Why Specialised Safety Training Matters
For all types of business finding a training provider that is an expert in everything is almost impossible. Having worked in the training and presentation world for something like 30 years, I have realised that while, like most L&D professionals, I can train or facilitate pretty much anything with the correct information, there are always areas that I, like most L&D professionals specialise and excel in.
I have trained in many fields of knowledge and have been accredited in most, but after spending years working in the world of safety and hospitality, it is this world that is currently my forté. I am also lucky enough to be currently working with a company that is a leader in this very specialised field.
In the past however, I have worked in other companies that have not been safety related themselves, but have still needed the correct safety training in place. In fact, not being specialists means that they have to rely on whoever trains their people to be specialists for them.
Most businesses choose a Learning Management System (LMS) for three main reasons:
✔ Cost-effectiveness – A single platform for all training needs.
✔ Reporting capabilities – Easy tracking and compliance monitoring.
✔ Wide course availability – A broad range of subjects in one place.
However, that last point is where things often fall apart. Whether it’s safety, management, HR, or technical training, most LMS packages try to be a master of everything—but often fall short on industry-specific depth.
Why Generic Safety Training Fails Certain Industries
If you are in the catering, hospitality or other food related business for example, you need your training to be written by experts in the field of Food Safety and accepted at audit by the inspectors that come around. Not only does this save time and discussion, but potentially actions and fines as well.
Again, having been in a similar situation myself I am fully aware that the costs of either taking on a secondary platform or purchasing individual courses from an “ online training store “ can be a long and expensive solution.
In addition, many of these solutions will not match your specific requirements. Do you have specific policy details that apply to your organisation alone – maybe, for example, your required temperature for freezers is slightly different to the standard requirement due to the goods you store in there. Having to put a secondary note or training onto a course that you have bought not only doesn’t look good for the company as a whole, but also can cause confusion and disbelief in the learning modules themselves.
Branded, Customised Training: More Than Just a Nice-to-Have
You may also want to have training that is fully branded to yourselves. Having training built this way for your staff to complete, gives them a belief that as a company, you are taking a personal interest in their development, increasing their trust and loyalty.
Neither of these things, or other potential special needs like languages, are available from an “off the shelf” solution, so if you want them for your company and still keep your original LMS you need to find another solution.
Building a Smarter Solution
I am fortunate enough to work for an organisation that has allowed me to take the time to find a solution to this. As leading experts in safety we are often asked not only for courses to go onto other Learning Management Systems other than ours, but also occasionally for customers who wish training on their HR systems or websites.
Of course the best solution for us is always going to be to provide the full safety package on our own platform, but we understand that contractual challenges can make this difficult, at least for a period of time.
After some planning and experimentation we managed to design and build a secure package that could be put onto another LMS. This in theory allowed us to securely provide training to anyone with an LMS to use training designed for them. But as we worked towards the final product, we started to be asked for a variation of pricing models.
Some clients wanted to have the package available with unlimited usage but only for a set period of time. Others asked if they could have a package for a set amount of users, while a couple asked for the ability for us to bill them per enrolment using a live tracker.
And that was on top of the branding, policy and various language requirements they had.
As a team, we had a lot of discussions and decided to use a platform that would not only allow us to manage all the files we were were providing, but also supply them with the finance models our customers were requesting.
This allows us to provide exactly what they need:
- Exceptional generic and also personalised safety training – branded, policy based and in various languages. All written by our team of Health and Safety and Food Safety experts with about 40 years of experience, and designed and built by our outstanding Academy team who are well known for the way they make safety simple to understand.
- All these courses are provided to our client’s own LMS so that they can include them in their staff’s own learning journeys and pull off reporting just like they can with any of the courses they already manage.
- A secure base to hold and manage all the packages – this allows us to update all our packages when needed, without having to go near the client’s own LMS itself.
- A flexible, simple and safe way to track training and provide the end users with the finance options they want.
- The ability to potentially also put training on an HR system or website that is part of the company’s day to day offering.
The Future of Safety Training
I believe the team has excelled on this one and can’t wait to see what we come up with next, for our current clients and new customers. The world of training is an exciting one and safety training especially so. It would be nice to look at Digital training being more facilitative, but that may be a bit further down the road.
Philip Spray – Head of Digital Training
Philip Spray is a passionate leader in digital training and learning development, currently serving as the Head of Digital Training at Navitas Safety. With over a decade of experience in training, compliance, and instructional design, Philip has played a pivotal role in shaping innovative learning solutions for businesses worldwide.
