BHR 4680 Unit III Case Study

Unit III Case Study

Columbia Southern University

The case study “Safety First” addresses the training needs of BNSF Railway, a large North American freight transportation company. While BNSF Railway is an industry leader in safety, the organization wants to further improve its safety record by implementing additional training to minimize workplace injuries and keep employees safe. The training should focus on safe behavior and avoidance of unsafe practices while empowering employees to share feedback with each other, both positive and negative, regarding safety. The organization would like to address specific areas that generally see a higher risk of injury than others.

In order to accomplish the organization’s goal, a training needs analysis has to be performed that is tailored to the specific training goals of BNSF Railway. An effective training needs analysis includes three steps: the organizational analysis to ensure that training goals and business objectives are in alignment, the task analysis to break down jobs into smaller components to gain a better understanding of what areas need improvement, and the person analysis to identify which employees could benefit from training.

BNSF railway has already established its organizational goal: the company’s most important goal is an injury- and accident-free workplace and the company is already known as the safety leader in the railway industry. Strong employee commitment, well-maintained railway system and equipment, and a well-established safety program that enlists current employees to train their peers.

BNSF Railway states that some of the training points it wants to pay particular attention to is working on or around trains and railways. Task analysis helps us break down each job into smaller components and pinpoint which of the components can be improved by focusing training on the weak points. Keeping the specific training goals in mind, some of the techniques to gather this information for BNSF are observing employees at work, safety questionnaires completed by employees, focus groups, and safety records and accident reports.

Person analysis helps identify both employees who will benefit from training and employees who have mastered the desired skill. This will not only help pinpoint who needs training but might also help identify subject matter experts who can function as trainers or as advisors. Because one of BNSF’s stated goals is instilling confidence in its employees to share both positive and negative feedback regarding safe working habits, this stage is a great opportunity to identify employees with exceptional communication skills. Person analysis also helps an organization understand the characteristics of its workers and can design the training according to those characteristics.

Once analysis is concluded, the organization must decide how training should be delivered. My recommendation is to implement several training strategies: in-class, instructor-led training would benefit employees by allowing interaction, reinforcing safety lessons through class discussions, and helps instill confidence in communicating openly with fellow employees. Instructor-led classroom instruction should also include safety videos that reiterate the importance of safe practices and underline the implications of ignoring these practices. Safety videos, when watched in a classroom setting, can also contribute to open communication by prompting in-class discussions. Safety policies and procedures can be delivered and explained via self-paced tutorials. The employee can complete and acknowledge these documents online and the employer has documentation that the employee received the policies and procedures. I would also recommend the use of gamification to address equipment-specific safety measures. Game-based applications motivate participation, engage the learner, and reinforce material while making learning a fun experience.

One of the main goals of BSNF Railway’s training is to open communication channels between employees to encourage sharing safe work practices and so employees can correct each other’s mistakes by giving immediate feedback, both positive and negative. The best motivational theory to apply in BNSF Railway’s situation is Social Learning Theory as it emphasizes learning by observing others and sharing feedback reinforces or discourages behavior. Noe (2020) states that “according to social learning theory, learning new skills or behaviors come from (1) directly experiencing the consequences of using that behavior or skill, or (2) the process of observing others and seeing the consequences of their behavior.”

By encouraging employees to immediately correct each other, give feedback in the form of praise or pointing out possible behaviors that could pose a hazard, BNSF does not only empower employees to speak up about potential safety concerns but it also provides a continued source of unofficial training as employees informally train each other on a daily basis, and last but not least, it fosters open communication between workers that most likely will not be limited to safety aspects of their jobs.

References

Noe, R. A. (2020). Employee training and development (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.