it using to make its accomplishments? Strategic Improvement: What is the company doing internally to anticipate/adapt/change/prepare for the future and changing business realities? As you see, effectiveness and efficiency look at the present (and the past), while strategic improvement looks at the future (and the present). Cascading Framework The cascading framework starts by identifying the company’s key mission or goals, then analyzes how the business units (and increasingly smaller sub-units)  contribute to helping the company achieve that mission. So it might look something like this: Business goal/mission Each business unit Under each business unit, the sub-unit(s) etc. The idea is that each business unit is evaluated  based on how they contribute to the goal or the critical success factors (CSFs) of the unit above. So, for example, level 2 may include 20 different mills at 20 different sites. Each mill would be evaluated based on how it’s helping the organization as a whole attain its goal(s). Level 3 (at one of those 20 mills) might include departments such as Production, Quality, HR, etc. Each department would be evaluated based on how it’s helping the mill it’s part of achieve its critical success factors (CSFs). And level 4 (at one of those 20 mills, in one of those departments, such as Production), might include multiple areas, such as Machine Line 1, Machine Line 2, and so on. Each area would be determined based on how it’s helping its department achieve its critical success factors. The point is to make sure different business units don’t "go rogue/AWOL" and become so autonomous they’re not really contributing to the overall mission. Performance Measurement Frameworks, Critical Success Factors (CSFs), and Actual Performance Measurements/Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): The Road Ahead Now that you know about balanced performance measurement frameworks, let’s see how you can select one, then use that to develop a list of critical success factors (CSFs) and then use those to create your list of performance measurements/key performance indicators (KPIs). Selecting a Performance Measurement Framework So what’s the best measurement framework for your company? There’s no one answer for that. Frost recommends getting to know them, analyzing which fits your circumstances best, and picking one, then moving forward to create your critical success factors (CSFs) and your actual measures/key performance indicators (KPIs). He stresses the importance of remembering that measurement frameworks true worth is in helping you select CSFs and KPIs. From Performance Measurement Frameworks to Critical Success Factors (CSFs) Critical success factors are the things your company must do to have success and be successful in the future. Once you’ve identified your performance framework, you can use them to begin identifying your CSFs. For example, if you’re using the balanced scorecard measurement framework, and you’re considering the "Customer" category, CSFs include things like customer satisfaction. Create a list of all the CSFs for your performance measurement and then move on to the next step. From Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to Measurements/Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Critical success factors are then used to determine what you should measure. Again, let’s assume we’re using the balanced scorecard measurement framework. As part of the balanced scorecard, we’re identifying the critical success factors (CSFs)  for our Customer level. We’ve determined that customer satisfaction is one of those CSFs. We can then determine ways to measure customer satisfaction-such as "average time on hold or in line" and "percent of cases successfully closed." How Many Measurements/KPIs? Again, there’s no single right answer here. Frost suggests that you have enough measurements that you acknowledge complexity, but not so many that you get lost, and notes that not all measurements will be important at all times. In addition, he warns you against the tendency to "rob Peter to pay Paul" when measurement systems are set up. If your company is going to measure something, know that there will be a tendency for people to try to meet that measurement even at the expense of other important things that aren’t measured. Keep them in mind and try to create a balanced measuring system. Conclusion: Balanced Performance Measurements-A Trainer’s Introduction We hope that was helpful. Let us know if you have any thoughts by writing in the comments section below. We’d  be especially interested to hear what you learned about this in school (if you did) and what measurements your company uses. The post Training and Balanced Performance Measurement Frameworks: What Every Job Trainer Should Know appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

We return, fresh from our trip to the annual National Safety Congress and Expo. Among other things, we got our first look at the OSHA Top Ten Violations data for another year (fiscal year, 2015). We’ll get more data from OSHA and the NSC about this list in December. Check out the list below. We’ve also included links to additional webpages related to each of the commonly violated standards-the additional pages include free training materials, fun word games, interactive glossaries, additional helpful information about the regulation and how to avoid violating it, free safety checklists, and more. And if you’re at NSC, don’t forget to check out Convergence Training at booth 1332. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with a long history in providing safety training, especially for industrial and manufacturing customers. Check out our health and safety e-learning library, our mining safety e-learning library, and our learning management systems (LMSs) for assigning, delivering, completing, crediting, tracking, and reporting on training. For more information, contact us directly to ask some questions or set up a demo. OSHA’s Top Ten Violations 2015 Here’s OSHA list of the most commonly cited standard violations for the past year. Fall Protection, 1926.501 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. And here’s a sample of our Fall Prevention and Protection e-learning course. Hazard Communication, 1910.1200 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. And here’s a sample of our Hazard Communication e-learning course. Scaffolding, 1926.451 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. And here’s a sample of our Scaffolding e-learning course. Respiratory Protection, 1910.134 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. And here’s a sample of our Respiratory Protection e-learning course. Lockout/Tagout, 1910.147 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. Here’s a sample of our Lockout/Tagout e-learning course. Powered Industrial Trucks, 1910.178 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. Here is a sample of our Forklift Safety e-learning course. Ladders, 1926.1053 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. Here is a sample of our Ladder Safety e-learning course. Electrical-Wiring Methods, 1910.305 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. We have several e-learning courses related to this. Check out the samples below. Arc Flash Safety e-learning course. NFPA 70E e-learning course.   