Safety Training Net - March '25 🪜🍊🥦🤧
Anniversary Special and Contest, Immersive Training, Ladder Safety, Healthy Eating Activity, and Allergies and Workplace Safety
🎧 Want to listen to an overview of this newsletter created with Google’s NotebookLM? Click here.
The Safety Training Net is 4 years old this month! That’s 48 separate issues (actually …more than 100 because for the first few years, I created and sent out two different versions each month - one for VIPs and one for free subscribers, and several issues in Spanish). In total, I have shared dozens of original safety training games, infographics, links, ebooks, videos, webinars, and featured a number of different experts both in and outside of safety and health. All of this content is available to VIP Subscribers on the Safety Training Net website.
If you are not yet a VIP, upgrade today with a special Anniversary offer: one free month with an annual subscription!
The Safety Training Net has thousands of subscribers from 91 different countries! To celebrate, I am resharing a contest from a few years ago called “Where in the World?” In this contest, individuals from around the world are holding a SafetyFUNdamentals sign. To enter, take a guess at the location where each photo was taken. To submit your answers and enter the competition, click here. Prizes include a variety of SafetyFUNdamentals books!
Upskilling in 2025
So far this year, we’ve covered, Emotional Intelligence and Data Visualization. This month, we introduce immersive training.
Immersive Training in Safety Training
One of the trends in training that keeps emerging, regardless of industry, is the use of immersive technologies. These technologies include VR, AR, and computer simulations that place workers in realistic, interactive learning environments. Instead of passively watching videos or reading manuals, employees actively practice safety procedures in lifelike scenarios - all without real-world risk.
Five key benefits that make immersive training so effective for workplace safety include:
1.Engages Employees Actively
Traditional classroom training often leads to wandering attention and low retention. Immersive experiences force trainees to focus. When you're virtually standing on a high-rise scaffold or operating dangerous machinery, your brain treats the experience as real. This engagement is why studies show VR learners can recall up to 80% of what they learned even a year later, compared to just 20% retention after one week with traditional methods. (Traditional refers to lecture-only training in the classroom).
2. Risk-Free Practice of Dangerous Scenarios
Perhaps the most powerful advantage is the ability to experience hazardous situations without actual danger. Workers can practice responding to fires, chemical spills, or equipment malfunctions virtually. For example, VR can simulate working at heights to teach proper fall protection - giving trainees the emotional sensation of being elevated without any real risk. This safe practice environment turns mistakes into valuable learning experiences rather than potential tragedies.
3. Hands-On Skill Development
Immersive training builds practical skills through repetitive practice in realistic scenarios. This develops the muscle memory needed for safety procedures. Research has shown that employees trained with VR learn up to four times faster than those in classroom settings and report significantly higher confidence in applying their skills on the job. Whether it's operating a forklift or performing a medical procedure, the interactive simulation allows workers to refine their techniques until they become second nature.
4. Emotional Realism That Changes Behavior
Immersive simulations can trigger the same stress responses workers would face in actual emergencies. VR can put employees "at risk" virtually, engaging people's instincts so that real behavioral change takes place. The result is workers who are conditioned to respond correctly under pressure.
5. Standardized Training With Practical Applications
Immersive training ensures everyone receives the same high-quality instruction regardless of location. It also allows companies to train remotely and reduce equipment downtime.
While high-tech immersive technologies offer exciting possibilities, many organizations do not have the resources available to add them to their training toolbox. Luckily, there are several no or low-tech options for immersive training experiences you can try to incorporate into your training programs. These include drills, job shadowing, role-playing, on-the-job training, and tabletop exercises. Chapter 10, “Making it Real”, in my book, Make Your Safety Training Stick: Improve Retention and Get Better Results, covers all of these topics and more. Subscribers can purchase this book for 10% off on the SafetyFUNdamentals website using code STNSub.
Safety Training Calendar
In the 2025 Safety Training Calendar, you can see that March is a month dedicated to various health and safety initiatives, including Brain Injury Awareness Month by the Brain Injury Association of America, National Nutrition Month by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Workplace Eye Wellness Month by Prevent Blindness America, National Ladder Safety Month by the American Ladder Institute, and National Poison Prevention Month by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
In honor of ladder safety month, I am happy to share a Ladder Safety BINGO packet for all subscribers to download for free!
If you are unfamiliar with Safety BINGO, it's just like regular BINGO except that instead of calling out random numbers and letters, a clue (in this case related to ladder safety) is read to a class of trainees. If a trainee knows the correct answer, and they have that answer on their Safety BINGO page, they can cross it off. This continues until someone has crossed off all boxes across, down, or on a diagonal. When they do, they should yell BINGO and be declared the winner.
The complete ladder BINGO packet and instructions can be downloaded here.
🌟 VIP subscribers have access to several other activities related to the above themes plus and a brand new activity on Healthy Eating called Fill Your Plate. All VIP downloads can be found below in the VIP section.
Allergy Season and Workplace Safety
The first day of Spring was just a few days ago and for many, that also means suffering from seasonal allergies. What do allergies have to so with workplace safety? If you have ever suffered from allergies or even a head cold, you know some of the side effects. These can make it hard to concentrate and in the workplace, this can lead to hazards. To read more about it, check out this post on the SafetyFUNdamentals blog.
Thank you to everyone who answered the two-question survey as part of the entry for the “potato” giveaway!
The winner of the Tater Toss is….Elisabeth M. from Connecticut!
The winner of the second “potato” (a potato stress ball), is Faith F.!
Congratulations to both winners and thanks to all survey takers for participating!
VIP Section
Hi VIP! Thank you so much for being a paid subscriber and supporting this newsletter. Many of the resources in this newsletter are only available to you and these download links are provided in the section below. The Safety Training Net is still only $50/year so if you know someone who could benefit from these resources, please use the button below to refer them to this site. Thank you!