Case Study No.

The Safety Training Program

Rizamae Castillo Evangelista

21-52094
I. Executive Summary

The workplace is one of the most important places for workers, which can also
become dangerous. Therefore, it is a must that employees should be trained properly
in order to prevent accidents at work. This is where Houghton Refrigerator Company
is lacking. Their safety training program and the hiring process were poorly organized
and no proper orientation and on-the-job training was provided for the new hires and
even on the old workers. For  Houghton Refrigerator Company to overcome or
improved these problems, they should have workplace safety training, for the workers
to have a better understanding of how their work environment is set up and how they
should behave while at work. With this knowledge, workers will feel more responsible
in performing their duties and take any safety precautions that will help them avoid
accidents while at work.  Companies like Houghton want to avoid being involved in
cases that fixate on negligence, so it is the obligation of the manager or supervisor to
have a safe workplace, which can be achieved with effective workplace safety training.

II. Statement of the Problem

The Houghton Refrigerator Company has a great image to its partners in business.
Unfortunately, the company operates in a poorly manner. They don’t have a proper
hiring and training process for their employees. The company also has poor upper
management skills that resulted in different difficulties. 

III. Causes of the Problem

Houghton Refrigerator Company employs about 300 workers and needs to add
more when the demand increases significantly. They are employing high school and
college students even without the proper orientation on the work processes. The
training process was about five to ten minutes only, the supervisor usually shows the
employee how to do a job once and lets the employee do the rest. Though it is an
easy job, proper orientation and training are still required and the right people should
be employed. And it sometimes resulted in unexpected difficulties that the new hires
know nothing about because training is lacking in the company. There’s also an
instance that a line supervisor belittles those hired that have a ten-minute introduction
to the job processes and that could instill fear in the rest of the employees to commit
mistakes. The employees in the company already experienced minor injuries and
that’s the moment the upper management realized that there was a need for safety
training for all the workers and when they decided to do so, no one in the company is
capable or knowledgeable enough to conduct such pieces of training. Creating an
employee training and development program from scratch is a challenge. The
company must do it right, to give a foundation for success for years to come.

IV. Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions

Currently, Houghton does not offer orientations. Houghton should offer newly hired
employees an orientation where they are given a brief history of the company and the
products it offers customers. Houghton Company does not have a well-established
and effective training program. It has not put in place the appropriate mechanisms
through which both the current and new employees are regularly trained. Houghton
should offer training sessions for about one week or two. In order to ensure an
effective training program, the company should develop a properly evaluated
systematic approach to training. This approach ensures regular identification of the
job-related skills that are necessary for successful training and meeting the general
objectives of the company.

According to Goldstein (1974), a person qualified to conduct the training of

employees is regarded as one who is familiar with the operation and construction of
the company equipment and all the hazards involved. In the case of Houghton
Company, the person chosen to conduct the training does not have the required
qualifications to conduct this activity. Bill Young, who was asked to conduct the
training out of desperation, does not have the adequate skills as he is still new in the
company and there is nothing showing his competency despite having attended a Red
Cross training program. In order to ensure successful training, the company should
ensure that those considered qualified instructors during training are well acquainted
with and conversant with all the hazards involved in building the refrigerators.
Furthermore, such a person should have successfully completed training in the
hazards involved in building the refrigerators and not the general training as in the
case of Bill Young. Such instructors should be competent in areas such as proper use
of special precautionary techniques, tools and equipment, and effective job planning.

Several changes need to be made in the safety training program. The program
needs to be formalized and structured. Management or the Board needs to document
and establish the structure of this program. The program should be outlined, and key
modules, relative to the job, should be developed and approved by management. The
company should contact their insurance company, as they likely already have similar
modules created. The safety training program should be focused on the following
items; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), what is required and how it is properly
used to protect you, Danger and Risks of each job, development of a safety culture.
Finally, the most important step is management involvement. This includes creating
or approving any safety-related procedures that are to be implemented in the
company. There should also be a committee that focuses solely on keeping the
employees safe and sound inside the company premises.

V. Recommended Solution, Implementation, and Justification

Houghton needs to have a proper hiring process, wherein they should select the
most qualified person for the job, and orientation should then follow. Introducing the
new hires to your company culture, hierarchy, job responsibilities, co-workers,
workplace facilities, and more on the day of onboarding. Good employee orientation
plans allow new employees to get to know the very basics. It answers any questions
or concerns a new hire may have while also reducing anxiety under a new
environment as company policies and employer expectations can be daunting. The
orientation session will help them assimilate comfortably into their new roles.  The
research found that new employees who have undergone a well-structured
onboarding orientation are 82% more likely to remain at a company for up to three
years. When both parties are able to express what’s required of the other, it reduces
misunderstandings and assumptions because all aspects of performances have been
covered.

Houghton needs to adequately invest in effective training programs that aim at

incorporating the employees into the new system. One of the appropriate ways in
which they can ensure proper training of the new employees is through personalized
learning. This is a situation in which a personal mentor is assigned to every new
employee, who constantly advises and gives information concerning safety measures
to the new employees assigned to them. They can tap many organizations that are
conducting safety training. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) have designed an effective safety-training model that emphasizes the
evaluation of employee progress in the workplace after the training. The Company
should apply this approach to safety training. This is because it provides a way that
helps in determining the level of learning achieved and whether there is an employee
improvement on performance. The supervisors’ observations can also be used to
assess the employee performance since the supervisors are in close contact with the
employees. Other methods include workplace improvements due to reduced injuries,
and formal assessments such as written exams to determine whether the employees
fully understand the training material.

The company can also be advised to continuously conduct a job hazard and risk
analysis. Utilizing the analysis will provide a process for analyzing the work activities
that will identify the tools, materials, and equipment needed to develop work methods
and procedures for accomplishing the task. The process will identify existing and
potential hazards and assess the risk and identify methods to eliminate or protect
against the hazard.  Safety and health can add value to Houghton. This can help
prevent workplace injuries and illnesses by looking at workplace operations,
establishing proper job procedures, and ensuring that all employees are trained
properly.
VI. External Sourcing

Labor law has always indicated training programs on workplace safety as a way to
promote the adoption of safe behaviors by workers.  It also requires all workers to
undergo the mandatory 8-hour safety and health seminar that must have a joint
employer-employee orientation. According to Arthur Jr. et al. (2003, p. 235), “there is
very little reason to believe that how trainees feel about or whether they like a training
program tells researchers much, if anything, about (a) how much they learned from
the program (learned criteria), (b) changes in their job-related behaviors or
performance (behavioral criteria), or (c) the utility of the program to the organization
(results criteria).” The four criteria these authors list (reaction, learning, behaviors, and
results) are the same included in the most popular evaluation model developed by
Kirkpatrick in 1959 and still in use. Kirkpatrick’s model, however, does not take into
consideration the psychosocial factors that explain why behaviors are adopted. From
a more process-oriented perspective, it would be expected that even the worker’s
effective and attitudinal reactions to the training program would inform its effects in
that they are indicators of the motivation to apply, or not, the knowledge acquired.

Gagne-Briggs’s theory claims that the appropriate formulation of training

objectives is vital to the success of the training. The learner should be well informed
of the goals and objectives of the training prior to the actual training. In this case, the
company should have been created enough awareness of the objectives for the
employees. There is a need for the company to adopt this approach since it informs
the employees of what they are required to learn during the training.