Easy Guide to Buying Safety Training Content for Your LMS

Everyone understands that employee training is an important piece of the employment puzzle, and it should always include occupational safety training. Whether your company’s work is done at a construction job site, an oil rig, a warehouse, or an office — or anywhere else for that matter — you must ensure all employees complete the proper occupational safety training. This not only keeps your employees safe, but it also helps maintain regulatory compliance.

But the process of finding the right online safety training courses for your company isn’t always the most fun thing to do and can be a big challenge. After all, it is a very big decision. But if you approach it the way you would approach any big purchase, you are likely to be much better off.

Think of it like buying a car. Chances are, you don’t just stroll onto the car lot and pick the first vehicle you see that is in your price point. You likely spent time beforehand determining which features were important to you, researching different models, and maybe even test driving your favorite options. So why not put that same effort into buying safety training for your employees?

Sticking with our analogy, let’s look at some common questions to ask yourself when buying a car, and how that applies to shopping for safety training.

Checklist for Buying Online Safety Training Courses

Before we dive into each of these questions, here is a handy checklist of nine questions to keep in mind going forward in your search for safety training content.

1. What safety topics do you need?
2. How long are the online courses?
3. Do the courses meet regulatory compliance requirements?
4. Are the courses regularly updated (content, format or both)?
5. Is the training content engaging and memorable?
6. What features do the courses offer?
7. Will the courses work on an existing LMS?
8. Do you have access to customer support?
9. Can you get a free trial to preview the courses?

#1. Which type of car do you need? (Content Topics)

You wouldn’t walk into a dealership and say, “I need to buy a car” and not have an idea of what style or model you’re interested in. Likewise, you don’t just “buy safety training content” without having specific categories in mind. After all, you probably know at least some of the potential hazards your workers face.

Your first question when considering a safety training provider should be, “What safety topics do I need?” Here are some of the most common safety training topics that would be a good place to start:

• Hazard Communication
• Bloodborne Pathogens (BBP)
• PPE Fundamentals
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Fire Extinguisher Safety
• Back Safety and Injury Prevention
• Emergency Response and Fire Preparedness
• Electrical Safety
• Lockout/Tagout
• Office Ergonomics
• Confined Spaces

A good place to start for mandatory occupational safety training is OSHA; even jurisdictions that follow a State Plan have to meet federal OSHA regulations. Think of federal OSHA standards as the minimum, the floor, of what is required of workplaces. Your state or other regulatory body might require additional training, but not less than OSHA.

OSHA has an online publication called Training Requirements in OSHA Standards that helps narrow the search through the standards for OSHA safety training requirements.

HSI has developed a comprehensive yet easy to use OSHA Safety Training Assessment tool. If you’ve got 15 minutes, complete the assessment and download a personalized report listing the OSHA training topics on which you will need to train your employees, the associated regulation numbers, and required training frequency.

#2. What size do you need? (Length of Training Courses)

Some people need a family van. Some people are fine with a sporty two-seater. When buying off-the-shelf safety training content, as when buying a car, size matters. After all, you probably wouldn’t be too keen on buying a huge vehicle if you didn’t need it. That just ends up being cumbersome.

The same concept applies to employee safety training. Taking an hour-long training course is overwhelming and will not offer high employee engagement. If employees don’t pay attention for the entire duration of the course, what’s the point?

HSI offers over 750 online safety training courses that are under 30 minutes — more than half of those are 10 minutes or less! Bite-sized training content allows learners to consume the entire training lesson all at once and apply the knowledge immediately.

#3. Does the car have structural integrity? (Industry and Regulatory Expertise)

Without a doubt, the structural integrity of any car you are considering buying is important. You don’t want to spend your hard-earned money on a lemon with a rusty frame or cracked parts. In that same vein, you shouldn’t purchase safety training content that doesn’t start with a strong knowledge base.

It would be easy to find affordable training content that covers general material and non-specific safety concerns, but why risk the health and safety of your employees? Online safety training solutions should utilize subject matter experts (SMEs) for industry-specific training, regulatory compliance knowledge and real-world application.

