Key Takeaways
- Once seen as a stopgap, online safety training is now widely accepted and even preferred by U.S. employers.
- Digital platforms deliver greater flexibility, lower costs, and faster updates than traditional classroom training.
- Interactive and adaptive content keeps workers engaged and aligned with the latest industry standards.
- Cloud-based systems make tracking, recordkeeping, and regulatory compliance far easier for employers.
- The key is choosing reputable training providers that prioritize quality and compliance over low cost.
Six years ago, no US employer would have even considered online safety training as a viable option. Today, many—probably most—would jump at the chance of doing safety training online. So what has changed?
COVID was a horrible interlude in the human experience, but the one positive aspect that flowed from it was working online. Although there is a massive impulse among employers, often bigger corporates, to get workers back on site, the genie has been let out of the bottle.
Online schooling and training, while not ideal initially, had to be done. Gradually, we learned how to do it better, and now some types of training are accepted as more efficient. One of these is online safety training.
The Need for Safety Training
Hard-nosed business executives tend to weigh decisions based on cost versus benefits. Safety training is an expense, but it is not negotiable.
If all other considerations were ignored, safety training still makes sense in the cost/benefit calculus.
Workplace accidents are expensive. They disrupt production, and they often cause breakdowns. They lead to bad public relations, poor worker morale, and a generally bad perception among both regulators and the investing classes.
Workers who feel empowered in the workplace tend to be more productive. Safety training builds this feeling of empowerment, and productive workers are beneficial for the bottom line.
Safety training is also mandatory in many industries like energy, transport, and construction. The regulatory penalties for safety violations can be severe.
Online Vs On-site Safety Training
If you have to train any number of people on-site, the costs will be prohibitive. Not only will the employees have to take time off work to attend the training, disrupting business, but additional travel and accommodation costs will rapidly accrue.
Online safety courses can be done efficiently and at scale. Classes can happen during the working day, after work, or even on weekends. In dispersed industries such as oil production, training can take place without the disruption of pulling people from distant operations.
Online training providers can provide a better product at a much lower cost. Courses can be presented pre-packaged, to be accessed when it suits the employer and employees.
Course materials can be quickly adapted when industry requirements or regulatory standards change, and businesses using such materials can usually gain the advantage of bulk package pricing.
Tracking each employee’s progress can be automated, which satisfies both the training needs of the employer and the regulatory safety training requirements.
Adaptable Content
If there is one constant in today’s business world, it is change. Business, politics, international trade; it all changes seemingly overnight. The time of teaching the same content taught last year (or even last month) is over.
Online teaching platforms can be updated to reflect new realities very quickly. There is no need to reprint course material, or train lecturers in the realities of new materials. Content can be refreshed and taught to a new class very quickly.
This also means those employees who completed the same course last month or five years ago can receive new updated modules, allowing them to keep current without having to repeat an entire course.
Tracking and Recording
Anyone who has dealt with OSHA and other statutory requirements will know about the need for meticulous record keeping and tracking. This is not only a legal requirement, but can have severe implications when something goes seriously wrong at an airport or on an oil platform.
When you have thousands of people working all over the world in technically demanding jobs, online safety training gives peace of mind.
For anything from a major audit by a government department, pitching for a tender, or an incident investigation, you will have to supply proof that you complied with due diligence in safety training.
Rather than keeping track of which employee has achieved what marks in whatever course, the online environment is tailored to providing all this information at a moment’s notice, on the cloud, on demand.
Yes, But . . .
The time of lecture hall safety training is over. Online is better, more cost effective, causes less downtime and work disruption, and is far more adaptable. Learning is more interactive and results are more accessible to the employer who paid for it.
Much like traditional training institutions under financial pressure, online providers can sometimes cut corners and compete on price instead of quality.
The onus is on the employer to do some due diligence to make sure the course they are paying for is worth the screen it is displayed on.
But once that requirement has been met, going online is a no-brainer. It saves time and money, does not disrupt production or the lives of valuable employees, and can be presented anywhere in the world, teaching content that reflects the realities that are current in a fast-changing world.
And this is why online safety training has been completely accepted by leading US businesses.