Soothe My Sorrows: Target Audience "Pains" and Needs in HSE Training and How to Address Them

9 October 2023 🇷🇺 Original: русский 1 min read

I just imagined the image of a sad employee being sent by their manager for periodic HSE training and knowledge testing or industrial safety certification, with a "your time has come, son" kind of vibe... The worker nods resignedly and, like everyone else who has been "herded" there, goes to the training without any enthusiasm or motivation. Or, if such training doesn't even exist in the company, they sit down to read standards and instructions, shedding tears of blood, falling asleep over them away from the manager's gaze, and pining for the unfulfilled need for good, high-quality training.

Have you ever tried asking your target audience: what do they want, how do they want to be trained in HSE? Have you asked about the needs of these "captives," about the pain and sorrow they feel from being unable to change the situation? I highly recommend it.

In their answers, you can find a wealth of insights on how to make mandatory HSE training lively, effective, and informal. By analyzing all of this, you will create your own training system, and it will be unlike any other.

If we start from the needs of the target audience and what can be done to organize effective training, here is a sample analysis framework:

Target Audience Pains/Needs

What can be done when creating a training system

Formal approaches to training: self-study/knowledge testing via multiple-choice tests

Change the training system by creating products (modular programs) that ensure full immersion and engagement in the course

Difficulties in perception and memorization: reading documents is time-consuming, difficult, and ineffective

Present documents written in "legalese" in an easy-to-understand format: training/video course. Utilize two channels of perception: visual and auditory.

Training does not engage; it feels like a chore (mandatory obligation)

Create a course in an interesting, engaging format with teamwork and discussions, emotional context, and examples/anti-examples

Passing a test on Olimpoks provides the skill of passing the test, but there is no understanding of the subject matter

Create a course where the essence of the material is explained in simple, clear language. The goal is understanding; tests are secondary. Option: conclude the course with a case study involving open-ended questions.

There is no emotional context in training, and even if requirements are memorized, the target audience doesn't know how to relate to them; there is no impulse to act

Fill the course with emotional context to build awareness and meaning — why we follow safety requirements and how it affects us.

Lack of awareness, mindfulness, and responsibility for one's life and everything happening in it

Developing meaningful knowledge, skills, attitudes, and an understanding of personal responsibility through communication during training

After the knowledge check, everything is forgotten for three years until the next one

Use blended learning formats (flipped classroom) + active skill practice. For example: 1) Independent study of the document; 2) Video lecture on the topic + reinforcing questions/tests; 3) Training to practice skills required for managers and specialists (as an option); 4) An exam with the opportunity to demonstrate these skills.

The target audience faces real-world production situations where they don't know how to act

Teach how to act in situations involving influence on subordinates, emergencies, first aid, firefighting, etc.

Try immersing yourself in this fascinating process. Firstly, it's interesting; secondly, it develops you as an expert; and thirdly, it helps you understand HOW to create a training system in your company.

After all, "He who has a strong enough WHY can bear almost any HOW." (Friedrich Nietzsche)

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