Machine Guarding, 1910.212 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. Here is a sample of our machine guarding e-learning course. Electrical, General Requirements, 1910.303 Check out the regulation. Check out our webpage with free training materials, informational resources, and more. Electrical Safety General Awareness e-learning course. And click here to go to our website and see our brand spankin’ new Electric Shock e-learning course. Download Our Free Guide to Effective EHS Training Once you’re done checking out the list above, and the links to the associated resources and free training materials, download our free 42-page guide to Effective EHS Training and start doing what you can to cut down the number of violations at your workplace. The post OSHA’s Top Ten Violations, 2015 appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

If you’re new to safety, the different roles and titles can get a little confusing. Actually, that’s true even if you’ve been kickin’ around in safety for a while. Things get even more confusing if you’re trying to keep up with roles that are specially defined by regulators in certain circumstances. For example, OSHA and MSHA mean different things when they refer to "competent persons." And things can get still more confusing when one regulator uses two different terms for something that’s pretty similar. For example, MSHA refers to Part 46 trainers as "competent persons" but to Part 48 trainers as "MSHA-approved instructors." Confused yet? If so, we’ll get you back on solid ground shortly, we promise. Read on to clarify what we just talked about. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with many libraries of e-learning training courses, including libraries for health and safety training and mining safety training. In addition, we make a series of learning management systems (LMSs) to assign, deliver, track, credit, and report on workplace training. Contact us to learn more or set up a demo today. The OSHA Competent Person To OSHA, a competent person is someone who’s present while work is being performed. In all contexts, according to OSHA, the competent person is "one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them" [1926.32(f)]. However, in addition to that general, two-part requirement, OSHA places additional requirements on the competent person in different contexts through language in various standards. To read more about this, see our post about the OSHA Competent Person. The MSHA Part 46 Competent Person By contrast, to MSHA, a competent person is a role that’s related to training, not directly to work being performed. The MSHA competent person is  "a person designated by the production-operator or independent contractor who has the ability, training, knowledge, or experience to provide training to miners in his or her area of expertise. The competent person must be able both to effectively communicate the training subject to miners and to evaluate whether the training given to miners is effective" [30 CFR 46.2]. Please note that the role of "competent person" only applies to the Part 46 MSHA regulation that covers most (but not all) surface mines. For more about this, please read our article on the MSHA Part 46 Competent Person. The MSHA Part 48 Approved Instructor And, if MSHA’s Part 46 regulation specifies that a "competent person" is the one to provide safety training to miners, things are different in MSHA’s Part 48 regulation. For Part 48, it requires an (MSHA-) approved instructor. Approved instructors typically have to go to a three-day "instructor training" session held by MSHA or an MSHA designee to get that approval. To read more about all this, see our article on the MSHA Part 48 Approved Instructor. Conclusion: Hope that Helps! Got any questions for us? Anything to add? Let us know, the comments section is right below. Also-check out that free Guide to Effective EHS Training below. It can be yours in only a few clicks. The post Safety Roles: Competent Persons and Approved Instructors appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

A lot of people think that instructor-led training is ALWAYS better than e-learning. And, based on our experience, it seems that this opinion is held especially strongly among EHS professionals. But, the truth is, there are often scenarios where e-learning is as effective (and at times possibly more so) than instructor-led training. In this post we’re gonna take this topic head on, and give some examples when e-learning is the most appropriate training method to use. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider. We make a series of learning management systems (LMSs) to administer training at job sites. In addition, we made many libraries of off-the-shelf e-learning courses. And, in addition, we make custom training solutions and even apps for mobile training and job support (m-learning). Contact us to learn more or set up a demo. Hey, why not download our FREE 42-page Guide to Effective EHS Training?   