Implement And Monitor WHS Policies And Procedures – Training Needs Analysis

Step in Training Needs Analysis

Discuss about the Implement and Monitor WHS Policies Procedures and Programs.

Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is an approach of conducting a survey to determine and evaluate the training needs for the representatives of Workers Health and Safety (WHS). The steps followed in the approach of TNA in Richard Crookes Constructions have been detailed below:

1. Initially, a questionnaire survey (refer to appendix) will be conducted.

2. The survey will include aspects related with worker’s consent regarding health and safety issues in the organisation.

3. After steps 1 and 2, the questionnaires will be distributed among WHS representatives.

4. Compilation of the survey checklist and enlistment of the concerned area where the need of training is reflected from the data collected will be done in step 4.

5. Finally, all the collected information will be documented for evaluating the findings obtained through the questionnaire survey. Source: (Huddlestone & Pike, 2016; Barbazette, 2005)

To explore the strengths and weaknesses of WHS representatives, consultation steps will include distribution of questionnaire among them and organise discussion sessions with all the members to evaluate and discuss the prevailing issue(s) in the organisation. Team meetings, by gathering all WHS representatives, could also be considered as an effective mechanism for evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, as it allows all the members to actively participate in the organisational operations (Archer et al., 2014).

Aguinis & Kraiger (2009) stated that the effectiveness of organisational performances and that of its employees are highly dependent on the initiation of training programs, which is also a key to ensure overall succession of the organisation. The changing dynamics of the workplace, through the application of effective training programs, can lead Richard Crookes Constructions towards integrating its overall activities and attaining greater efficiency to accomplish the determined goals. Based on the assessment of the WHS representatives’ training needs, it has been observed that representatives are largely concerned about their lack of knowledge, weak understanding regarding the safety measures and the legislative requirements of the workplace. Concerning the viewpoint of the representatives, a formal proposal to undertake the training program on health and safety measures has been developed to mitigate the issues in Richard Crookes Constructions.

The training program will reflect the roles as well as responsibilities of the WHS representatives concerning health and safety measures, mechanisms to identify risks and the reporting standards to be followed when communicating about the identified risks (Buckley & Caple, 2009). During the survey, the WHS representatives of Richard Crookes Constructions reflected their concerns regarding the increasing number of accidents in the workplace. Hence, the initiation of training is important for the organisation to ensure proper safety of the workers. It is expected to help in ensuring that the organisation’s due diligence is complying with the provisions for health and safety of the employees. The training program for the representatives can also enable the organisation to guarantee that the actions of WHS representatives and its associated employees do not affect security as well as health concerns of the other employees within the workplace. Furthermore, improving the workplace legislative requirements through the training program will ensure that all the noticeable adverse incidents are reported at the right time to the authority, so that necessary resolving measures can be implemented. This will further contribute to workplace resistance to discriminations in Richard Crookes Constructions (Wudinna District Council, 2015).

TNA for the WHS Representative

In accordance to the WHS legislation, Richard Crookes Constructions is responsible for eliminating and/or reducing the hazards that individuals within the organisation have directly and/or indirectly faced or may face in the future. The training measures will therefore be subjected to monitoring of workers’ health issues by minimising the potential WHS conflicts that arises on a situational basis from time and again. The measure will also facilitate presenting required information regarding the WHS risks making further contributions to the efficiencies of the program. Moreover, in the organisation, each member is bestowed with different set of roles, wherein the training measure shall enable them to assure adequate safety (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013).

Suggestively, the training session, in order to suffice the current requirements, can be carried out with the adaptation of both formal and informal techniques along with coaching and mentoring, which will be sufficient in developing specialization of knowledge of the WHS representatives. The training measures will also help the WHS representatives in developing soft skills and learning to ensure health and safety in the workplace and implement the legislative norms with transparency. The training will facilitate the environment of consultation with WHS representatives, as it will help in developing a friendly culture, maintaining work-life balance and ensuring fatigue management, which in turn will help to promote the benefits related to WHS in the organisation (WorkSafeNB, 2014).

Emphasising safety concerns, Berg (2010) stated that communication along with consultation is a very important attribute to ensure proper management of possible risks in the workplace. For instance, it is often perceived that if any employee is accidently injured while performing their job role within the workplace, it will raise the possibility that such incident could even injure others. To minimise the risk of similar occurrences, proper investigation as well as controlling mechanisms should be put into force. Thus, it becomes important that proper WHS information is shared among the employees on a regular basis for which training initiations are considered as immensely important (Niazi, 2011).

