Safety: Up Close and Personal

By Lynn Grooms, Contributing Editor

Computer-Based Interactive Training for Employees

Like Cargill AgHorizons, Bill Russell, president of Russell Associates, Le Sueur, MN, believes students learn best when actively involved in the training experience. That is one reason why his company provides Computer-Based Interactive Training (CBIT). In fact, several of Russell's agribusiness and food processing clients use CBIT to train and update employees on safety programs.

One of those clients is ConAgra Flour Milling Company, Omaha, NE. Anthony Yount, the company's director of safety and sanitation, says ConAgra uses CBIT to train employees on all facets of its safety program. Subjects include accident injury reduction, hazardous chemicals, emergency actions, lock out/tag out and several others.

CBIT is a multi-media learning tool presented on CD-ROM. It enables employees to work at their own pace using a standard PC or laptop and a mouse. "CBIT does not require fancy computer skills. People usually learn how to do the program in 10 minutes," says Russell. The only keystroking required involves typing in employee name and identification number. The rest of the program involves pointing and clicking.

CBIT presents training materials in the following forms: text, audio, video, graphics and animation. Russell contends that by using many of our senses (hearing, sight, touch, etc.), we retain information longer. He adds that CBIT requires constant interaction on every page. The computer screen displays hints, hot words and audio and visual feed back that help support or correct the student's responses.

"This interaction stimulates active learning. The computer has the student's undivided attention," says Russell.

Russell adds that people who take CBIT learn at their own pace because they control the computer's speed. They can return to certain points if they wish or go faster through information they immediately grasp.

CBIT can be programmed with motivators. Russell recounts a particular training session on equipment safety. If the student did not indicate the correct setting of a safety guard, a siren would sound and the animated person displayed on the computer would have a finger cut off. "Safety training needs strong messages," says Russell.

To convey meaningful messages, training must be unique to the particular company or industry. Most of Russell's programs are custom written with a lot of input from the client. ConAgra's Yount says that he furnished Russell Associates a copy of ConAgra's operating policy manual and several customized training videos it had used to train employees. Russell's development team spent a day at each of two ConAgra flour mills observing the equipment and the milling process and interviewing employees and management on safety issues.

ConAgra also provided input so that Russell could develop an "introduction to flour milling," in addition to seven chapters covering safety issues. Yount traveled to Russell Associates twice to evaluate the work in progress. During these two day trips, he worked with Russell on appropriate terminology and language level. The custom-designed CBIT for ConAgra was ready about six months after the companies agreed to proceed. The biggest benefit of CBIT is consistency, says Yount. "We have 25 locations using it and I know that our people in Blackwell, OK, are being trained the same as those in Buffalo, NY."

Russell says that the consistency issue is of growing importance to crop protection product and fertilizer retailers. "If you rely on sales-people, you want documentation that they were trained uniformly and correctly," says Russell. "CBIT helps train them the way you want."

With CBIT, companies have documented evidence that employees took the training. This documentation can be used to present to OSHA or for GMP audits, for example. Russell explains that as long as the person's name and employee identification number is entered, the computer tracks the employee's progress throughout the training. The computer will show if the employee completed the training and passed the test, and by what score. Yount notes that if employees do not score at least 80 percent on ConAgra's test, they must repeat the training.

Most relationships between Russell Associates and its clients are long term because they need to periodically update information. Next month for example, ConAgra will add a CBIT chapter on chlorine safety. The changing regulations involving chemical compounds are another example of why programs must be kept current.

Yount reiterates that CBIT is valuable for the consistency in training it provides. He adds that employee feedback has been positive, even from people who thought they would be uncomfortable using a computer. In addition to CBIT, ConAgra still conducts monthly safety meetings. This gives employees a forum to discuss issues as they arise.

- Excerpts from the article "Safety: Up Close and Personal" in the March 1999 issue of Ag Retailer.