Is E-Learning Always Better? The short answer is-no. Despite all the deeply held opinions out there, studies, data, and evidence show that the training media (e-learning, instructor-led, etc.) doesn’t affect the effectiveness of the training. But that’s when all things are equal. Meaning, when all the training materials and methods are included in each training media (e-learning, instructor-led, etc.). But that rarely happens. Can you build an e-learning course that provides a fantastic, life-like simulation of performing a task in the real world? Yep. Does it happen all the time? Nope. And can you build an e-learning course that provides fantastic feedback to the questions asked and skills performed by workers? Yep. Does it happen all the time? Nope. And on the flip side, can you have an instructor who has access to technically sophisticated visuals that help people understand abstract, difficult, or "hidden" concepts? Yep. Does it happen all the time? Nope. And can you have an instructor who evaluates the assessment of hundreds of workers who attended a training to determine their comprehension and assigns necessary re-training for those who don’t "get it?" Yep. Does it happen all the time? Nope. So while e-learning isn’t always better, there are plenty of times when it is. And that’s what we’ll look at here. When e-Learning Courses Are Better for EHS Training: 8 Cases So let’s get to the meat of the matter here: cases in which e-learning courses are a better way to train workers on EHS topics than instructor-led training is. 1. With concepts that are abstract, difficult  to visualize, and/or impossible to see Some concepts are difficult to explain in a purely verbal manner, such as instructor-led training. These can include abstract concepts, such as the molecular composition of a gas, or things that are difficult or impossible to see, such as a how the inside of a machine operates. e-Learning, on the other hand, with its use of video, animations, photos, and other images, all synced with explanatory audio, excels at conveying this type of information. By way of an example, check out this sample e-learning course about sling angles. 2. Training a remote workforce Many safety managers have to provide training to workers at more than one site. Or maybe to employees who work remotely, or at widespread customer locations throughout a region, nation, or across the globe. In some cases, it’s impossible to train (or fully train) a work force like this with instructor-led training. And so people go untrained, incidents occur unnecessarily, people get hurt or killed, safety-related costs go up, regulators deliver citations and fines, and so on. In other cases, it IS possible to deliver the training to this workforce with just instructor-led training, but it includes a lot of logistical and clerical headaches and a lot of extra costs. Who organizes the group training session? Who buys the plane tickets and hotel rooms? How much time does this all take? What is the cost of all that time in dollars? Who pays for the hotel rooms and the cost of the training room itself? What about meals and refreshments? What about overtime for the workers attending a training session on an evening or weekend? Or the opportunity cost of having this extended training occur on a normal work day, and not having your workers work? In situations like this, e-learning courses delivered over the Internet can be a great help. People can log in when their schedule allows and complete the training on their own. The clerical and logistic hassles of coordinating and booking travel are gone, as are the costs for travel and overtime pay. 3. Training workers on multiple shifts Even if all the workers you need to train work at the same site, they often work on different shifts. This creates many of the same scheduling, logistics, and clerical hassles that having workers at multiple locations does. And it leads to many of the same expenses as well when trying to use instructor-led training in all cases. Instead, using an e-learning course delivered through an LMS makes it easy for you to deliver some of those training messages online. Workers on all shifts can access them during their normal work hours. You don’t have to train multiple instructors to lead train workers on multiple shifts. Win/win, no? 4. Simple company policies Many times, instructors gather workers in a room for a training session (or several training sessions, with different people attending to hear the same information at different times) to be informed of something very simple. For example, a new company policy or a change to an existing company policy. Usually, there’s no good reason to bring people together into a classroom setting to deliver this kind of training. It’s just that there’s often no other way to deliver the information or to get a signature from the worker that he/she is aware of the new policy. e-Learning courses provide a much simpler, easier way to deliver the same information. Put the information in an e-Learning course you created (see how to build your own e-learning course), assign it to your workers, let them watch or read the materials when their schedule allows, and let the LMS record that they have seen the new policy. 5. Very basic information This example is similar to the last. Just as you don’t have to go to the expense of pulling workers together to explain a simple new policy, you also don’t have to use instructor-led training for very basic information that doesn’t require hands-on practice, supervision, real-time verbal feedback, and/or extensive Q&A. For example, a lot of material in a Slips, Trips, and Falls course can be handled with e-learning just as effectively or more effective than with instructor-led training, and done so at a lower cost. Why not save that instructor-led training time and budget for times when you really need it? 6. Situations in which automated testing/scoring is important In some cases, it’s important to be able to test your employees, score those tests, determine who passed and failed those tests, and keep records of those tests. You CAN do this with instructor-led training, but doing so takes a lot of time. You’ve got to hand out paper-based tests, score the tests individually when workers are done, store all your records of the tests, and later be able to retrieve those records. On the other hand, e-learning automates all this for  you. Tests are automatically delivered to workers online. Your LMS scores the tests and determines who passes and who fails (based on a pre-determined passing score). The LMS also stores records of these tests indefinitely, and provides a reporting suite that makes it easy to retrieve this information in a matter of seconds-even if the test was taken years ago, or even if you’re retrieving tests data for workers at multiple sites. Automated testing with e-learning and an LMS is an efficient way to evaluate comprehension of information. 