Formal training program will be included based on the results of TNA, being a structured procedure of learning arrangements. The training module will include certified courses related to WHS measures that the representatives need to ensure in the working environment. Additionally, the formal training will also include an approach of in-house learning sessions, lecture events and face-to-face workshops. It is expected that this approach of training will assist the WHS representatives in implementing the necessary provisions to resolve issues identified in the situation. The benefits of inducing this type of learning approach can be identified in terms of development of uniform understanding among the WHS representatives regarding the safety procedures and corresponding needs of the workplace. Formal training is expected to induce proper security measures within the workplace, which in turn is likely to lead the employees towards improvising their level of competencies in the respective field of operations. The formal training program will not only help the WHS representatives to develop their understanding about safety procedures but also augment their technical capabilities to a considerable extent (Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015).

Formal Training

As already mentioned above, the WHS representatives reflected that they lacked knowledge on safety procedures, which must be considered with due significance in the training session with a formal approach. After acquiring brief understanding of the safety procedures, proper measures need to be in the working environment, which can be through the lecture events and face-to-face discussions. This will help in raising the level of understanding as well as for enriching confidence within the representatives of WHS in the organisation. The workshop will focus on providing adequate understanding to the WHS representatives to enable them to reduce the possibility of lagging and completely removing the potential causes of accidents within the working environment. Furthermore, the training program can also be expected to assist the WHS representatives to reduce errors in the tasks they perform. The formal training will be conducted by expert employees of Richard Crookes Constructions who are sufficiently aware of the applied health and safety measures. The formal training module will be beneficial and ensure sufficient scope of enhancing the knowledge of employees, as it will facilitate in monitoring actions continuously during the training session (Talbot, 2012).

Informal training approach will also be implemented in the overall program, as it is regarded to be the pervasive ongoing mechanism of inducing proper learning among the employees. This training mechanism allows the WHS representatives to learn the applicable provisions off-the-job. Informal training will enable the workers’ self-learning behaviour and encourage them to act responsibly, contributing to the enhancement of their knowledge (Cross, 2011). The key benefits that WHS representatives perceive to acquire from informal training is that they are able to coerce the provision of safety in activities that they perform not only within working environment but also in their personal life. The training approach will also facilitate flexibility of learning in an unstructured manner. The informal training will facilitate the development of learning practices efficiently as well as with a lesser amount of intimidation for some of the WHS representatives. Accordingly, it is expected to lower the level of resistance in learning newer things among the WHS representatives, as it allows individuals to enjoy autonomy of learning new things for sufficing their individual needs. With these beliefs and motives, the approach will be applied in the working environment by providing flexibility as well as customised communication in Richard Crookes Constructions (Carliner, 2012; Neal & Hainlen, 2012). With its virtues thus, the WHS representatives will have autonomy of clarifying their confusions with the supervisors based on the requirements and communication with other working staff that will allow them to ensure their as well as other’s safety in the workplace. The informal training will include information sharing through e-mails related to the security measures, peer-to-peer coaching, providing support to search for information in electronic databases and developing informal network of working (Radaković & Antonijević, 2013).

Coaching and Mentoring

To mitigate the issues related to improper understanding of safety procedures among the WHS representatives, coaching and mentoring could be another integral training approach. The learning environment can be easily managed by supervisors, managers and/or other experienced representatives of Richard Crookes Constructions when initiated formally. These measures could be counterproductive, as it can be easily adopted within the workplace and the WHS representatives can be informed regarding the safety measures related to specified equipments and mechanisms of emergency exit during uncertain/unavoidable circumstances among others. The learning approaches of coaching as well as mentoring will be a suitable approach, especially for the new WHS representatives, as this will enable them to get acquainted with the work environment. The ongoing support and assistance from the experienced colleagues will also enable them to carry on tasks related to coaching at ease and in an objective oriented manner. The training involves assignment of coaching by experienced frontline managers who will be responsible for demonstrating as well as mentoring all-round support while new WHS representatives involve in critical tasks that involve safety and/or health issues (Connor & Pokora, 2012). Therefore, providing the WHS representatives with formal and informal applications for coaching and mentoring can be regarded as a proactive measure in ensuring that new WHS representatives can implement the learnt skills into their practices.

Computer Based Training

The training program will also be carried out with computer based technologies for enhancing knowledge among the WHS representatives regarding the safety procedures and approaches. This will also help in ensuring the importance of technical supervisions in the process of training the representatives. The computer based training method will enable WHS representatives to make use of designed structures and materials to facilitate appropriate learning behaviour. Rationale behind applying the approach of computer technology is to ensure that WHS representatives will also be able to stimulate their past experiences related to the safety procedures (Konschak, 2003). Training videos will also be developed to raise the learning capabilities of the employees, both on-the-job and off-the-job.