When it comes to federal requirements, it can be overwhelming to identify which safety regulations you need to follow. Make sure any safety training vendor you choose utilizes subject matter experts not only for the initial build, but for future updates. After all, regulatory bodies review, clarify, and update their safety standards. Your training materials need to remain up to date as well.

#4. How current or stylish is it? (Updated Training Material)

It is hard to deny that we are likely all guilty of noticing — and often judging — other people’s cars. And just like changes in fashion, car styles have certainly gone through many stylistic eras over the years. It is easy to spot outdated car models, just like it’s easy to spot outdated training content. Have you ever seen a training video featuring a woman wearing a blazer with giant shoulder pads? It's hard to trust the validity of the content when it is so clearly outdated.

A good safety training library should be updated regularly. HSI updates both our content and our graphics by adding new courses and refreshing older course content, at no additional cost.

Also, the way you are informed about updates is important. Are you notified when a course is refreshed or when new training content is added? Does the vendor make it easy for your administrators to incorporate those changes, or is it always a hassle? These are things you need to consider.

#5. Does it make an impression? (Engaging and Memorable Content)

No one is ever in the market for an ugly car. Even if you’re the only one who appreciates it, you want to have a visually appealing vehicle. Safety training should be the same. Safety training content must be memorable to be effective, and that starts with the visuals.

If you’re using PowerPoint presentations with boring voiceovers, or training videos with outdated visuals, that is comparable to driving a nearly broken-down jalopy. It might get the job done well enough, but is it enjoyable? Will you remember anything about it?

When it comes to workplace safety training programs, you must do more than check the box showing that your employees completed the minimum requirement for training. Safety training must change employee behavior. High-quality visuals, utilizing real-world examples, and having industry-appropriate training materials all combine to create an impactful — and memorable — learning experience.

#6. Does the car have any useful technology? (Features)

Many modern cars now include a variety of surprising features that appeal to drivers:

• Wireless charging
• Lane departure warning
• Heated steering wheel
• Adaptive cruise control

Similarly, the best online safety training programs will come with a range of features that appeal to and benefit the modern learner:

• Engaging design for an immersive, memorable experience (HSI uses a proprietary software using 3D animation)
• Shorter versions of full courses for refresher training to fit in any busy schedule
• Content built to provide the same experience on any device
• Multiple languages in closed captioning and transcription
• Practical examples and/or storytelling techniques that provide context and real-world application

#7. How easy is it to get it through the door? (SCORM/AICC Compliant)

Car shopping is necessary, but it is not always convenient. For the traditional car-buying experience, you must be able to get to a dealer’s lot during their business hours, hope they have what you are looking for, and spend longer than you’d like going through the actual buying process.

However, like much of our world these days, the internet has changed the way people buy cars. Now you can browse a dealer’s site at your leisure and contact them only if they have something that appeals to you. There are even several companies that let you purchase a car without ever leaving your house!

The point of this new shopping opportunity is convenience. Being able to fit car shopping to how and when best serves you, not working yourself around the traditional system.

Safety training, of course, should be the same way. The content and training materials should be available to you even if it isn’t in a “traditional” sense. Enter something called SCORM. (AICC is another industry standard as well.)

When a course is SCORM/AICC compliant, it is already compatible with a host of Learning Management System (LMS) options. This means you can be confident that your content can be accessed and tracked no matter what system you are currently using (as long as it, too, is SCORM/AICC compliant).

In addition to ensuring the content is in a format that can work on the LMS you chose, evaluate how the content is delivered, how course updates are managed, and what technical support is provided.

For content delivery, two options are file delivery or links pointing to the files. There are considerations with both, namely server space, time spent loading and ensuring courses run correctly on the LMS as well as timeliness of content updates. Think of course updates as a vehicle recall; you receive a notice, take your car to the dealership, leave it there, they fix it, you pick it up, and you’re back to using a current, up-to-date, car. Some recalls are essential to the vehicles functioning, like a course update to meet a new regulation, and some recalls are more cosmetic, like updated style or design of a course. There are newer vehicles that receive updates via the car’s computer as it sits in your garage, just like how a course that points to the server can be updated in real time, available to your learners, and no work or effort spent on your part as a customer.

