Getting Training Messages to stick can be Tricky. This New Report reveals the Key Factors behind Successful Staff Induction Training and how to implement them.

Melbourne, Australia (July 26,2010) – Digicast Productions, a safety and induction training video production house, today released a new white paper “Optimising Induction Training: Reduce Costs, Improve Quality and Talent Retention”.   Around the world, many companies train new starters and contractors ineffectively often finding it difficult to get training messages to stick inside people’s heads.  This paper outlines the impact of poor induction training, the high cost of face to face training and the growing importance of including visuals in training materials.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of human learning occurs visually, yet the majority of companies produce text based induction training materials that have a 10% effectiveness rate on recall levels.

Smart organisations who regularly need to train contractors and new staff are looking for a more streamlined, engaging and cost effective way to ensure staff absorb training messages.

This exclusive white paper addresses the various pitfalls of a poorly designed induction training process and what can be done about it.  The report looks at:
•    What current induction training programs are really costing companies
•    The importance of avoiding a poor safety culture
•    The emerging trend of using more visuals in communication
•    How to make training messages sticky
•    A little mistake that cost a Quarry $20,000 a year

For a complete copy of the whitepaper, download it now.
About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast is an Australian vendor of customised safety and induction training videos.  Thousands of people each year worldwide are trained with Digicast training videos. For more information, visit Digicast or The Workplace Improver blog for training tips.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross
Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

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1. Use more Visuals - 83% of human learning occurs visually.  Use lots of photos, videos, diagrams and colour to present training information.  Avoid relying heavily on text based training.  After all, we only recall 10% of what we read compared to 50% for what we both see and hear.

2. Tell Stories – During training, tell stories of exemplary staff behaviour that typify the type of action you want staff to do.  Stories help people make emotional connections.

3. Lead by Values – Let staff/contractors know what your values are.   Using values, empowers workers to make decisions based on company values.  Difficult for staff to make the right decisions if they only have rules to follow.

4. Positivise it – Remove negative language.  Tell people how you want them to behave, rather than telling them what you don’t want.  Remove words such as ‘no’, ‘can’t and ‘don’t’.

5. Involve senior management - Senior management play an integral leadership role in establishing culture.  Effective leadership whether it be concerning safety, a new sales method or business structure must be led from the top.  They must be involved in the induction process.

6. Reduce complication - Get rid of long sentences, jargon and big words in training materials.  Keep it short and tweet.

7. Ask more why questions - Teach people why they need to do something, so they can always figure out the how.  Otherwise, company processes keep getting perpetuated without people ever questioning why they do something.

Think you need help to improve your company induction training materials?  Then, go to the seminar to find out more information.

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When new starters, contractors and even customers are required to start training with you, the interaction they have with your company will determine how long they want to stay and how long they will do business with you.

After all, first impressions aren’t easy to erase.

That’s why it is important with any staff or customer training that the training materials are written in friendly and welcoming language.

Yet, many times we see evidence of induction training manuals written in jargonistic corporate speak that seems keen to scold new starters for possible misdemeanors before they have even begun.

It is important that all training materials exclude negative terms such as ‘no’, ‘can’t’ and ‘don’t’.  Not only is it unfriendly, but negative language can often be hard for the brain to understand.

Take this sign, for example.  This was placed at the back of a cafe that I enjoy going to.  It has very friendly staff, great coffee and a queue to get in (not my favourite part).

While waiting for my table and walking around the neighbourhood, I found it.  My attention was grabbed for the wrong reason -  I really couldn’t understand it.

My first impression was that no deliveries were allowed.  That seemed strange to me, so I read on, only to be amazed that they were allowed but I couldn’t instantly grasp when.

It is quite amazing how the word ‘no’ at the start of a sentence can really throw you off the true meaning of a message.

So I have decided to  positivise the sign in an attempt to show you, dear reader, how easy it is to make communication messages easier to understand .  And yes, I know that positivise isn’t a real word, but I really like it.

All Deliveries Here

We accept deliveries:

Before 7am and after 6pm Mon-Fri &

Before 9am and after 6pm Saturday

Ah, isn’t that much better?   My brain feels happier now.

Of course, this sign isn’t for staff or even customers.  But as a customer I gathered that they didn’t like their delivery people very much.

However, the point of this example is how negative language can be so much harder for the brain to take in.  While using positive language makes messages so much easier to understand.

Perhaps, it’s time to positivise your training materials?

