Exercising Operational Agility in COVID-19 Training Sessions

As businesses, including the process industry, adapt to the ‘new normal’ in the re-entry and recovery phase of COVID-19, there has been a major reset in the way work activities are prepared, conducted and delivered. In this challenging environment, from a business continuity viewpoint, it may not be prudent or possible to have face-to-face workshops involving key personnel. This certainly applies in the conduct of hazard management training where personnel would typically learn, apply and reinforce required learning competencies in a collegiate environment.

It has become evident that facilitators have had to alter the way they organise and deliver content in a virtual environment to ensure there is no adverse change in quality. The challenge is to maintain engagement and foster a nurturing environment to promote learning and communication amongst the learners as well as between the learners and facilitator(s).

This paper relays the good, bad and ugly experiences from Sherpa’s delivery of hazard management virtual training sessions to operating facilities located nationally and overseas (with English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers). From this experience Sherpa has identified best practices such as: a) harnessing the power of different communication platforms; b) recognising that technology is an enabler and not an end to itself; c) preparation, stress testing and the need for operational agility; d) early profiling of learner abilities; and d) the creation of a flexible teaching environment with whereby the training modules were emphasized with the use of visual prompts, examples and activities to solidify concepts. Together these lessons learned can ensure that the key required learning outcomes and learning experience are successfully delivered.