An important question to ask vendors beyond how content is delivered is how updates are managed; how you are notified, what is the process, and how quickly can your employees start using the new content.

When HSI provides training content to our clients, we send pointers to SCORM or AICC files instead of the actual files. This means less room is taken up by the content on your servers, plus you are guaranteed to always have the most up-to-date versions available.

While SCORM and AICC are standards, integrating courses into an LMS doesn’t always go smoothly, access to experienced technical support who have worked with multiple LMSs is a key point to consider when looking to purchase safety training.

#8, Can you call if there is a problem? (Customer Support)

Have you ever dealt with a car salesman who provides you a direct number for the service department — or better yet, a specific customer service agent — you know you can contact when you have any questions or concerns? If not, how much would you enjoy that experience?

We try to capture that feeling through personal support. HSI makes sure each client knows the name, phone number, and email of their assigned Customer Success Manager. Behind that specific customer service person is an entire support team that helps the client through the process, from implementation through the entire contract period. We work to understand your specific needs and future goals. HSI wants to provide a truly effective training solution.

To give you an idea of how far HSI takes this idea: We’ve joined conference calls between a client and their learning management system provider to help resolve an issue. We provide our own HSI LMS, but the client was committed to their current LMS, and we were committed to them. We lent a hand to make it work so our client could succeed.

Be sure to ask any potential training content provider who you can call if you have an issue with your content. How long does it take to get a response and resolution? How far are they willing to go to help you?

#9. Can you take it for a test drive? (Free Trials and Previews)

It probably seems like a wild idea to consider buying a car without taking it for a test drive. Many dealerships even let you take the vehicle off the lot overnight to make sure you get the best experience with it! After all, you might get a good impression after a 5-minute drive with the salesman in the car, but once you drive on the highway and city streets and get ample time to test out all the features, you might find the car isn’t exactly for you. And that’s okay! Not every car is for everyone.

We feel the same way about safety training. Once you have your choices narrowed down, chat with a sales representative from each company and schedule demos whenever possible. It can also be helpful to schedule multiple demos with the most promising companies and invite different decision makers involved with each demo. Everyone will have different questions and concerns.

Finally, make sure the vendor you end up choosing offers a free trial so you can play around with the system for yourself. This allows you to make sure what you saw in the demo aligns with your expectations. You can also give different employees access to the trial environment to make sure the courses, and any features of the platform, will work for their specific needs.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

We hope you have enjoyed a comparison to buying a car! There are a few more items to consider as you research online safety training solutions.

Third-party validation. HSI has won numerous awards for our online learning library and specific training content categories. These awards come from well-known industry associations using panels of industry experts to evaluate the award applications.

Languages. Closed captioning and translated transcriptions are included in the following languages: English, Chinese (Simplified), French, French Canadian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai.

Mobile-ready training. Your employees' work site may be in an office, from home, in a company vehicle, or on a remote job site. Your online training program should make virtual learning a priority, so everyone has equal access and receives the same safety training.

Self-paced learning. Many of our clients open our library to their employees so they can access the online courses as needed. For example, if someone feels stressed, they can search for an online training course on work-life balance. New employees may want to re-watch onboarding content. Someone wanting a promotion might take courses to improve their management skills.

HSI Can Help

In the end, it simply comes down to which safety training content can provide everything you and your team needs in an easy, affordable way. Hopefully, this guide helped you understand what to look for in your training content using a process that is more familiar to most of us.

Looking for a more in-depth guide to buying online safety training? Check out this white paper:

Buying Online Safety Training: 10 Questions to Ask Vendors

Contact HSI today to see how our training content addresses all these questions and how we can help you solve your workplace health and safety training needs.