7. When delivering a standard, consistent training message is essential It’s generally important in all cases that the same, consistent training message be delivered to all workers. But in some cases, it’s not just important, it’s critical. And even though instructor-led training can be great, one potential downside is that the instructor may veer from the desired message or not communicate the desired message as intended. Or maybe they just don’t communicate it effectively. This can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe the instructor simply forgot to say something. Or maybe one instructor misunderstands something that other instructors understand correctly. Or, maybe the instructor disagrees with part of the intended training message and goes a "bit rogue" on a point or two. You can avoid this with e-learning courses. In an e-learning course, the message is the same every time, to every employee, on every shift, at every site. Until you don’t want it to be, that is. Your LMS will provide tools to update e-learning courses and create new versions, too. So when you WANT to change the message, you can do it for everyone. But if you don’t want to change the message, it will stay the same. For some EHS topics, such as Lockout/Tagout, it’s important to deliver the same training message every time. 8. When you want people to be able to refer back to the training materials later Did you know that most people forget what they learned in training shortly after the training event? How effective is an instructor-led training session going to be if it’s one-and-done, and there’s no way to refer back to the training materials? Not very. e-Learning courses, on the other hand, make it easy for your employees to refer back to training materials when they need a refresher. And they also are easy to re-assign if you intentionally want to do that. With an e-learning course, reviewing the training is as simple as login and click. (Note: Blended learning solutions that begin with workers watching an e-learning course, then going to an instructor-led training session where they can ask questions and cover important details more thoroughly, and then being able to review the e-learning course in the future, are especially good for this.)   It’s easy to review an e-learning course when you need a refresher-it’s there 24/7. Conclusion: Sometimes, e-Learning Courses Really ARE Better than Instructor-Led Courses for EHS Training So there you have it, at least eight cases in which e-learning courses may be more effective than instructor-led courses for a specific training need. We recommend using all types of training in a blended learning solution, picking the right training activity type for each training need. What are your thoughts? When do you use e-learning and when do you use instructor-led training? What do you see as the benefits (and weaknesses) of both? If you’re still curious, we’ve included some additional, related resources below for you to check out: A Look at an LMS You Can Use with e-Learning and Other Types of Training for Your EHS Training Program Here’s a short, two-minute overview of the Convergence Training Enterprise LMS. We’ve got an LMS for Mining Safety/MSHA Compliance too. And we’ve even got an LMS for Contractor and Visitor/Vendor Safety Orientations. Click to read more about that. Additional Articles About e-Learning, LMSs, and Safety Training Still hungry for knowledge, my friend? Check out the articles below. 12 Ways to Administer Instructor-Led Training with an LMS Improve Your Mine Safety Training and Save Money with an Online Mine Safety Training Solution What is Online Health and Safety Training And What Can It Do? Online Courses for MSHA Part 46 New Miner Training Program Using an LMS to Onboard New Employees "Chunking" Mining Safety Training e-Learning for Standard, Consistent Training Message Better Safety Training with e-Learning and an LMS Create Your Own e-Learning Safety Courses Blended Learning for Safety Training Better Mining Safety Training with Visuals Better Safety Training with Visuals How to Choose an LMS (Includes Free LMS Buyer’s Guide Checklist) Blended Learning Best Practices Free Blended Learning Guide Is an LMS Only Good for Online Training? Nope. 3 Common Contractor Orientation Challenges And don’t forget to download the free Guide to Effective EHS Training below. The post 8 Times When e-Learning Is Better Than Instructor-Led for EHS Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Hey-we’ll be at the MSHA TRAM conference Tuesday, October 13 through Thursday, October 15. We’ll even be giving a presentation to show you how online tools, including a learning management system (LMS) and e-learning courses can help you with your MSHA safety training requirements. You can catch that on Wednesday, October 14 at 2:30 pm. We’ll be co-presenting with our friends at Catamount Consulting. Otherwise, swing by our desk and say "hi" or us any questions you may have. We’ll be at the desk most times when we’re not presenting. Look forward to seeing you there. Until then, check out the two videos below-the first of our Mining Safety LMS and the second of just one of our mining safety e-learning courses (we do general health and safety e-learning too, plus a lot more). Here’s our Mining Safety LMS Overview Video: And here’s a short sample of one of our mining safety e-learning courses: Go ahead and download our free guide to online mining safety training tools too! The post Come See Us at The MSHA TRAM Conference, October 13-15, 2015 in Beaver, West Virginia appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

There are many different aspects of MSHA Part 46 compliance training. Recordkeeping is one of those. It’s easy enough to see WHY there are recordkeeping and documentation requirements. Regulators have to know what’s been done and what hasn’t been done. Even if you don’t LIKE doing this, the logic is fair enough. You get it. That doesn’t mean that creating, storing, and later retrieving all those records is especially fun. And if you’re a safety manager, I’d be willing to bet it’s not your favorite part of your job. In fact, I just gave a presentation at MSHA’s annual TRAM conference, and I asked this very question to the 40-or so people who attended the presentation. I learned that basically nobody really enjoyed doing this; that nearly everyone felt they spent more time doing this than they wanted to; and that most everyone was a little unsure if their records were perfect or if they could quickly retrieve specific training records (the one person who said she COULD quickly retrieve specific different types of training records admitted that her confidence came at the cost of a LOT of time working with Excel spreadsheets). But online, computerized systems can help ease this recordkeeping and documentation challenge. They’ll help you spend less time creating, storing, and retrieving training records and other documentation. This means you can spend more of your time on safety training, safety audits, safety observations, in safety meetings….well, you get the idea. You can spend more of your time doing stuff that is more productive. In this article, you’ll learn more about some ways that online systems can save you time, headache, frustration, and even money on all this recordkeeping. Read on for the full story. