Environmental, Health & Safety Training: A Primer

Environmental, Health & Safety Training: A Primer assists companies in training their site Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) personnel. A guidance document for anyone involved in the development of such training. Includes practical how-to examples, and several advanced training techniques are included.

Environmental, Health & Safety Training is an introductory tool designed to assist companies in their training efforts for site EH&S personnel. It is a guidance document for anyone involved in the development of such training. The intent of this Primer is to divide the complex elements of EH&S training into simple, usable approaches that leading companies are successfully applying today. It primarily focuses on what is needed for a successful EH&S training program, including practical “how–to” examples. Several advanced training techniques are also included.

A key premise of this Primer is that the training professional has a lot to offer EH&S professionals and site personnel on this subject. Just as it is critical that line management obtain EH&S technical input for major projects, EH&S training programs should include input from training professionals. Such input will help ensure that all training is user friendly and clearly focused on performance objectives.

Value-added EH&S training requires a clear commitment to Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) principles by site management, skilled trainers and willing and able trainees. While many companies apply some of the elements described in this training primer, few, if any, have put all of these elements together. As a result, improving EH&S training is a major challenge for any company that desires continuous improvement of EH&S performance. The process for developing an effective training program is similar to the Total Quality action plan process. This continual improvement process can be represented graphically using the PDCA cycle illustrated on the following page. PDCA is an acronym for Plan, Do, Check, and Act.

The tool contains eight chapters, with the Chapter 1 as the Introduction. The remaining Chapters cover the following:

• Chapter 2: Employee Training and Performance Technology — describes the critical linkage between training and improved performance
• Chapter 3: Management of EH&S Training — presents the elements of a leadership approach for managing complex EH&S training needs.
• Chapter 4: EH&S Awareness for All Site Employees — describes how to provide EH&S awareness for all site employees
• Chapter 5: Training for Site EH&S Professionals — describes an effective approach to ensure that site EH&S leaders possess the minimum skills required to perform their jobs.
• Chapter 6: Training for Site Personnel on the Floor — describes an approach to ensure operators and/or technicians have the EH&S knowledge specifically needed for their work areas.
• Chapter 7: Training Methodologies — describes many training techniques ranging from one–on–one to self–training to computer–based training systems.
• Chapter 8: Best Practices and Advanced Techniques — describes advanced training approaches used by GEMI member companies.