While meeting training requirements is essential for compliance, the way you approach your training plays an even larger role in how well your team actually retains and applies the information being taught in your training program. Some concepts are better suited to individual e-learning, while others are illustrated best through hands-on education. That's why a blended learning approach is so beneficial to maximizing your team's food safety training comprehension and retention.
Blended learning breaks out of the rigid training mold of using one form of training or another. Instead, it offers a mix of both with continuous, contextual, and multimodal learning experiences that better address your team's needs. Compared to traditional options, 85% of educators found blended models more effective for personalized training.
With the right middle ground and an emphasis on continuous training, you can improve your team's on-the-job behavior while executing key food safety procedures. Follow along as we break down the basics and benefits of a hybrid training strategy — as well as how you can design and implement a program of your own.
What is blended food safety training?
Blended food safety training combines e-learning, workshops, and hands-on training to match educational techniques with the topics they are best suited to teach. For example, a blended learning plan may defer site-specific and hands-on application training to in-person workshops. Meanwhile, businesses can save money and scale effectively using e-learning courses to teach foundational food safety concepts across multiple locations.
This method is particularly useful for businesses looking to optimize training across multiple locations, languages, and specialties. Manufacturers can pick and choose which training modality best fits a given topic, group, or location — rather than trying to fit square pegs in round holes with a single standardized training method for every situation.
Why a Blended Approach to Training Is Essential for Optimizing Results
A blended training approach offers the flexibility to strategically select which training methods work best for each situation — enhancing your training outcomes and reducing the headaches associated with strict adherence to a single training style.
Consider how the following benefits can elevate your training outcomes and create a more engaging overall experience for your employees.
Facilitates Continuous Learning
Effective training programs don't treat training as a one-off process. To keep your employees fresh and up to compliance standards, it’s important to develop a training schedule built around continuous learning. And with a blended learning approach, you can implement a continuous schedule that doesn't require constant production line shutdowns.
Blended learning lets you offer in-person, hands-on training when necessary — allowing your team to access the benefits of synchronous (real-time) learning. Meanwhile, you can supplement these in-person courses with self-guided e-learning courses that employees can complete on their own time, at their own pace.
Provides Training That Matches Topic Requirements
Certain training topics are simply better explained in person. Facility-specific training, for example, is most effective when an instructor can directly point out elements of your operations, such as machinery that needs extra attention in sanitation or maintenance.
General food safety concepts, on the other hand, are sometimes best taught through scalable, flexible methods like e-learning. Online education lets you create a consistent training experience across multiple languages and locations. With a blended approach, you can optimize results by mixing and matching modules to suit the topic.
Boosts Scalability Without Sacrificing Specificity
Blended food safety training programs can also enable scalable training by allowing your program to adapt based on the method that best suits a given topic, with the added benefit of specialized training opportunities.
For instance, while frontline workers across your organization can receive consistent training through e-learning modules, employees with specialized training needs — such as root cause analysis or vulnerability assessment training — can access on-site training options to upskill within their own facility.
Blended food safety training also helps reduce the costs of scaling your training model — specifically those associated with travel. Hybrid training programs offer a nearly 40% reduction in travel-related training costs (without reducing the effectiveness of your employees' education).
Improves Retention and Engagement
Blended learning is also a proven method for improving employee retention on the job and engagement during training itself. Learners who participate in a blended learning program show a 50% improvement in knowledge retention compared to standalone in-person or online training. Similarly, learners have shown a 60% higher engagement rate in a blended learning environment than in standalone training.
Engagement and retention are key to measuring the overall success of your training program. In fact, nearly 45% of employees' real-world performance can be determined by their engagement during training.
Ensures Consistency in General Concepts
A particular challenge for larger organizations trying to train across multiple locations, in-person training often varies depending on the instructor. So, if you invest in in-person training options across multiple locations with multiple instructors, there may be slight differences in how each team learns and executes policies. While this may not be an issue for isolated training in a single location, these widespread variances can lead to inconsistencies and potential food safety risks at scale.
Blended food safety training lets you maintain consistency through e-learning courses, which use a single source of information across every experience, without giving up the idea of in-person training altogether.
How to Build a Blended Food Safety Training Program
To actually tap into the benefits of a blended training program, you can't just start signing up for classes with no strategy. You need to consider where your training program needs updating, which courses are right for which topics and concepts, and how you're going to measure your success.
These simple steps can help guide your training decisions.
1. Conduct a needs analysis
Blended or not, building any successful training program begins with identifying your team's training needs. Conduct a skills and knowledge assessment with your team using methods like surveys, tests, or informal interviews.
Using the data you collect from these assessments, you can pinpoint where your knowledge gaps are and create a training schedule to match. Regularly retesting your team will allow you to update and optimize your training program over time — so you're not spinning your wheels with an outdated schedule.
2. Determine which topics best fit which methods
Once you've identified your team's skill gaps, you need to consider how each training topic might be best communicated. Try separating site-specific or hands-on training from general knowledge courses like Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Hands-on training should be conducted in person to maximize results, while foundational training can be completed through e-training to maximize savings.
3. Sign up for training
After you have a plan in place for what and how your team is going to learn, it's time to pick your courses. Partnering with a trusted training vendor is a great way to ensure your team receives quality training delivered by experts in the field. Make sure your vendor's training options fit a blended learning model — so you don't have to worry about potential variations in your educational materials that might come from mixing and matching training sources.
4. Implement modules and document execution
Ready to launch? Start your training schedule whenever your strategy is aligned — but remember to document your efforts as you go. From completion dates to proof of training, recordkeeping is essential for achieving food safety compliance. Inspectors will want to see evidence that your training was successfully completed and covered the topics necessary to meet food safety scheme standards. Additionally, documentation can streamline root-cause analysis to help identify gaps in your training that may be causing food safety incidents.
5. Evaluate effectiveness and refine your program
Post-training evaluations are essential to the long-term success of your blended food safety training program. Once your team completes a course, collect their feedback on what they found helpful or effective and where the training may have fallen short. Pair this with on-the-job observations to determine training retention. Using this data, you can update and refine your training plan to optimize results.
Partnering With Experts to Drive Training Retention
Improve your training outcomes and break free of the limitations imposed by traditional learning methods. Tapping into the benefits of a blended food safety training program is easy with the help of industry experts like those at AIB International.
Our training portfolio empowers your organization to build the right learning mix for every site — strengthening competencies and improving performance. Take the next step toward boundless educational possibilities by signing up for training today.
