The Most Effective Uses of E-Learning Part 2

Readers of this blog know that the focus is on e-learning with an emphasis on business.  We develop e-learning applications for businesses not for academics.  This post is the Second in a Series titled The most effective uses of E-Learning based on experiences with our clients.  These use cases are presented based on the business result they achieved for our clients.

Safety and Compliance

Citations, Fines and Lawsuits are often times very expensive reminders to a business that employees must be trained to meet certain safety standards.  There are numerous industries where workplace safety is priority #1,  the government is typically there to let them know in the form of a citation or fine if a company is not is compliance with safety and training standards.  Workplace safety starts with training.  Training can be delivered a number of different ways, but when it comes to safety, E-Learning is a perfect fit because of its ability to simulate dangerous workplace scenarios and automated record keeping.

1.  Hazardous Simulations

If workplace safety is priority #1 for a business chances are there are real safety threats in that work environment.  Employees cannot be thrown to the wolves to “learn on the job.”  E-learning presents an excellent opportunity to expose new and seasoned employees to simulations of potentially hazardous work tasks.  The ability to effectively use video and animation to portray the risk of a particular scenario is highly valuable.  Further, e-learning provides unlimited flexibility allowing  for customization to job and task specific work environments which ultimately lead to higher retention of the material and more likely transfer to on the job skills.   The ability to visually flesh out a worst case scenario for an employee is something that cannot be simulated in real life.  This mixed with decision based training progressions provide the user a life-like experience without the risk of injury.

2.  Automated Record Keeping

Most industries that run high risk of workplace hazards are heavily regulated.  E-learning delivered via a LMS is a perfect tool to help automate tracking and reporting of training records.  In most cases government agencies that oversee the regulation of workplace safety require a certain level of record keeping in order to remain in compliance with the law.  When injuries happen training records are a company’s best defense against a lawsuit and fines from governing agencies.  We have been involved in several cases where training records from our Learning Management Systems have been subpoenaed to be used in court.  Access to complete training records proved to be vital in protecting the company.  Manual record keeping is cumbersome and can leave a company vulnerable to human error.  Automated tracking through an LMS can provide piece of mind that records will be properly tracked and stored should they be needed.

Workplace safety, and compliance with safety regulations are a major concern for companies doing business in industries like mining, construction and aviation  Simple, intuitive E-learning systems can help to not only keep employees safe put protect the company from citations, lawsuits and fines.  Simulations and record keeping are two huge reasons why safety and compliance training  is an extremely effective use of E-Learning.

How have you seen e-learning systems used effectively to promote a safe work environment?