World-Class Safety will always be “human based”

Yesterday, my post regarding the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) stirred a lot of private comments among many of you. It was nice to see we can at least agree on our roles as safety pros and leaders. But I was reminded of a group discussion with many of those same safety pros years ago when Computer Based Training (CBT) was all the rage (and still is in many organizations).

Many of us have a different name for the CBT acronym… Check the Box Training. I have seen CBT delivered in the field on computers that do not have a sound card on the computers the workers have access to, and there were no captions provided. This means the workers could not hear or even read the content, and they just saw the stills or video clips on the screen. This delivery issue was brought to management’s attention a couple of years prior, and nothing was done to correct it; however, the workers were still reminded of their monthly CBT requirements, the time they spent logged in to the training was monitored, and they received full credit for the training. And yes, management even would brag about the number of hours spent on their safety training! 99% of which was delivered with no sound or captions!

I have used CBT from time to time on topics such as the annual HAZCOM refresher – NEVER as the initial HAZCOM training, though. But let’s be real about this…

Safety training is our (safety team’s) time to connect with ALL employees. We took a lot of breaks during the training, and during those breaks, we talked about life and family. We connected, and if we presented the materials in an engaging way, we captured their attention for that session. They walked away thinking about safety and maybe saw “safety” as a human need. We can not generate relationships through a computer screen! We need human contact so they can see the passion in us that is all about their well-being and just maybe excite them about their OWN SAFETY as much as we are excited about working with them to ensure they go home to their loved ones each day. That is how we lead with EMPATHY. We must educate and motivate through our safety training programs, and CBT struggles to educate well and will NEVER motivate like a great safety pro can.

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