Learning Management Systems and Safety Programs

A growing number of companies use e-learning and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to drive their employee training efforts. As one data point, 40% of Fortune 500 companies use an LMS extensively.

This is becoming even more important as new generations enter the workforce. The latest LinkedIn Learning Report found that 83% of Gen Z learners globally use e-learning to acquire new skills and perform better in their current roles. Not only that but 73% turn to online courses to learn about a topic of personal interest. 

That’s one of the big reasons behind the growth of Coursera, the massive open online course (MOOC) provider with 76 million learners. In short, this is the type of training younger workers have grown up with and now expect to support their work and careers.

What is a Learning Management System?

Employee training is at the heart of improving workplace safety, reducing incidents, and maintaining compliance. But that takes a great deal of oversight, management, and detailed planning. An LMS is an online software system that helps automate many of these challenges.

An LMS administers online training courses and all other types of training activities. It can make assignments by employees, deliver the training, and record completion. Depending on the chosen software, it allows you to build the training and use off-the-shelf training modules. It also keeps all the records for the company. 

It further enables individual employees to access their training records to gauge progress and plan additional education and development. It can also be used to record on-the-job and in-person training as well.

WHAT DOES AN LMS MEAN IN SAFETY?

From all that, you can see the benefits of an LMS for any training program. And most, if not all, of those benefits apply to safety programs. Here are the primary uses and benefits of an LMS for safety programs grouped by development, delivery, and administration.

Safety Training Development

• Building coursework. Most LMS software has training development capabilities to build precisely the type of e-learning courses you want.
• Importing current training materials. You can also import existing slide decks, videos, or documents for use within training courses or as stand-alone items.
• Using system courseware. Several LMS platforms have existing courseware for widely used safety topics from forklift driving to hazardous materials management and more.
• Developing courses and training packages by role and location. An LMS can provide coursework by position, worksite, state, experience level, certification requirements, etc.
• Keeping up with the latest safety topics. Some systems can also help your organization keep up with the latest safety topics and training through updated courseware. 

Safety Training Delivery

• Ready accessibility. An LMS typically provides online access via smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. In this way, employees can access the training where, when, and how they prefer.
• Scheduling classroom and webinar training. The system automates scheduling the training and notifying employees, including follow-up reminders.
• Assigning coursework. It can also assign coursework to specific groups of employees. As one example, this is an ideal way to schedule onboarding training for new employees. It can also schedule new courses for your entire workforce or specific departments or teams. 
• Providing a consistent training message. An LMS is a fantastic tool for implementing a consistent training message across all worksites and shifts. Everybody gets the same training and the same insight into your safety programs.
• Leveraging safety expertise. Your own experts’ presentations are captured and shared with everyone in your organization. We’ve all experienced those presentations that we’d love to capture and share with everyone. Now you can. You can also do the same things with outside experts who bring their full range of experience and expertise. 

Safety Training Administration

• Recordkeeping. A significant benefit of an LMS is keeping track of every employee and their training. It will also help identify any learning gaps and problems.
• Issue completion certificates. It can further be used to provide completion certificates and build a comprehensive training record for each employee, team, department, and division.
• Implement employee reward systems. With this same administrative capability, the LMS can be used to implement many of the aspects of an employee reward system for training completion or reaching safety milestones.
• Demonstrate compliance with safety regulations. With all this recordkeeping, your organization will be in an ideal position to demonstrate meeting training requirements for every safety regulation.
• Issue reports to management. An LMS can issue reports on-demand or provide regular email reports to key leaders.

OECS Training On Demand Learning Management System

As a forward-thinking organization, OECS has developed their own LMS. We call it Training On Demand.

Training on Demand by OECS can give your company a firm foundation for making safety a standard operating procedure. This convenient offering ensures that all employees are correctly trained on all essential topics. 

As you’ve seen from the statistics shared above, safety training that’s interactive and engaging is a vital part of building a strong safety culture. When training is interesting and customized, it changes employee behavior. That results in fewer preventable incidents and fewer workers’ comp claims, resulting in lower premiums.

Wondering if your organization needs  an LMS, and what could it do to improve your safety culture? Here’s what our Training on Demand can do for your company and your employees:

• Provides training to enhance learning.
• Ensures all employees are trained on essential topics.
• Provides critical training for new hires.
• Delivers reports to track training needs, including expiration dates and attendance.
• Reduces travel time for out-of-town employees.
• Increases and tracks engagement.
• Can also provide Spanish language content.

You can find more information and see our complete list of course offerings at Training On Demand. It’s the first step toward learning how a safety LMS can help your company achieve its safety goals.

We Can Help All Your Workplace Safety Issues

Connect with us to learn more about all our services and speak with a safety consultant who can help you achieve your safety goals.

We offer free initial phone consultations. Call 763-417-9599, email us at info@oecscomply.com or complete our contact form, and we’ll be in touch.