It was quite apparent from the discussion that raising the awareness of the employees regarding the safety procedures as well as legislative requirements is important to eradicate the possibilities of hazardous issues. However, to provide the proper amount of knowledge as well as understating to the WHS representatives, the need of training is very significant, whereas on the other hand, it is also important for improving their overall performance within Richard Crookes Constructions. To undertake the training program, the organisation is required to organize the series of activities to conduct formal-informal coaching and mentoring along with computer based training. Application of these mechanisms is likely to increase operational costs to be borne by the organisation. Thus, Richard Crookes Constructions needs around USD 56,580 for conducting the 7 days training session for 4 WHS representatives. The breakdown of the activities and its subsequent costs has been presented below for a better understanding:

Activities	Time Allotment (Days)	Per Day Cost	Total Cost
Selection of trainer	7	$4,000	$28,000
Increasing the awareness through providing curriculum materials (4 WHS representatives)		$150	$600
Transportation, lodging for trainer	7	$1,000	$7,000
In-house learning seasons, lecture events and face-to-face workshops	7	$2,500	$17,500
Training Video			$500
Hire TV/ video equipments	2	$120	$240
Handouts (4 WHS representatives)		$60	$240
Availing the computer aided technology (4 WHS representatives)		$100	$400
Administrative support			$600
Providing foods and beverages arrangement for trainer and trainee	7		$1,500
Total			$56,580

Training Cost

The newly appointed WHS representatives are highly concerned about the growing rate of injuries in the organisation. This reflected that they require enhancing their understanding of safety procedures as well as legislative requirements applicable in the workplace. To be noted in this regard, the organisation is responsible for adopting training measures to reduce the possibility of injuries in the working environment. Based on the assessment of the WHS representatives thus, TNA assessment has been conducted to mitigate the prevailing issues. According to TNA, training program is likely to reduce the possibility of injuries and increase the efficiency of the employees over the long run. Correspondingly, the following considerations are made while developing the overall budget of the training program.

• The overall training program will be of 7 days
• An expert trainer should be hired for 7 days, which will cost around $4000 to the company
• Curriculum material should be prepared that will cost around $150 per WHS representative
• Transportation and lodging for trainer would be $1000 per day
• Formal training sessions will cost $2500 per day for 7 days
• Video training session will cost $500 and rental for equipments will cost $120 per day
• Handouts for the WHS representatives $60 per person
• Computer aided technology training can be availed at the rate of $100 per WHS representatives
• The overall administrative as well as support costs will be $600
• Foods and beverages arrangement for trainer and trainees for 7 days will cost $1500

The above mentioned cost structure should be taken into consideration for the review and inclusion of the training program in the organisational, financial as well as management planning to ensure its effective completion and resolving the prevailing issues with assured degree of efficiency.

References

Aguinis, H & Kraiger, K 2009, ‘Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society’, Annu. Rev. Psychol., pp. 451-474.

Archer, R et al., 2014, WHS: A management guide, Cengage Learning, Australia.

Barbazette, J 2005, Training needs assessment: Methods, tools, and techniques, John Wiley & Sons, UK.

Berg, H. P 2010, ‘Risk management: Procedures, methods and experiences’, Risk Manage, vol. 1, pp. 79-95.

Buckley, R & Caple, J 2009, The theory and practice of training, Kogan Page Publishers, UK.

Connor, M & Pokora, J 2012, Coaching and mentoring at work: Developing effective practice, McGraw-Hill Education, UK.

Cross, J 2011, Informal learning: Rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance, John Wiley & Sons, UK.

Carliner, S 2012, Informal learning basics, American Society for Training and Development, US.

Huddlestone, J & Pike, J 2016, Team and collective training needs analysis: Defining requirements and specifying training systems, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, New York.

Jehanzeb, K & Bashir, N. A 2013, ‘Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study’, European Journal of Business and Management, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 243-252.

Konschak, P. E 2003, An evaluation of computer based training for police radar operators, Universal-Publishers, US.

Neal, B & Hainlen, L 2012, Designing for informal learning, American Society for Training and Development, US.

Niazi, B. R. A. S 2011, ‘Training and development strategy and its role in organizational performance,’ Journal of public Administration and Governance, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 42-57.

Radaković, M & Antonijević, S 2013, Balance between formal and informal learning – experience and challenges of civil servants training in Serbia, Report, Retrieved from, <https://www.nispa.org/files/conferences/2013/papers/201304151202190.Paper_Radakovic.pdf?fs_papersPage=4> [Accessed May 06, 2016].

Talbot, J 2012, Training in organisations: A cost-benefit analysis, Gower Publishing, Ltd., UK.

Virginia Commonwealth University 2015, Training methods, Training, Retrieved from, <https://www.people.vcu.edu/~albest/EDGE/Session8.pdf> [Accessed May 06, 2016].

Wudinna District Council, 2015, WHS induction and training procedure one pager and flow chart, Work Health & Safety & Injury Management, Retrieved from, <https://www.wudinna.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/file/WHS%20Induction%20and%20Training%20Procedure%20One%20Pager%20and%20Flowchart%20V1.pdf> [Accessed May 06, 2016].

WorkSafeNB 2014, Health & safety orientation guide for employers, Report, Retrieved from, <https://www.worksafenb.ca/docs/WorkSafeNBOrientationGuide_e.pdf> [Accessed May 06, 2016].