Employee safety training keeps valued team members safe and protects your business financially — key goals for any aftermarket business, considering the volume of workplace injuries the aftermarket industry faces. But how a business approaches training also matters.

As the National Automotive Roads Fuel Association observes, most businesses are able to successfully develop safe workplace programs, policies and procedures on paper. The problem lies in getting the message across to employees. When safety training presentations and activities miss the mark, employees may not retain key information, putting them at higher risk of an accident or injury from machinery, chemicals or other hazards.

A few simple tweaks to your training can make a big difference. Here are three simple steps to achieving great employee safety training with your employees.

1. Know Your Audience

Most often, the audiences for educational activities are either children or young adults. But employee safety training is different. Generally, an audience of adult learners:

  • Is self-motivated to learn. Adults tend to be ready to learn, especially when there is an important, timely reason for learning, such as developing a new work skill or learning a task that requires special training.
  • Brings experience to the table. Adults often have life experience relevant to new learning activities. Acknowledging past experiences and knowledge is important and helps adult learners incorporate new information.
  • Wants to know the “why.” Adults appreciate when a training session is upfront about its context, explaining why each particular piece of the subject matter at hand is important and relevant to their lives and work.
  • Needs to feel respected. Adults learn best from an instructor that avoids dumbing down material or talking down to the audience and who is open to hearing and addressing their comments and feedback.
  • Likes hands-on practice at what’s new. Adult learners do well with activities that incorporate the new skills and information they’re learning. Allowing them to practice leads to better memory retention.
  • Benefits from hearing it twice. Adults also do best when new information is repeated and reinforced. It builds confidence and the extra practice gives adults time to master new material, skills and procedures.
  • Prefers a variety of learning activities. Adults learn best when new information is presented in different formats. Listening, watching, reading, writing and physical activities individually and in groups boost understanding.
  • Thrives on goals and objectives. Adults learn better and faster when there are specific goals and objectives that are part of the training. They enjoy having a road map where each stage of training builds on the last.

With the exception of the occasional junior trainee, aftermarket employees are typically adults. A shift in mindset is often necessary to account for the difference and make your employee training successful.

2. Combine Learning Styles

Safety training that sticks to just a presentation by an instructor and plain memorization by employees is not only likely to be boring for everyone — it’s also more likely to be forgotten, leading to higher safety risks down the road. One easy way to make such training more engaging is by including at least one activity that targets each of the three learning styles:

  • Facilitator-to-Participant Learning – This classic classroom approach is familiar and popular for a reason. An instructor can use this type of learning to provide structure to the training, adding information, emphasizing the key points, guiding discussions and encouraging group participation.
  • Participant-to-Facilitator Learning – This type of learning reverses the classroom approach, giving those receiving the training a chance to take an active role in their own learning. This makes safety risks and training objectives central and leads to better workplace safety outcomes.
  • Participant-to-Participant Learning – The third type of learning allows the facilitator of the training to step back and let the employees work together to exchange information, gain knowledge and develop skills. Learning from each other’s experiences in this way can be powerful.

By mixing a variety of different activities into the employee safety training, the training will be more interesting and impactful. More importantly, the effort an aftermarket business puts into designing training to suit a variety of learning styles pays off where it matters — keeping your valuable team members safe from the aftermarket industry’s all-too-common workplace risks.

3. Set up a Good Training Environment

Learning effectively can be a challenge when participants are cramped, uncomfortable or distracted. That’s why the right environment can also be the key to effective aftermarket safety training. Key questions to ask yourself include:

  • Does everyone attending the session have enough space to sit comfortably during the training? Personal space is important. If the space available for training is too small for everyone, consider breaking up the training into several smaller group sessions.
  • Is there enough room available to spread out for the activities and interactions between participants? Participants also need sufficient space around their seats to be able to turn to a neighbor for discussion time or move around the room for activities.
  • Do we have enough training materials and equipment for everyone? Including the instructor? Make sure enough training materials and equipment are available for the size group you have. Bringing extra copies of safety manuals is a good idea.
  • Is there enough space available for participants to engage in small group exercises and hands-on training? Beyond seating areas, your training may require separate additional space for your participants to gather in small groups. Plan accordingly.
  • Do we have the technical setup needed to make presentations or web-based training more effective? Slide decks, videos and animations can help enhance learning. Make sure the right technology will be available to help get your point across.

The right safety training materials, equipment, facilities and environment do make a difference. Plan ahead so that your presentation and session go smoothly on training day. Attendees will have an easier time staying focused, absorbing important safety information and applying it to how they work.

Managing More Aftermarket Risks

Each year, thousands of aftermarket workers suffer injuries on the job. Strained muscles, cuts, burns, falls and more are all still common, despite workplace safety manuals and flyers. Effective training offers a solution. With great training, you can reduce the number and severity of safety incidents, protecting your team members and your business. Best of all, the principles behind great safety training detailed here can also be applied to other training your business conducts, improving customer service, sales and more.

While many aftermarket risks can be controlled, not all can. For these risks, proper insurance is key. The Lockton Affinity Aftermarket Insurance Program offers a unique combination of policies and limits that can protect your automotive aftermarket business from common industry risks in ways competitors do not. Plus, we also offer coverage enhancements that help protect against technician errors, employee tools theft, customer complaints, employee claims and more.

See what coverage will look like for your business. Get started with our quick, 5-minute quote request.