By now, you are probably scratching your head asking yourself - so how can I create a safer workplace for our firefighters? The challenges in corporate America to creating and maintaining a safety workforce grow each day. As America's workforce changes, so must the techniques, content, and technologies used to train personnel in safety.

Changes in corporate America are coming from changes in:

• demographics,
• ages,
• education level increasing,
• work/life balance,
• technology, and
• languages.

In a recent article in Professional Safety magazine, the article stated: "Research and recent events indicate that as workers become more educated and organized, and have stronger representation and leadership, demand for improved working conditions and legal and union successes should improve worker health benefits and reduce the disproportionate greater safety risks for immigrant and non-English speaking workers."

This quote illustrates the real world of safety in business and industry. Let's think back just a few decades ago, when mining, steel working and similar industries were struggling with safety in operations, demographic changes, language barriers, etc. These issues were worked-through, with both legislative and operational changes resulting in safer daily performance.

In a sense, we are at a similar crossroads in the fire service. With the identification of the 16 Life Safety Initiatives at the National Fallen Firefighter Line of Duty Death Symposium in 2004 and its follow-up symposium in 2007, the issues that injure and kill our emergency service personnel have been identified. The challenge now comes in defining how to create that safer workforce.

Training becomes a central focal point in creating a safer workforce. The integration of training into this process requires five considerations.

• Obtain and deliver information in the form understood by the audience. Younger employees were taught with different methods and technology than those of middle age and older.
• Instructors must review materials prior to using them. They should be current and understandable to the audience.
• Insure those being taught understood the content. Tests aren't always the answer. Use workshops, exercises, etc. to determine the level of understanding.
• Involve others as needed to refine and improve any training initiative.
• Safety training requires various methods of presentation to be truly effective.