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider with strong offerings in general EHS and mining safety. For mining safety in particular, we have a learning management system (LMS) that allows you to administer your MSHA Part 46 training program online. This means you can assign training, import training, deliver some training online, notify employees of other assigned training, credit who’s done and not done with training, run reports, and even create Part 46 documentation that MSHA requires, such as the printed Part 46 training plan and a 5000-23 equivalent. And before you read this article, feel free to download our FREE 42-PAGE GUIDE TO ONLINE MSHA PART 46 COMPLIANCE. 8 Headache-inducing MSHA Recordkeeping Challenges (That Can Be Done Easier Online) Let’s look at a few ways that online tools can help make your MSHA Part 46 recordkeeping and documentation chores easier, faster, and less expensive. 1. Creating Completion Records Let’s see how an online system take make the creation of training records easier. Creating records for online training You’ll always perform training in the classroom or in the field as part of your Part 46 training. But online tools also allow you to deliver some training to your workers online. This includes e-learning courses on any number of topics: mining safety, general EHS, and more. When an employee logs in and sees the training assigned, he or she will see that the assigned training list includes e-learning courses. The employee can launch those courses and view them online. When the training content is over, the e-learning course seamlessly transitions to an online test. Your employee is asked to answer questions online, assessing his or her understanding of the training concept covered in the e-learning course. His or her answers are tracked and stored, and the online system determines if the employee passed or failed (typically, passing means the employee has correctly answered 80% or more of the questions). Sure, you’ll still have to create some training records on your own, and we’ll discuss this shortly. But automatic crediting for the completion of e-learning courses like this can save you a lot of time. Let’s take a moment to see what that looks like in an online system such as the Convergence Training MSHA LMS. Here’s a sample test question an employee would have to answer as part of an e-learning course. The online system will evaluate if your worker has answered correctly or incorrectly. After answering one question, the worker advances to the next question. Eventually, your worker will answer all questions in the test, and the system will tell the worker if he or she passed or failed. Here’s what it looks like if the worker passes: Now let’s see what that looks like from your perspective-the LMS administrator, meaning the person who’s responsible for making sure people have received and completed the proper training. Below is a screen grab of the "completion records screen." This is the screen that lists every completion record created whenever a worker completes a training activity. You’ll see we’ve circled one in red for you-it shows that employee Jeffrey Dalto completed the Hazard Overview e-learning course on 10-20-2015. If you clicked the green EDIT button next to the completion record, you’d find more details-where was the training completed, for example. Of course, you can run reports to see who’s done or not done with training, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll show you that soon enough. Creating records for classroom-based training As we mentioned earlier, the online system can’t automatically create all of your training records. The system doesn’t know by itself if your workers attended some face-to-face, instructor-led training, or if they learned how to perform a particular skill in the field, or if they attended a safety meeting, or if they…well, you get the point. In some cases, you’ll have to manually enter some data into the online system and click a button or two to have the system create those records for you. Here’s how you’d give a worker or even 5, 10, or 20 workers credit for attending a class. Just check a box next to one, some, or all names and click the Save button. Pretty easy, huh? Creating records for field-based training The process is similar if the worker completed some task-based training in the field. The screen below shows how you’d check someone off for each item after teaching them, and having them perform, the steps of a "dozer pre-operation checklist." Creating records for "miscellaneous" training And what about giving credit for "miscellaneous" training, such as safety meetings, off-site trainings, and similar trainings? It’s just as easy to give workers credit for completing miscellaneous training that you’ve entered into the online system as what we call a "training event." Select one or more names (that’s a big bonus-you can select any number of names at one time, and you can even select all workers in a team, department, site, or district), fill in a few more details, and you’re done. You just check off the worker for each step on the list. You can even write a comment under each item. Note we’ve circled in red the field where you can select the names of multiple workers. Creating records for multiple activities And what if you need to give credit to multiple workers for completing multiple training activities of different "types" all at once? Yep, you guessed it. There’s an easy way to do that too. As you see in the picture below, our Bulk Credit Wizard let’s you select one or more worker and one or more training activity (it doesn’t matter what type-e-learning, instructor-led, written materials, OJT, whatever), and then it walks you through a simple three-step process of creating all those training records at once. You can literally create 200 records of completed training in less than a minute. Wow! Take a moment and think of how much time, frustration, and money that would save you. 2. Storing and Creating Sign-In Sheets for Completed Training Many mine sites pass out sign-in sheets during face-to-face training. The sign-in sheet includes the name of the training activity, the date and time, and the name of the instructor. The workers are then supposed to print their names and add their signature, confirming they attended the training. These records are then filed away-often in a manila envelope in a metal filing cabinet. And in addition, the record that the workers completed the training is probably