Does health and safety training improve safety outcomes?

Training is essential but it is not a silver bullet. Bridget Leathley examines why better safety outcomes depend on much more than course completion alone.

Your risk assessment states that manual handling training is a required control, so you book your staff onto some manual handling training. At the end of the course, they complete a multi-choice test and demonstrate they can lift a box correctly in the classroom. You have demonstrated that they have learned something. But have they learned skills that will reduce the likelihood of an injury when handling in the workplace? And for how long will any new knowledge be retained?

Too many organisations treat training completion as evidence that a risk has been completely controlled. While the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on the Manual Handling Operations Regulations explains what manual handling training should include, it also states clearly that “information and training alone will not ensure safe manual handling.” Research has shown consistently that manual handling training, without other measures to reduce risk, does not reduce the incidence of back or other musculoskeletal pain (which is surely the purpose of the training).

Recent research supports this finding across the safety domain. A 2026 meta-analysis found that while safety training is associated with some improvements in learning, the evidence that learning is automatically transferred into workplace behaviour is weaker. And the evidence that the training resulted in improvements in safety outcomes was even thinner.

Why doesn’t health and safety training alone always improve safety outcomes?

The translation from training to improved safety is not a single step. A number of things have to happen, as illustrated in the diagram. We’ll look at what can go wrong at each step.

What you plan to train

How did you decide what training to provide? Too many organisations book generic, off-the-shelf awareness courses without considering the knowledge, skills and attitudes that people need. Staff learn about the fire triangle, but not about the alarm signal or assembly areas in their own workplace; maintenance staff know the chemical names for types of asbestos, but not how to read their asbestos register. If you train people in something that doesn't address the actual problem, don't expect the training to improve safety outcomes.

What they learn

Assuming you have the right learning objectives, how do you know if learning has taken place? Some courses include a test at the end – often multi-choice, as this is easier to mark. Such tests are at best a measure of short-term memory, and at worst, of luck at picking the least unlikely answer. Some courses include a practical assessment - moving a load at the end of a manual handling course or demonstrating inspection technique at the end of a ladder user course.

Some new competences might be difficult to demonstrate in a classroom, so an assessment could take people back into the workplace. For example, hazard spotting as part of a risk assessment course. Some competences rely on teamwork and are difficult to assess for individuals. A scenario-based assessment provides a way of assessing how people work together in an organisation.

What they do

Can they apply the learning? If you are going to invest in training, you need to make sure that the workplace environment supports the competencies you expect people to learn. This includes physical aspects such as the equipment and layout, as well as the organisational aspects such as procedures, workload, planning and supervision. What happens if trainees find that the manual handling techniques they learned with boxes in the classroom can’t be applied to construction materials on the worksite?

New behaviours need to be supported, reinforced and actively encouraged. Managers and supervisors need to show that they care about the behaviours, actively seek examples of the right behaviours, and provide positive feedback. Applying the learning might result in people working more slowly – if the supervisor asks people to hurry up, they are likely to revert to old habits.

It is harder to assess the ability to apply skills that are rarely needed, such as first aid treatment or rescue techniques. But if you want to know that someone will be able to respond correctly two years and 11 months after their course, regular checks could include asking someone to talk through what they would do in an emergency, using different scenarios to test their application.

Effects on safety and health

Did the new behaviour improve the safety outcome? Although this is the last part in the chain, it’s the part that needs to be considered first. Is that manual handling course the most effective way of reducing absences from musculoskeletal pain? Or would it be more effective to lower the shelves, reduce the load size, or provide manual handling aids? Rather than noise awareness training to encourage the wearing of hearing protection, can we reduce noise levels with quieter equipment?

Takeaways

1. Start with the safety problem. What knowledge, skill and attitudes do people need to control identified hazards? Will the proposed training cover these?
2. Learning is about more than being able to repeat facts, and end of course knowledge tests only assess short-term memory.
3. Assess whether trainees can and do apply the learning on-the-job. Do this soon after the course, and again at intervals. Provide opportunities to practice skills to develop them.
4. Check whether the training has had any effect on the hazard it was supposed to control. It is difficult to pick out the impact of any one training programme on lagging indicators such as injury rates or ill-health. Look for leading indicators, such as difficult handling tasks being redesigned, and maintenance staff reporting that a task can’t proceed as planned because they’ve identified the risk of asbestos in the location.

Training is an important element of your health and safety management system. But it must never be a substitute for making the workplace safer and should start with the residual risk you are trying to control – not with the list of courses available.

RoSPA's Training Management Service manages your health and safety training from start to finish, from identifying training needs and delivering the right learning solutions to building structured training plans, competence management and monitoring progress. This ensures your workforce remains skilled, compliant and safe.