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When digging is better than training

Lab Safety Advisor, July 31, 2007

The following is an excerpt from an article by David Machles, Raleigh, NC that was printed in the April 2007 Occupational Health & Safety Magazine.

Imagine you are ill and make an appointment with your physician. You walk in the door, register with the receptionist, and are escorted to an exam room. A few minutes later, the physician walks in with a syringe filled with medicine. He asks you to roll up your sleeve. As your eyes widen, you exclaim, "You haven't even examined me yet!" As he walks closer with the syringe, he replies, "That's all right. Most of the time, this usually does the trick."

While this scenario may seem ridiculous, how many times have we approached a safety problem with a "syringe" full of training without diagnosing the underlying issue?

We are required by OSHA and other regulators to provide safety training to employees. However, training is often used as a quick-fix solution to performance problems. The trouble is that performance problems may not necessarily be resolved with training. In other words, lack of knowledge may not be the culprit. To throw training at a performance problem when there are other issues is an ineffective use of your resources. To determine the correct fix, you need to get to the root of the problem.

Do your employees get complacent about wearing personal protective equipment (PPE)? Perhaps it isn't the PPE, but that it interferes with the performance of their job, or it is too hot or not readily available. In this case training is not appropriate, but getting to the root of the issue is important.

You can ask employees for their input or observe yourself, but before you throw more training at a situation, try digging a little deeper for the underlying issue.

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