How can you design safety training for multilingual employees?
Learn from the community’s knowledge. Experts are adding insights into this AI-powered collaborative article, and you could too.
This is a new type of article that we started with the help of AI, and experts are taking it forward by sharing their thoughts directly into each section.
If you’d like to contribute, request an invite by liking or reacting to this article. Learn more
— The LinkedIn Team
Safety training is essential for any workplace, but it can be challenging to design and deliver it effectively for multilingual employees. Language barriers can affect the comprehension, retention, and application of safety information and procedures. How can you ensure that your safety training meets the needs and preferences of your diverse workforce? Here are some tips to help you design safety training for multilingual employees.
Before you design your safety training, you need to know who your audience is and what their language skills and learning preferences are. Conduct a survey or an interview to find out what languages they speak, read, and write, how comfortable they are with English, and what kind of training formats and materials they prefer. You can also ask them about their existing knowledge, expectations, and challenges regarding safety in the workplace. This will help you tailor your training to their level, needs, and interests.
-
Michael O'Connor
Group QEHSS Director at Mercury / MD CSS Ltd. Home of makingsafetypersonal.com
Design the training to suit the learning outcomes you need. Simplify the content. Translate the content using local language experts for each country to ensure dialect flows and makes sense. Complete a basic test at completion to ensure the key concepts and requirements have landed. Look for feedback from attendees to continually improve your training content, evaluate the potential blending of online, face to face, video messaging to maximise the value added to your company and all attendees.
(edited)14
-
Josy John
Chief Safety Expert MAHSR PROJECT, Corporate Safety Head at TCE Pune India. Safety Evangelist and Thought Leader
The bulk of the material available in Safety training is in English and the setting is from an advanced economy . Therefore the references of legal requirements, best practices and examples will be from this background. Hence it is good to use this as a template to create afresh based on the local context, and not use a verbatim transcript/translation of the existing as it may not get assimilated by the target audience.
8
When providing safety training, you may need to consider the language of your audience. There are several options available, such as translating the materials into multiple languages and delivering them in parallel or sequential sessions, using bilingual or multilingual trainers or interpreters, incorporating visual aids, symbols, icons, and pictures that can convey the meaning without words or with minimal words, using plain and simple English that avoids jargon, slang, idioms, and complex sentences, and providing glossaries, dictionaries, or other language resources that can help your employees understand the terminology and concepts.
-
Christian Harris
Slipologist: reduce slips by 57%+ with science | Host: Safety And Risk Success Podcast | Advocate for proactive safety risk management
In the realm of language choices, utilizing local dialects and idiomatic expressions familiar to specific employee groups is paramount. While translating materials is essential, incorporating colloquial phrases used within certain communities enhances relatability. Employees are more likely to engage with safety training that resonates with their everyday language, ensuring not just comprehension but genuine understanding. It fosters a sense of connection and trust, vital components in creating a safety-conscious environment. This approach acknowledges linguistic diversity within multilingual teams, promoting inclusivity and strengthening the effectiveness of safety communication.
8
-
Luis Cantu, SSH, CSHO
SHEQ Mgr. at Centurion Container | Doctoral Candidate | Vol. Firefighter | SSH, CSHO | Bilingual Resume Writer
The question answers itself since if you hire a person who is bilingual in the dominant language you can do the training in the language of the person or people. This will give them confidence and a better understanding of the Safety rules.
4
To make your safety training more effective and memorable for your multilingual employees, you need to engage them in active and interactive learning. This could involve using a variety of training methods, such as demonstrations, simulations, games, quizzes, case studies, and role plays that can appeal to different learning styles. Furthermore, it is important to encourage feedback, questions, discussions, and sharing of experiences and perspectives among your employees in their preferred languages or in English with support. Additionally, check for understanding and retention by using quizzes, tests, or practical exercises that can measure the learning outcomes and identify any gaps or misconceptions. Finally, reinforce the learning by providing follow-up materials, reminders, or refresher courses that can help your employees review and apply the safety information and procedures.
-
Anandha Rama Krishnan Mohan
Assistant Manager OHS |Adani Airport
Visual demonstrations are powerful. Use animations, graphics, and real-life examples to illustrate key points. This also provides the market for animation industry, the more realistic the more connected.
4
-
Abdur Rehman
HSE Advisor | ADNOC Approved | NEBOSH IGC | Event Safety Management | Managerial Safety & Health | Assoc. Mechanical Engineer |
Engaging your learners is key in safety training for multilingual employees. Create interactive content, encourage questions, and involve participants in discussions and practical exercises. When employees are actively engaged, they're more likely to understand and remember the safety information, regardless of language differences."
3
The last step in designing safety training for multilingual employees is to evaluate its effectiveness and impact. This can be done by collecting feedback from employees and trainers about the quality, relevance, clarity, and usefulness of the training content, materials, methods, and language(s). Additionally, you should measure the changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of your employees regarding safety in the workplace before and after the training. You can also analyze data on safety incidents, accidents, injuries, or near misses to determine the level of safety performance and compliance of your employees. Finally, you should identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of your training and make improvements or adjustments based on the findings. Designing safety training for multilingual employees requires a lot of effort but can be very rewarding and beneficial in fostering a culture of safety in your workplace.
-
Pramod Pandey, Ph.D.
Passionate HSE Leader and Trainer (Corporate) | Expertise in Sustainability & ESG | Leading HSE Initiatives for Sustainable Business Growth
Evaluating safety training is the key to continuous improvement. Collecting feedback from multilingual employees ensures that the training meets their needs and preferences.
7
-
Abdur Rehman
HSE Advisor | ADNOC Approved | NEBOSH IGC | Event Safety Management | Managerial Safety & Health | Assoc. Mechanical Engineer |
Evaluating your training is crucial for continuous improvement. Collect feedback from participants in different languages to assess the effectiveness of the safety program. Use this input to refine content, methods, and languages used, ensuring that the training remains relevant and impactful.
-
Anil Kumar Singh
"Electrical Engineer Ensuring Safety Excellence | DGM Safety & CSMS | Fusing Technical Expertise with Risk Mitigation"
As per my experience & knowledge for a multilingual training program.One can design safety Videos without language. As Per human memory retention it is said that 10 % is retained from what we hear, 20 % of what we read, and 80% of what we see. So It will surely be effective while catering to multilingual ground Workers.
3
-
Susan Bennett
Work Health and Safety Consultant at Total WHS
I have worked with companies in a variety of industries and have found that great visuals are key. By working with individuals who understand the processes and are also fluent in the language of the target audience I can produce instructional videos which are simple and effective. A picture tells a thousand words.
(edited)2