Mandatory Training: rights, duties and motivation

Mandatory training courses regarding work health and safety represents all workers’ right, but can easily turn into a nightmare since they are long, often boring and mostly considered a waste of time: in this article we will see how you can improve users’ motivation and, as a consequence, effectiveness, thanks to asynchronous eLearning

 

MANDATORY TRAINING: WHO AND WHEN

Training regarding work health and safety is a right and duty of all workers, including directors and supervisors, of any industry sector. In Italy, they are regulated by the D.Lgs. 81/08 and s.m.i. art. 37 and by the undersigned agreements from the State-Regional Conference on 21 December 2011. 

These courses must be carried out during working hours and cannot require economical burden at the expense of workers, who must mandatorily complete the training process by 60 days after having being hired or moved to a new job.    

 

MANDATORY TRAINING: WHAT AND HOW

The training process is divided into two different moments. The first one, called General Training, comprehends 4 hours of training with standard content for all workers, independently from their industry sector. The second one, Specific Training, has different content and duration according to the actual level of risk recognised for that particular sector: 4 hours for low risk, 8 hours for medium risk, and 12 hours for high risk. Once it is completed, the law provides for a minimum of 6 hours update training every 5 years for all levels of risk. All training must be in any case delivered by an accredited institution

Speaking about teaching modalities, this type of training can be both face-to-face or distant learning, synchronous or asynchronous, as long as it meets all the requirements regarding duration, content and final certification of acquired knowledge.  

 

ASYNCHRONOUS ELEARNING FOR MANDATORY TRAINING: LMS AND STRUCTURE

As we said, the law provides for the possibility of using asynchronous eLearning for mandatory training regarding work health and safety. This teaching modality calls for different types of courses which can be accessed by the user using desktop or mobile devices in any moment, as self-paced learning

Of course, to be able to deliver and certify this kind of training it is necessary to have a proper infrastructure that allows to monitor who accesses the training content, for how long and with which results. To do so, it is crucial to use an LMS platform to track all users’ actions. 

Speaking about the course structure, then, is is fundamental for it to be built in order to ensure the mandatory hours of training. This means, on one hand, not to give to users the possibility to skip content, on the other hand to use methods to keep the attention levels high, ensuring that all materials are actively used

 

THE MOTIVATION CHALLENGE IN MANDATORY TRAINING 

To actively use an eLearning content implies that the user is focused and motivated for the whole duration of training, which can be quite difficult for a 4 hours course. But since workers’ health and safety are at stake, engagement and effectiveness become particularly important and all possible improvement strategies must be implemented. Which strategies are we talking about? Let’s see some of them. 

STORYTELLING

A simple way to make asynchronous eLearning content more engaging is to use storytelling. In particular, any content can become more enjoyable, engaging and motivating if it is associated with a background story, which can be more or less close to the frame of reference of the final user. 

GAMIFICATION

This story can also make use of gamification mechanisms, namely traditional elements of the game world useful to create a challenging environment, to face alone or against others, to exploit positive competition and improve motivation

Some examples of this strategy can be introducing leaderboards with fictional or real prizes, or the possibility of gaining points and unlock content by completing specific actions. 

ROLE PLAY

Within the gamification framework, we can also find role playing: the user goes through its training process in the shoes of a fictional character. Once again, it is possible to act by analogy or differentiation, designing characters who can be similar to the user to promote identification or very different to foster the alienating experience typical of games.   

MICROLEARNING

In regards to the course structure, to guarantee that training can be carried out during working hours with little or no effect on everyday tasks, it is advisable to use microlearning. The whole content is divided into small training chunks, complete in themselves, accessible in different moments with no issues at all.

This takes into account the attention span and makes tracking easier, ensuring that all content is seen before moving to the final test

TARGETING

One last aspect to consider is related to the target audience. For the user to be motivated during the entire process, it is important to take into account the specific characteristics and training needs, not only in terms of content that cannot be changed in mandatory training. This implies first of all that tone of voice, storytelling and way of speaking need to be adapted: a course that is perceived as too simple or too difficult by the user can consequently become demotivating, a waste of time or an imposition. As the same time, when there are workers whose mother tongue is not Italian, it can be useful to design an ad hoc course, exploiting the multilanguage potential of eLearning content to comply with the specific target, alway guaranteeing the respect of content standard. 

 

Using the described techniques allows to improve users’ motivation and engagement even with mandatory training.
As asynchronous eLearning content producer, we have been the first ones to put this strategies into action to design work health and safety courses not only effective, but also enjoyable for the user. Do you want a taste? Fill in the form to request our demo

 

 

 

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