Benefits Of Safety Training Through eLearning In The Pharmaceutical Industry
Safety training is a necessity in every industry, but in certain industries, its importance is amplified even further. The pharmaceutical industry is one such industry, due to the fact that the risks involved in the manufacturing and handling of pharmaceutical carry greater risks than some other industries, including dangerous gases, corrosive chemicals, and flammable agents. With modern technological advancements, nowadays safety training occurs in almost every industry via eLearning, as it can offer a number of benefits traditional classroom training cannot.
1. It Is Engaging
Retaining their safety training can literally be the difference between life and death for employees. However, no matter what the consequences, if the training is not engaging enough, employees can have a hard time knowing what safety procedures to follow and what to do in case of exposure. eLearning is crisp, direct, and to-the-point, in addition to being highly engaging due to eLearning strategies, such as videos, animations, gamification, and interactivities. eLearning makes sure that employees retain their training even after 6 months of taking the courses, at which point they can be refreshed.
2. Allows Practice And Application In A Safe Environment
eLearning strategies such as simulations allow employees to practice and apply learned safety skills and procedures in a safe, virtual environment where in case of a mistake, there are no disastrous consequences. This is very difficult, if not impossible to replicate using any traditional training methods. For example, employees can learn how to handle flammable materials, which hazardous chemicals are not be brought into each other's vicinity, as well as other methods of reducing risks such as exposure, burns, and poisoning.
3. Helps In Educating Employees On Regulatory Requirements
There are a number of national and international regulations that organizations in the pharmaceutical industry must comply with. Failure to do so can result in strict action against said organization, including fines, imprisonment, as well as the shutting down of the organization’s operations. eLearning can use strategies such as storytelling, infographics, animations, as well as interactive case-studies to make even boring regulations interesting and relevant to the employees.
How To Implement Safety Training Via eLearning In A Pharmaceutical Organization
1. Use Video-Based Learning To Help Employees Learn
Video-based learning is a must-have for the pharmaceutical industry, due to the fact that nothing can guide employees through safety procedures better in a step-by-step fashion than videos. What’s even better, creating video-based learning doesn’t require much, except for a high-end video camera and a person of some expertise to film the safety procedures, which can be acted out by some of the older employees. The videos will work even better if filmed at the organization’s own facilities.
2. Use Simulations To Help Them Practice
Simulations, as mentioned before, are a great way for employees to practice what they’ve learned. When designing simulations, eLearning designers should make sure that they create an environment similar to the actual workplace so that employees can relate to it and immerse themselves completely into the simulation. Then, they carry out tasks in the simulation while following the correct safety procedures, failing which the simulation can either cause them to go back to the starting point or branch out into more scenarios. Gamified simulations work even better, as they have points, levels, rewards, as well as leaderboards to engage and motivate learners.
3. Use Engaging Assessments To Test Their Knowledge
Safety training in the pharmaceutical industry is a serious business, and thus an assessment with pass marks is important, if not necessary. But, the assessment doesn’t have to be boring. Make sure that the assessments use interactivities, visuals, and graphics, as well as multiple ways to test the learners while keeping them engaged. This can include quizzes, true or false, matching exercises (eLearning designers can get quite creative here), problem-solving case-studies, scenario-based questions (these can be gamified) in addition to providing the employees/learners with a number of self-assessment opportunities as well as resources to learn on their own.
eLearning is backed by stats and studies and is the perfect training methodology for modern learners, in addition to also being the preferred method of training by modern learners. Nowadays, most eLearning is mobile-friendly, thus allowing employees the flexibility to access courses on their smartphones. Using eLearning in pharmaceutical safety training will ensure that at least accidents from the lack of knowledge are eliminated and that your organization follows every regulation it's supposed to, saving it a lot of trouble.