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According to Steven Bell, senior associate with law firm Freehills, in January 2012 the new Australian OHS laws will expect companies to drive safety management internally and push greater alignment between key messages and action.

The new laws will introduce a level of personal responsibility that will help drive the changes needed for better OHS.  This means that senior managers will be expected to foster a positive workplace culture, receive regular safety reporting and a practical understanding of what is happening on the ground.

This is a great step forward as senior management actually drive the safety culture of a company.

Currently, most companies promote a safety culture, but send out mixed messages when it comes to a safe workplace.  For example: A fairly standard grumble by many workers is that they are expected to work safely, yet at the same time they are told to work faster or in a way that involves safety risks, to drive productivity.

So with the new requirement to promote safety messages and show evidence of a positive safety culture, what is the best way to communicate workplace safety messages?

With any communication program, it is important to take into account that people absorb messages differently and the more they see it, the more likely it will be taken on-board.  Therefore, any workplace safety communication messages need to include a variety of communication approaches such as posters, training videos, staff newsletter and ‘toolbox’ talks.  They all need to be branded with the company’s unique safety messages.

In addition, the workplace safety communication must be personalised to the company.  Generic safety messages won’t cut it.  Instead, it needs to be formulated according to your culture and demographics.  And then it needs to be followed up with action.

A lot of companies that we have worked with have successfully used a customised training video as the main communication medium to drive OHS behaviour change. They have then supported the training video with posters, newsletters and other safety specific materials.

A staff training video is an ideal way to connect with staff.  Made correctly it will positively and believably demonstrate your company commitment to the healthy and safety of your workplace.  After all, research has found that training videos are more persuasive than written material which is perceived as less important and credible.

In order to take into account the new laws, consider creating a customised training video that includes:

• An introduction by senior managers talking about the importance of safety to the staff and company.
• Safety rules/explaining that poor safety effects the viewer and other workers
• Procedures
• Summary

Of course, just playing a training video doesn’t automatically ensure that staff will know your training messages.  It needs to be followed up with a consistent workplace culture that always considers the safety rules/message in every activity.  Not just when played on a training video.

More importantly, senior management must support and agree with all the safety communication tools.  And refer to them often.

After all, staff won’t believe that the company backs its safety messages, until they see the proof of action.

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A recent UK survey by National Accident Helpline found that over a third of people questioned who suffer work accidents or injuries in the workplace have not had health and safety inductions.

The telephone survey of 121 claimants found that 42 respondents (35%) had not been given a health and safety induction when they joined their workplace.

Beth Powell, National Accident Helpline consumer director, said: “This result shows that UK organisations still need to improve the way that they look after their staff’s safety at work and a health and safety induction for all new starters would be a key step towards this.

“More than 15,000 people a year contact National Accident Helpline after work accidents. Many of these would be avoidable with appropriate safety equipment, training and supervision.”

A health and safety induction typically includes information on duty of care, site rules, manual handling and other relevant safety information to that organisation.

In Australia, while we haven’t undertaken the same research study as the National Accident Helpline to compare the results, a recent study by Safe Work Australia found a similar finding.  That being: part time workers are injured at a rate of 74 injuries per million hours worked versus 35 for fulltime workers.

Jarrod Moran from the ACTU blamed “less induction, less training and supervision” as the reasons for the high injury rates for part time workers.

Poor inductions undervalue the importance of safety.

And according to Professor Patrick Hudson, companies lose 10% of their turnover as a result of poor safety, costing billions in lost production and flow-on effects.

So how can companies improve their induction process?  Ensure it is undertaken regularly and that it is systemizd with a customised training video.

Given that educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually, a custom made training video is an ideal way to get important information understood quickly and effortlessly.  It will also save training time and dollars.

You can find out how a well known steel manufacturer reduced their training time and improved their training outcome, here.

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According to a recent article at Working Nights, companies that have implemented a shift work lifestyle training program tailored to their company needs receive overwhelming benefits for both employees and the company.

On average, shift workers generate more more health care costs than other workers.  Shift workers experience an increased risk of a range of diseases such as cardiovascular, obesity and sleep apnea.  Their social and personal life are also effected by their working hours.

The good news is that the health of shift workers can be improved with the right training.

In addition, it has been found that employee morale is higher amongst companies that provide shift work lifestyle training.  Nearly, 60% of employees at companies that provide shift work lifestyle training rank their morale as good or excellent compared to 35% for staff at companies without shift work training.

Other benefits include:

• A reduction of health care costs between 17-37%.
• Reduced safety incidents
• Reduced worker’s compensation premiums
• Increase of worker productivity by 39%.

