Of all of the levers you can pull to improve the effectiveness of a training programme there’s one factor that outweighs them all - learner engagement. An active learner gives more to a training program gets more from it. When it comes to health and safety, engagement is vital to any course having an impact.

These five strategies will create a more engaged group of learners, meaning your investment in training will have a direct impact on behaviour:

1. Gamification. When it’s done right introducing a fun interactive tool can have a big impact on learner engagement. Make sure it’s not too long, it’s easy to use and it prompts some competition. You’ll get your delegates thinking and talking long before they’ve even entered a training room. Our unique health and safety game has driven engagement with organisations such as Fujitsu.
2. Let them do the work. Training should never be about delivery of information, a skilled trainer will facilitate a learning process and involve delegates by guiding the group to think and understand the training content. In doing so your group will be active, engaged and enthused.
3. Personalise the content. It’s easy to see how an off-the shelf course with generic materials will struggle to catch the imagination of delegates. But, by making a couple tweaks with images, videos and stories from their workplace with people, machinery and even incidents they know makes it real and can have a real impact on engagement.
4. Apply multiple delivery channels. Whilst this may not be possible for all programmes, when you can deliver training in multiple formats it can be really impactful. You can retain the value of face-to-face classroom learning with an expert, whilst providing the flexibility of online learning at the trainee’s own pace. This puts them in control and helps you drive engagement and impact.
5. Focus on the business goal. Training for training’s sake is pointless and your learners know this. Make sure your learners understand the purpose of the training and what is expected of them. This is key to getting their buy-in. Mangers are vital in assuring that all employees understand the benefits of a training course. Training the managers first can be a good route to ensuring all staff appreciate the value and goals of the training.

 
The most effective training combines many of the above and as technology continues to develop I’m sure there will be exciting new tools to support training in the not too distant future.