If you are facing the prospect of selecting an individual from within your organization to deliver safety training, let me first offer you my most sincere congratulations and next, my condolences. Congratulations for making the decision to use internal talent to handle the training, which is the best way to go in my opinion. If you really want to cover all the bases, then selecting the right person with an intrinsic knowledge of the tasks, systems, equipment and people within your company is certainly a step in the right direction.

Now, about that “right” person I just mentioned; that's where my aforementioned condolences come into play. Selecting the right person for just about any task can be trying at the best of times, however, selecting a safety trainer with the right stuff, and there is a lot of ‘stuff’ required, can prove to be, well…frustrating. Let's take a closer look at this issue and see if we can make it less frustrating by recognizing and avoiding some of the common pitfalls encountered in the process.

There are many who presume that relative practical experience in a given vocation alone is the primary criterion in the selection of a trainer. Although there is no arguing that practical experience is an invaluable asset to a trainer, an argument could certainly be made in support of the notion that doing a task, and training someone to do a task requires an entirely different skill set.

The rationale behind using the most experienced practitioner of a task — such as a forklift or aerial lift operator — as the trainer for that task seems sound in theory but in practice is fraught with problems. This operator, let's call him Barney, may have years of productive, incident-free operational experience to his credit. However, during training he tends to use colorful metaphors that include many words that rhyme with ‘truck’ but do not relate to the truck. Barney is also impatient, non-communicative, thinks safety is a joke and passes all of his bad habits along to his trainees. In short, Barney's record indicates he is a great operator but he is an absolutely terrible trainer.

So, what type of person should you be looking at for the position of safety trainer within your organization? Let's take a look at some of the most desirable traits of great trainers.

Desire

Your trainer has got to want to do this type of work. All the good ones have a high level of topical knowledge, organizational skills and public speaking abilities but only the great ones can infuse an honest passion into the mix. I'm talking about passion that is borne out of recognition of the fact that what they do saves lives. You will usually be able to identify those with passion by their willingness to participate in safety-related matters, voice their concerns and diligently seek solutions to problems.

Knowledge

Surprisingly, knowledge comes in second to passion because all the knowledge in the world won't add up to a hill of beans without it. However, a trainer's degree of knowledge in a relevant topic must be high and as solid as a rock for it is upon this foundation of knowledge that the additional attributes of confidence, credibility and trust are anchored. The person you seek for your trainer may not currently possess the required knowledge but will likely exhibit the thirst to acquire it.

Open-minded

It has been said that once we come to regard something as the truth, we extinguish the possibility of future discovery. Great trainers are open-minded and realize that the road to perfecting their craft leads not to conclusion but to greater discovery. Look for the type of person willing to entertain options and try new things.

Great listener

Mark Twain once remarked; “I never learned anything while my mouth was open.” Of course this remark was one of many tongue-in-cheek quips by Twain, but it contains an underlying sentiment that speaks to the importance of listening. Perhaps the single greatest asset of a great trainer is the ability to communicate. Good communicators know that communication is not merely the ability to speak but to listen. In fact, for communication to occur, information must be transmitted (speaking) and received (listening), which suggests that listening is not only an important component within the communication process but is indeed 50 percent of the equation. Great trainers gain a tremendous amount of useful information by honestly listening to their trainees rather than simply remaining quiet until they stop talking.

Consider the chart on page 32 and see if you can apply the good listening traits to anyone in your organization. If you can, chances are you have found a potentially great trainer.