kept in an Excel spreadsheet (note that you’ve now got two totally separate recordkeeping systems on your hand). And later, you may have to retrieve that sign-in sheet along with the record of completed training. This is all time-consuming and inefficient. With an online system, you still pass out that paper-based sign in sheet. But when you’ve got the names and signatures, you scan the paper-based version to create an electronic version (sure, you can still file that paper-based version away if you want.) Then you go to one screen in the online system to give credit to the workers who attended and completed the training-we’ve already shown you how that works, above. But in addition, you can attach that electronic, scanned copy of the sign-in sheet to the completion record of all workers to whom you gave credit for completing the training. Just click the Add Attachment button circled below, navigate to find the scanned file where you saved  it on your computer (take a look below, we circled the button in red). And now you’ve now got the sign-in sheet inside your online system-electronically "attached" to each of the appropriate records of completed training (again, look below). You can easily bring this up at any time-it takes only about 30 seconds to get to the right screen, perform a search, and open the sign-in sheet. 3. Creating Your Training Programs You’ll have to create what MSHA calls "training programs" for Part 46. This includes things like New Miner, Annual Refresher, and New Task training. You’ll go on to assign these training programs to workers. And then you’ll want to keep on top of things to ensure that the right workers have completed the right training programs. Let’s see how that works in an online system. Here’s the screen where the Training Programs you defined-meaning, the Training Programs that you created, named, and put specific training activities into-are listed. It’s now easy to assign these training programs to the right workers, and it’s equally easy to run a report, or reports, to see who’s done or not done with their assigned training programs.   "For us, we were very focused on our MSHA areas and beginning to use the Convergence MSHA LMS has helped that, of course, but it has really helped us become more compliant in our OSHA areas. That was an unanticipated benefit, to be honest. That’s because the training we previous delivered to our office staff wasn’t specific enough to the area they were working in. And this has really helped us to make our main office and our mechanic shop more in line with regulations because you can create those training groups and customize training programs and I think that this has really helped us in that regard." Cyndee Carter, Montana Rock Works   4. Getting Reports to Yourself, Supervisors, or Managers Not only does an online system make it easier to generate reports about training completion. It can also be set up to automatically generate and email reports to yourself, supervisors, managers, or other people. So that means you no longer have to take time every week or month informing different people about training progress. Instead, schedule a few reports and let the online system take care of it for you. Everyone gets the information they need in their email inbox on a timely basis. No more hassles or delays. You can see what that looks like below.   "I would venture to say that 85-90 percent of the companies we work with-companies that must comply with MSHA Part 46 training requirements-have employees who are overdue on training, have training that’s expired, should have been completed again, and hasn’t, and the company doesn’t know it. And for that matter, neither does the employee. Using the Convergence LMS to track upcoming due dates and training expirations has made it easy to keep track of these situations by having the LMS automatically send reports to supervisors and managers informing them in advance of these situations before they pass the critical stage. Without this information, companies are often at risk of not delivering necessary safety training, which of course increases the risk of an incident but also of a citation from a regulator." Scott McKenna, Catamount Consulting   5. Generating Your Written Part 46 Training Plan Creating a written Part 46 training program can include a lot of work. Doing it for multiple mine sites  can really increase the work load. An online system, however, includes tools to make this easier, including a data field to type into to enter the appropriate information, and tools to format and present your information in a clean, easy-to-read fashion. You don’t have to wrestle with creating a table, auto-formatting gone haywire, fields you accidentally forgot, or anything like that. Even better, you’re prompted to input the necessary information as you go. Let’s look at some screens to see how that works. The online system will prompt you to enter the Mine ID and the Person Responsible for Safety and Health for each mine site. This will later be included on the written training plan the system creates. You can even automate the entry of this information using a spreadsheet and a wizard. The system will also prompt you to enter information about your training subjects that’s required by MSHA for Part 46 compliance, as well as the competent person(s) for each subject. Again, the system then puts all that information into your written training plan. Your system will also guide you through the process of entering all the training activities to create all of your training programs for a site. You can then easily assign those Training Programs (shown earlier), give credit for completing them (shown earlier), and have the system create your printed Training Plan (including all of those Training Programs). Just press a few buttons and "voila," the system prints it out for you in a matter of seconds. Here’s the information about your mine site required for Part 46: And here’s an example of your printed Training Programs (in this case, New Miner): 6. Generating Written Part 46 Training Plans for Multiple Sites If it takes a while to create a written Training Plan by hand for one mine site, the job just gets bigger and bigger for each additional site. