Reinventing HSE training to better involve employees 

Immersive Factory conducted a survey of hundreds of HSE managers. Its aim is to identify and explain the changes brought about by the Covid-19 health crisis in the organisation of companies on their HSE strategy.

HSE, already at the heart of corporate strategy before the crisis, will become a major element in crisis management, and then in the implementation of the new normal for the health and safety of its employees.

Safety days to be reconsidered 

Safety days are a major asset in raising awareness and prevention within the company or organisation. 

80% of the respondents to our study organised at least one safety day per year before the health crisis. 

Even if the health crisis has an impact on the organisation of the company and its events, HSE managers do not intend to reduce the frequency of their safety days 86% will maintain their safety days this year.

Moreover, nearly 30% of them wish to change the formula of their safety day. Indeed, this type of event needs to be rethought to adapt to health measures.

Safety days are still very important in the prevention strategy of companies and organisations. 

Management of distance learning

Nearly 80% of the respondents conducted distance learning during lockdown, underlining the company's willingness and necessity to continue training as best as possible, even in times of crisis, and even at distance.

However, feedback on the effectiveness of the training courses over this period was mixed. 48.7% of these training courses were judged to be effective, or even very effective, but almost 50% of them were not considered sufficiently effective. By contrast, 63% of training plans in the pre-crisis period (early 2020 and before) were considered effective or even very effective. Almost a third of respondents did not find their training plans sufficiently effective, while half of them thought this during containment.

The willingness feedback from these training courses can be explained by the training methods used during the containment, there was an explosion of PowerPoint/booklet training compared to before the crisis: 58.3% compared to 37.1%.

Transforming training

In light of the possible limitations of traditional training plans, which have been highlighted by the Covid-19 crisis, 62.3% of respondents are in favour, or even very much in favour, of changing the types of training they organise. 71.4% would like to test new forms of immersive training allowing them to bring their teams together at distance. This is in line with the need to digitalise training courses for greater performance.  

In order to adapt training to the challenges raised by the post-Covid-19 world, only 17% of those surveyed were interested in face-to-face training, compared with 97.1% who were interested in organising face-to-face training before the health crisis. 

HSE courses need to adjust and rethink their traditional types of training. Virtual reality training is seen as a solution adapted to health measures by 68.2% of respondents; 34.3% for augmented reality training.

The context of the Covid-19 crisis will amplify the digitisation of training courses, thus responding both to a demand for health protection and, above all, for greater efficiency of training courses through digital technology. 

The rising place of HSE in the company's strategy

For more than 90% of respondents, the place of HSE training in the company's overall strategy before the Covid-19 crisis was important, even very important. In their company's new strategy to respond to the crisis in the short and long term, 75.1% of them say that the place of HSE training in the company's overall strategy will become important, even very important.

During lockdown, 77% of the HSE managers were under more pressure than normal. This also places the HSE function as an element of crisis resolution and management. This demonstrates, once again, a willingness to continue training and to transform it to meet a need both in terms of taking into account new HSE standards, and in terms of target (wider, including all company employees, subcontractors, visitors, etc.).

They also believe that their teams are motivated, 69.4% of them even highly motivated, to now pursue HSE training.