Do you Know the Secrets to Developing Workers Compensation Training Exercises that Work?

Often training exercises are designed arbitrarily and have little to do with what is actually taught, when in fact, training exercises should be used to build the practical implementation going forward.

As workers’ compensation consultants, we frequently develop training programs and training exercise, and there are some trends we see. Workers’ comp professionals are, well, they are workers’ comp professionals, not educational material developers. Thus, they usually do not know the nuances of developing effective training material.

Effective materials are those that meet the objectives set up in advance. You must know what you want your trainees to do AFTER the training program – do you want them to develop a WC program, manage the program after it is developed, or merely be able to tell an employee about the program. There is a huge difference in these outcomes.

When you are developing a training program for your workers’ compensation management program, your training exercises must reflect the training content and learning objectives. Each component of training must reflect the other components. For example:

1. Objectives are high level statements about what you expect learners to perform after training.

2. Training content drills down into the details of your subject matter.

3. Training exercises ask trainees to demonstrate the extent to which have learned content required to achieve the learning objectives.

Let’s see how this works. Since workers’ comp management training is grounded in real life, training objectives and content will, no doubt, reflect the business needs you are currently experiencing. For example, if your business goal is to return 90% of your employees back to work with in 1-4 days of a work related incident you could select objectives that look something like this.

After the training, you want your trainees to be able to do the following 3 things:

1. Draft a return-to-work policy.

2. Develop modified duty job descriptions for several jobs.

3. Use the return-to-work ratio calculator at http://www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com to benchmark the return of injured employees.

Training content would then drill down into the detail of these objectives. Content will couple workers’ comp management training constructs with your real life business situation. Your training program will become uniquely yours.

Finally, training exercises are grounded in real life, too. Trainees perform tasks that reflect the actual objectives. The added bonus is that trainees will have tools they can take back to work and use immediately.

Training exercises can include:

1. Draft an actual return-to-work policy.

2. Write several modified duty job descriptions

3. Manipulate an actual return-to-work ratio to develop trending data.

What happens when your training exercises reflect real life objectives and content?

Drafting a return-to-work policy forces trainees to stop and think about how they want the policy structured and what they want the policy to say to their employees. They ask, “how can the policy best reflect your actual business needs.”

Developing modified duty job positions forces trainees to analyze the tasks that comprise the various jobs returning employees will be asked to perform. You are forced to think about how specific accommodations will make this a successful venture and keep employees at work.

Finally as you become adept at manipulating the return to work calculator, you will be able to gather hard data which is invaluable for a number of reasons: to keep upper management support, to justify next year budgeting for additional return-to-work resources, and so on. (workersxzcompxzkit)

So training exercises should be designed to reflect real world objectives and content. Objectives and content should reflect the real life needs you observe at your work site so that individual delegated implementation can begin as early as the training experience. When administered properly, trainees will already have useful tools they can use when they leave the classroom.

Author Robert Elliott can be contacted at: [email protected] or 860-553-6604.

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Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker about workers’ comp issues.

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