HazMat communications training

Overview

Fairfield Residential is a national property management company in the United States. They build choice apartments and cultivate high-quality living experiences for their residents with over 40,000 units nationwide. They approached me with the aim of improving their compliance training on chemical hazard safety to reflect updated branding and increase associate engagement levels.

Challenge

Fairfield’s compliance training for communicating chemical hazards and safety procedures to their associates was in need of an update. Their current training system was a narrated slideshow that they felt lacked engagement and did not provide adequate ways to assess associates’ understanding of the content. Additionally, they wanted the training to match the look and feel of their updated branding.

My Solution

For my final solution, I developed a 6-module online learning program that satisfied Fairfield’s compliance standards. Each module consisted of micro lessons that broke the content into manageable segments. Lessons focused on: 

• How to read chemical labels
• How to locate and interpret safety data sheets 
• How to interpret alternative labeling
• Recognizing pictograms and their meanings 
• Safety measures for working with chemicals 
• Methods of retrieving hazard information on the job site 

Users could interact with the lessons at their own pace to complete each module.

My Process

I started by reviewing the existing content to determine a logical way to group and present the information at a high level. After outlining the learning content, I recommended strategies that would allow learners to apply that content to their work situations. This made content relevant to the learners and promoted recall on the job. 

One way this was accomplished was by adding real-life safety challenges that allowed learners to consider issues they may encounter in the workplace and apply their knowledge of newly-acquired hazard training in a safe way. I worked closely with Fairfield’s subject matter expert to write scripts for these safety challenges that represented authentic situations and consequences with which the target audience could relate.

With a completed script and storyboard in place, I turned my attention to creating the visual elements for the project. In addition to incorporating the client’s branding elements and themes, I plotted the user journey to consider what visual features and interactive elements to incorporate into the design that would increase engagement levels and promote understanding. 

I organized related content and added tab and flip-panel formats where appropriate that allowed the learner to advance through at their own pace.

I used click-to-reveal slides for the user to interact with the various parts of a chemical label and identify the meanings of the nine pictograms described in the program. 

At the end of each module, I provided practice opportunities for the learner to apply what they learned in the lessons. 

Because much of the audience for this project does not speak English as their first language, I used visual feedback in addition to written feedback to help provide context cues to the learner about how they were doing as they worked through the practice activities. 

To check for understanding, I added opportunities for formative assessment throughout the program. 

In addition, associates were involved in usability testing throughout the project. This allowed us to identify user pain points throughout development and make necessary adjustments. This kept the project user-focused and gave us real, relevant data to use throughout development to ensure that our finished project was meeting our end performance goals. 

Results

The final solution resulted in a widely deployable training piece that integrated with Fairfield’s learning management system for broad delivery. The client loved the visual redesign and the way the interactive elements were incorporated throughout the program. Users reported the program as “engaging” and “easy to follow”. The client believes the training will be “widely useful in the field” and will be helpful in meeting their ultimate goal of eliminating accidents caused by chemical and physical hazards in the workplace.