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use a computerized system to create one training plan for one mine site and then click a few buttons, make some site-specific modifications, and automatically have a new training plan for a new mine site? For example, say you’ve used an online tool to create a New Miner Training Program for Mine Site 1. That becomes part of your Training Plan for Mine Site 1, obviously. Your next goal is to create a training plan for Mine Site 2 that’s very similar to the training plan you created for Mine Site 2, but has some site-specific differences. An online system can let you do this copy/modify/rename process in a matter of seconds or minutes, not hours. Just select a Training Program (in the example below, it’s New Miner for the Sales, OR site) and copy it, rename it, add some site-specific elements as needed, and now you’ve got a New Miner training program for a new site (Macon,  GA in this case). "We are using the Convergence MSHA LMS to deliver MSHA Part 46 training to 4 different site locations with a total of 125 employees. Some of the employees change site locations depending on the job that needs to be done. With a change of job site comes new site specific training. The LMS allows you to easily change a user’s site location and be automatically assigned training based on what that site is required to have. The LMS also allows for groups to be formed to cross-train workers who might be located at different sites but have the same job descriptions. These abilities, plus the ability to copy training programs and modify them on a site-by-site basis as needed,  has saved supervisors travel time as well as production time." Sherri Ison-Mohr, United Safety Solutions   7. Creating A Training Plan for Each New Year In some cases, you’ll want to take a training plan for one year, make a few modifications, and create a training plan for the next year. Again, with an online system that lets you copy/modify/rename, this takes only a few minutes. The image below shows the process of renaming the 2015 New Miner training program. 8. Collecting and/or Printing Documentation There are any number of times when you need to generate reports or collect printed versions of training documentation. Maybe an MSHA Inspector is at your site and wants to see some proof of training. Or maybe an employee is leaving your company and wants a copy of his or her training records. Depending on what you’re looking for and how organized your records are, this might take you quick a deal of time. But with an online system that has built-in MSHA documentation capabilities, you can generate a report with the data you want in less than 20 seconds and print it, if necessary, in another 20 seconds. Meaning you’ve still got 20 seconds to sit back and drink some coffee before the minute’s done.   Conclusion: MSHA Part 46 Recordkeeping Made Easier We’ve probably missed a few ways that an online system can make Part 46 documentation and recordkeeping easier, quicker, faster, less expensive, and less frustrating. But by now, we bet you’ve seen there’s a lot of potential here. Why spend all your time, energy, and training budget on things an online system can easily automate for you? As a safety manager, your time is better spent leading training, talking to employees, being out in the field, performing JHAs, inspections, and audits, and doing stuff that makes the workplace safer. That’s not to say that these records and documentation chores aren’t important, because they are. But surely you can use a hand making them simpler. Before you go, check out two more things, below. First, our short overview video of the Convergence Training MSHA LMS, and second, our free 42-page guide to online MSHA Part 46 training, which you can download right now. Here’s the overview video: Here’s the free guide (enjoy): The post How Online Tools Can Save MSHA Part 46 Recordkeeping Headaches appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Knowing if your training program is having a positive effect on relevant KPIs, and are helping move your company toward its business goals, is a good thing. Trainers do this by performing what’s known as a level 4 evaluation (in the four-level Kirkpatrick training evaluation model). In this article, we’re going to look more closely at evaluating a training program to see if it’s created the desired effect on the relevant KPI(s). Here we go. Convergence Training makes learning management systems (LMSs), e-learning courses, and more. Contact us to learn more or set up a demo. You may also want to download our FREE Guide to Effective Manufacturing Training.   Before You Begin: Identify the Goals, KPIs, and Data Sources Before you get to the point of evaluating your training program, you should: Find out which business goal(s) the training program supports. Find which KPI(s) track progress toward that goal and how to get the data. Design, develop, and deliver the training, keeping the business goal(s) in mind. Then you’ll be ready to get into evaluation. Evaluating A Training Program: Four Levels The standard evaluation method is Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Evaluation Model. The Kirkpatrick evaluation model breaks evaluation down into four levels: Evaluation Level 1: Reaction In level 1, we’re getting the opinion of the learners who attended/completed the training. These are the post-training evaluation sheets (sometimes dismissively referred to as "smiley sheets") that are handed out after training. Evaluation Level 2: Learning In level 2, we’re trying to figure out if the learners "learned." This is typically measured with some form of assessment during or immediately after training. This might mean a paper-based test, an online quiz, or some form of skill demonstration that’s evaluated by the instructor. Evaluation Level 3: Behavior In level 3, we’re concerned with whether or not workers are actively applying what they learned when they return to the job. This is what we’re talking about when we talk about "transfer." Evaluation Level 4: Results In level 4, we’re talking about the effect that the training program had in helping the company reach a business goal. Progress toward those goals is measured using KPIs. And that’s what this article is about. How Often and When Will You Perform Level Four Evaluations? Two questions that come up when thinking about level four training evaluations are: Will I do this for every training program? How long after the training program should I do this? We’ll give some helpful information about each question in the sections below. How Often Will You Perform Level 4 Training Evaluations? You may wonder if every company performs all four levels of evaluation for every training program they create and deliver. The short answer is no. Nobody’s got time and money to do that all the time. Below are some benchmarks to consider for evaluating at different levels. Check them out. (The information below includes a fifth level for "ROI," which is the business effect put into monetary value-we’ll address this in a later blog post.) From left to right, the table shows recommended targets for each level by the authors of a book on ROI; targets established by the GAO; real-life figures in public sector (federal, state, and local governments) as determined by a research study, and targets that Wachovia Bank has established for themselves. Source: "Return on Investment: ROI Basics"  by Patricia Pulliam Phillips and Jack J. Phillips, ASTD/ATD Press, December, 2005, page 30.   