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OSHA Standards for Developing a Workplace Training Program

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published over 100 standards that require employee training. To help employers develop and conduct a comprehensive training program, OSHA created Publication 2254 to provide training guidelines. These guidelines include overall concepts for developing training as well as more specific requirements for general industry, maritime, construction, agriculture and federal employees.

  1. Assessing Training Needs

    • Determining training needs is the first step in the training process. Employers often assume that training will bring a substandard employee up to par. Proper evaluation of the situation may conclude that while training at some level is almost always necessary, other actions may be needed. Hazard abatement or additional engineering controls are many times the answer to reducing accidents or injuries.

    Goals and objectives

    • Just as training is important, it is just as important to determine what training is not needed. Identifying and clearly stating the training objectives and goals greatly assist employers to determine which tasks employees must perform. According to OSHA, "Using specific, action-oriented language, the instructional objectives should describe the preferred practice or skill and its observable behavior."

    Choosing Learning Activities

    • After training objectives and goals are identified, the employer must decide what activities will best demonstrate that the employee has gained the required knowledge and skills. An effective method is to train with a series of steps that mirror the working environment as closely as possible. For example, if the objective is to properly seal and wear a respirator, the training should progress in the sequence of steps the employee will take to properly seal and wear a respirator.

    Conducting Training

    • To help ensure effective training, employers should include three things when conducting training: provide an overview of the material; relate the training to existing employee skills and experience; and summarize important information to reinforce what has been trained. The method of instruction depends on the subject matter and the resources available. A mixture of lecture, discussion, multimedia, and hands-on training will generally achieve the desired objectives. Employee motivation is also important. Utilizing as much employee participation as possible, and explaining the benefits of training (promotion, safety) helps to keep employees interested.

    Evaluating Training

    • During and after training, employers need to evaluate the effectiveness of that training. During a training session, interim task evaluations can be conducted by oral questioning, written testing, and instructor evaluation of a hands-on task. After-training evaluation can take the form of student questionnaires, supervisor observation, and workplace improvements. Student opinions and feedback are important to help determine training usefulness. Supervisors can observe before and after performance by an employee to help determine if training was effective. The goal of a training program is to reduce risks in the workplace.

    Program Improvements

    • Training program evaluation will show areas where training needs to be improved. Some parts may be redundant and therefore unnecessary. Other parts may not be extensive enough to allow the employees to become competent at a given task. Periodic reinforcement training is a good tool to ensure employees retain skills and knowledge.

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