Many companies and their employees regard safety training as requirement and not a culture.  ”Why do I have to sit through this training (weekly, monthly or yearly)?”  is a question often asked the safety trainer.

To make sure that the training program is accomplishing its goals, an evaluation of the training can be valuable. Training should have, as one of its critical components, a method of measuring the effectiveness of the training. A plan for evaluating the training session(s), whether written or thought-out by the employer, should be developed when the course objectives and content are developed. It should not be delayed until the training has been completed. Evaluation will help employers or supervisors determine the amount of learning achieved and whether an employee’s performance has improved on the job. Among the methods of evaluating training are:

1. Student opinion. Questionnaires or informal discussions with employees can help employers determine the relevance and appropriateness of the training program;

2. Supervisors’ observations. Supervisors are in good positions to observe an employee’s performance both before and after the training and note improvements or changes; and

3. Workplace improvements. The ultimate success of a training program may be changes throughout the workplace that result in reduced injury or accident rates.

However it is conducted, an evaluation of training can give employers the information necessary to decide whether or not the employees achieved the desired results, and whether the training session should be offered again at some future date.

Improving the Program

If, after evaluation, it is clear that the training did not give the employees the level of knowledge and skill that was expected, then it may be necessary to revise the training program or provide periodic retraining. At this point, asking questions of employees and of those who conducted the training may be of some help. Among the questions that could be asked are:

1. Were parts of the content already known and, therefore, unnecessary?

2. What material was confusing or distracting?

3. Was anything missing from the program?

4. What did the employees learn, and what did they fail to learn?

It may be necessary to repeat steps in the training process, that is, to return to the first steps and retrace one’s way through the training process. As the program is evaluated, the employer should ask:

1. If a job analysis was conducted, was it accurate?

2. Was any critical feature of the job overlooked?

3. Were the important gaps in knowledge and skill included?

4. Was material already known by the employees intentionally omitted?

5. Were the instructional objectives presented clearly and concretely?

6. Did the objectives state the level of acceptable performance that was expected of employees?

7. Did the learning activity simulate the actual job?

8. Was the learning activity appropriate for the kinds of knowledge and skills required on the job?

9. When the training was presented, was the organization of the material and its meaning made clear?

10. Were the employees motivated to learn?

11. Were the employees allowed to participate actively in the training process?

12. Was the employer’s evaluation of the program thorough?

A critical examination of the steps in the training process will help employers to determine where course revision is necessary.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—While many believe summer is the most dangerous season on U.S. roads because motorists tend to drive faster, drink more alcohol and drive more often for leisure, a new report by the University of Michigan suggests otherwise.

Fatality crash rates are highest in the fall, with October at the top of the list (10.2 deaths per billion kilometers), according to a study in the current issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

Using the fatality data and distance-driven data from the Department of Transportation, Michael Sivak of the U-M Transportation Research Institute calculated the fatality rate and per distance driven for each month from 1994 to 2006.

He found that October, November and December have the highest fatality rates and March the lowest (8.8 deaths per billion kilometers), followed by February and April. From March to October, rates increase each month and then decline from October to March, despite the winter weather.

“The risk of a fatality per distance driven in October is about 16 percent greater than the risk in March,” Sivak said. “Everything else being equal, inclement weather—snow and ice—-should increase the risk of driving. However, because inclement weather also leads to general reductions in speed, the net effect is not clear.”

Likewise, there are several factors more prevalent during summer that would suggest that the driving risk should be greater during those months, Sivak says.

“For example, leisure driving, which occurs more frequently on unfamiliar roads, at higher speeds, at night and under the influence of alcohol, is riskier than commuter driving,” he said. “Although hard data are not available, leisure driving is likely to be most frequent during summer months when school is out. In addition, consumption of beer shows a strong seasonal variation, peaking in summer months.”

So why are October, November and December more dangerous for motorists than other months of the year? One possible reason could be the duration of darkness, which increases in the fall and is longest in late December. But Sivak says there is no single cause.

“There are several known factors with major influences on the risk of driving that show strong seasonal variations,” he said. “However, the peaks and troughs of the seasonal variations of these factors do not fully match the pattern of the overall driving risk. Thus, the driving-risk pattern is likely a consequence of joint contributions of several factors.”

You must verbally report the death of any employee from a work-related incident or the in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident. Report within eight hours following the incident by telephone or in person to your local OSHA office that is nearest to the site of the incident.

Over the last 16 months, OSHA compliance officers have conducted 813 inspections at companies where employees may be exposed to potential combustible dust hazards. In these visits, the agency has identified 3,662 violations. Housekeeping, hazard communication, personal protective equipment, electrical, and general duty clause violations are cited most frequently as a result of these inspections. The visits are part of the agency’s ongoing National Emphasis Program (NEP) it says is designed to reduce workers’ exposure to combustible dust hazards.

In four southeastern states alone–Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi–the agency has made more than 100 visits to targeted facilities. The result of those inspections has been 667 citations for workplace safety and health violations, with almost 84 percent categorized as willful, serious, repeat, or failure to abate. In Georgia, for example, OSHA has conducted 32 visits to the likely places during the 16-month period and issued 311 citations, 90 percent of which the agency classified as willful, serious, repeat, or failure to abate.

“Any company that has combustible dust, or thinks that it may have combustible dust, needs to intensify housekeeping, review hot work processes, evaluate electrical equipment for possible Class II locations, prohibit smoking or flames in dust laden areas, ensure that relief venting on dust collection systems releases the dust to a safe location, and develop and/or review an emergency action plan,” says OSHA Regional Administrator Cindy Coe.

Dust fires and explosions can pose significant dangers in the workplace and can occur when five different factors are present. The five factors are oxygen, an ignition source (heat, an electrical spark or a spark from metal machinery), fuel (dust), dispersion of the dust, and confinement of the dust. These five factors are referred to as the “Dust Explosion Pentagon.” If any one of these factors is removed or is missing, an explosion cannot occur, OSHA notes.

Industries affected by the emphasis program include: agriculture; chemical; textile; forest products; furniture products; wastewater treatment; metal processing; paper processing; pharmaceutical; and metal, paper, and plastic recycling.

OSHA says it develops National Emphasis Programs to focus on major health and safety hazards that are recognized as nationally significant. These programs are designed to provide guidance to the OSHA field offices for planning and conducting inspections consistently across the nation. Additional information regarding this initiative is available from the OSHA regional office located at 61 Forsyth St. S.W., Atlanta, GA 30303; telephone 404-562-2300.