When Should the Level 4 Training Evaluation Take Place? As explained above, once the training has been delivered, you can return and evaluate the change in the relevant KPI(s). Which raises an interesting question. How long after training should you wait? Let’s return to the book  Return on Investment: (ROI) Basics, already referenced above, for some expert opinion on that issue: "Levels 3 and 4 data collection occurs sometimes after the new performance has had a chance to occur-the time in which new behaviors are becoming routine. You do not want to wait until the new behavior becomes inherent and participants forget where they learned these new behaviors. Typically, Level 3 data collection occurs three to six months after the program, depending on the program. Some programs, in which skills should be applied immediately upon conclusion of the program, should be measured earlier-anywhere from 30 days to two months after the program. Level 4 data can be trickier, however. While the ROI calculation is an annual benefit, do not wait a year to collect the Level 4 data. Senior executives won’t wait; the problem will either go away, executives and senior managers will forget, or a decision will be made without the data. Collect the Level 4 measures either at the time of Level 3 data collection or soon after when impact has occurred. " Source: "Return on Investment: ROI Basics"  by Patricia Pulliam Phillips and Jack J. Phillips, ASTD/ATD Press, December, 2005, page 70. Level 4 Evaluation: Examples of Training Programs Affecting a KPI Assuming your training program has been successful, it will help move your business toward a business goal. (Yes, your program can have no effect, or even a negative effect, but we’ll ignore that sad possibility for now.) As a result, the KPI that measures progress toward the business goal will change. In some cases, the KPI will go "up," meaning progress has been made. In other cases, the KPI will go "down," but this can still mean that progress has been made. It depends on the KPI you’re tracking. Let’s look at two quick examples. Level 4 Training Evaluation Example: Net Profit One example of a commonly used KPI is net profit. It’s possible that this is the KPI or one of the KPIs you’ve chosen to track to determine if you training program had the desired influence. In this case, you’d want to see the KPI go "up" after the training program was implemented, because when you’re talking about profits, going up is good. And, as you can see above, in this case the net profits did go up after the training. Level 4 Training Evaluation Example: Safety Incidents Another example, this time from safety or EHS, would be workplace injuries or illnesses (sometimes referred to as "incidents"). Because safety incidents are bad, and the goal would be to have fewer, in this case you’d want to see the KPI go "down" after the training program. And, as you can see above, safety incidents did go down after the training. In both examples above, the data have been simplified, but you get the idea. In each case, you’ve got some strong evidence that the training program created the desired effect for the business goal. In the first example, net profits went up after the training program was implemented. In the second example, safety incidents went down after the training program was implemented. Both were successes-good job, training team! Additional Points about Showing That a Training Program Had Desired Effect on a KPI Savvy readers like yourself no doubt notice the sleight of hand above. Yes, the KPI went in the desired direction (up or down) in the two examples above. And yes, the KPIs moved in the desired direction after the training program was implemented. However, as we all know, correlation does not imply causation. Which is a fancy way of saying that even though the KPI went up in the first example and down in the second example, and the desired changes occurred after the training program was implemented, we don’t have enough evidence to prove that the training program is what caused the desired change. That’s what you were thinking, right? If so, congratulations. Because you’re right. You still need to do what’s called "isolating the effect of the training program." This means controlling the effect that other variables might have had on the KPI so you can determine how much of the change is due to the training program. For example, in the first case, the rise of net profits after the training program might have been the result of a simple price change or a new advertising campaign. And, the decrease in safety incidents in the second example might have been the result of the installation of a bunch of new machine guards. So we’re going to write another blog post about isolating the effect of the training program. Don’t let us forget-feel free to remind us. In addition, we’re also going to write a second follow-up post to show you how to quantify that data and convert that data into financial terms (you know-dollars and sense) and create an ROI. That will make it much easier to communicate the value of your training program to others at your company. So stay tuned for both. In addition, you may find this related post that looks at providing graphic evidence that a training program has had a desired effect within a manufacturing training setting, providing examples based on safety, production efficiency, and quality, interesting. Conclusion: Demonstrating that a Training Program Has Affected a Business KPI You’ve now read an overview of how to perform a level four evaluation of your training program, showing that the training helped your company make progress toward a business goal as measured by a relevant KPI. What are your own experiences? How often do you do level 3 and level 4 evaluations? Which KPIs are most relevant at your workplace? How often do you go the further step of isolating the effects of the training program, quantifying the change in the KPI, and converting that to dollar figures? We’d love to hear your thoughts below. The post Level 4 Training Evaluations appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.