In extended 24-hour operations, a well-designed shift schedule or roster is unlikely to provide adequate protection from worker fatigue.  An integrated risk management system incorporates data analysis and training towards an effort of reducing fatigue and reducing a company’s costs, risks, and liabilities.

To find out more about shift work training, click here.

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LearnX Asia Pacific 2010 recognizes Digicast Productions as producing induction training videos that are like gold.

We are very excited to be given a gold award for the induction training video we created for our wonderful client Conundrum Holdings.

The reasons we won were because of the amazing time/cost benefits we have saved Conundrum, as well as providing higher quality training.

Since the induction video was introduced at Conundrum Holdings, Conundrum’s induction training has been re-invigorated and they now get praise for their induction system whereas before they mostly got grumbles.

“We continuously aim to improve the safety and productivity at our quarry sites.  Now
that we have a quality training tool that can be incorporated into our site induction
process, it has reduced the time to train staff/contractors by 68%. A major benefit has
been the saving to management time which is saving us around 2.5 hours a week or about
$20,000 a year. Site managers now have more time to get on with the task of actually
managing the sites. But more importantly, it still ensures that the inductions are of a
consistently high standard and we no longer get complaints from contractors about
having to sit through another dull site induction”.

Tom Kerr, OHS Manager/Quality Assurance Manager, Conundrum Holdings

Thanks to LearnX and Conundrum for this Award.

You can read more about how we helped Conundrum, here.

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Do new staff feel undervalued in your company?

Getting new starters up to speed as quickly possible should be the goal of every company.  Yet, sadly, most companies tend to induct new starters with boring reading materials and little training support.

Making new hires feel welcomed and valued needs to be the principal induction objective for every company.

Why?  Here are five reasons.

1. First impressions count - Inductions represent the most teachable moment you will even have – so use it wisely.

2. Induct well or perish – 25% of new starters make the decision to leave in the first week of work.  Some reasons include “boring”  and ” sink or swim” induction processes.

3. 47% of new employees leave after 90 days – 60% of respondents in the Recruitment Solutions survey indicated that improvements to induction are a priority area to stop new talent leaving.

4. The cost of early leavers is high – It can take as long as six months to get a return on your investment after a new starter leaves.

5. 54% of companies surveyed by Taleo Research have inconsistent induction training.  This has a big impact on productivity and also your safety culture.

The faster new employees get up to speed, the faster they can contribute to your bottom line.

And with a talent shortage forecasted to be at the end of the year, it makes sense for companies to overhaul their induction process now, to ensure that they are the company people want to work for.

And improving your induction process doesn’t have to be difficult.  Sometimes, it can be as simple as introducing formal inductions that includes as much visually appealing training materials as possible, to improve engagement.  This can be as easy as including photos and diagrams in your training, as well as training videos.

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Recently, I started a meditation course.  I’ve actually been meditating daily for nine years, but was persuaded by a close friend, to do this amazing meditation course led by a Swami.  Given that I’d never had any formal training and that I’ve always wanted to meet a guru, I signed up without a second thought.

So far what I have learnt is, I actually do know how to meditate, meditation CDs are very good.  But meditation is becoming extremely popular, almost mainstream!  There were no hippies in the room, in fact there were 86 (yes, that’s not a typo) very normal, middle class people learning how to meditate in a beautiful house in Melbourne.  And yes, the Swami is very good (and funny).

Meditation is a growing trend.  The Herald Sun reported on how meditation is now moving into the boardroom with numerous studies showing that it improves concentration.  Businesses such as NAB, Victoria Police, Diabetes Australia, Origin Energy and The CEO Institute are now running meditation sessions for their staff.

According to research by Medibank Private, workplace stress costs the Australian econony $10.11 billion through poor productivity and absenteeism.

Under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2004, companies are responsible for implementing stress management programs.  In Victoria alone, the average cost of a stress-related work claim in 2009 was $51,000.  So it makes perfect fiscal sense for companies to introduce company meditation courses to improve stress levels and productivity of their workers and ensure they reduce their work claims.

Given the need for companies to reduce the stress levels of their workers, introducing meditation classes is a great way to help workers and boost morale.  It’s only a matter of time before meditation is readily accepted in the workplace, as a quick way to alleviate stress and improve productivity.

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According to a recent article published on IndustrySearch, companies lose 10% of their annual turnover, as a result of poor safety costing billions in lost production and flow-on effects.

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