Developing more effective security and safety training relies on connecting with trainees on emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels.

The challenge of making safety training stick has plagued trainers for decades, and the reasons behind disengaging training are obvious. According to Tristan Casey, chief scientist at health and safety firm Work Science, safety training is particularly challenging for companies because it ticks many of the boxes that make people disengage from the information: training is mandatory, which can trigger pushback; there are limited ways to practice safety responses shortly after training, so people forget quickly; and safety training is often bureaucratized, with a perceived goal of surface compliance—not true engagement. And lastly, safety behaviors—whether helpful or unhelpful ones—can be highly embedded in workers after years of practice, and it can be challenging to break or tweak those habits, Casey says.