How to Organize a Training Program for ISO 14001

Posted by sarah on May 25th, 2021

Training employees is the key to a successful implementation and maintenance of an Environmental Management System (EMS) according to ISO 14001, since workers’ daily activities can generate impacts on the environment. That is why it is so important to organize a good training program that covers every role and employee in the company. In this article, we’ve listed the steps on how to organize an effective ISO 14001 training program.

Steps to organize an effective training program

Appropriate ISO 14001 training must be defined by companies to ensure their employees have the competencies and skills needed to perform their jobs. Following the steps below, you ensure your company implements an effective training program:

Step 1: Assess your training needs

Before creating any material or conducting the training, it is very important to assess the training needs of the personnel. In this step, you need to identify the gaps between employees’ current competences and the competences required by the EMS company. Take into account the environmental training already conducted in the organization. For instance, you may find out that many of your employees are already qualified for their tasks and you are that much closer to complying with regulations.

Step 2: Determine training objectives

To achieve the desired results, the company should establish clear training objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Since employees with different roles and departments follow different procedures and protocols with different environmental impacts, the training must be specific, that is, focused on resolving gaps in specific areas and individuals.

Step 3: Choose the training method

Nowadays there is a wide offering of training methods and modalities to achieve the training goals for your EMS. Online training can be a good option for disciplined workers who can complete the training at their own pace. An additional benefit to this is that the company won’t have to find the time to hold a meeting of all employees involved in the training, which is usually is difficult or impossible. Of course, you can opt for the traditional in-class courses or seminars delivered by internal staff or hire external providers to conduct the training. Other forms of learning include workshops, meetings and even internal environmental newsletters.

1)      Internal Auditor Training: The ISO 14001 Auditor Training Online Course is developed to teach ISO 14001 internal auditing skills and the techniques to measure the effectiveness of an Environmental Management System through an internal audit. 

2)      Lead Auditor Training: The ISO 14001 Lead Auditor E-learning Course is mainly designed to provide training and certification to become ISO 14001 lead auditor for Environmental Management System.

Step 4: Prepare a training plan

A good training plan will indicate exactly how, what, when and where you will accomplish your training objectives.

In your plan you must indicate the methods you will use during the training (the “How”). For instance, will it be an in-class session or an online course and, in relation to this, where will the training be delivered, or which resources will be used for this purpose?

You should also indicate how long training will last and when it will be delivered, including how many sessions it will take, and the agenda for each session.

Step 5: Implement the training program and keep records

Once the training plan is ready, you can start implementing the training program. During this step you need to create EMS training records that demonstrate the training has achieved its objectives. These records may include questionnaires, records of attendance, written reports, test results, basically anything that measures the effectiveness of the training.

Step 6: Monitor and measure the effectiveness of the training

Monitoring the effectiveness of training can be done by monitoring employees’ work and analysing if any improvement has been achieved. On the contrary, if continuous failures occur, for example, by not following working instructions that avoid environmental impacts, the company must analyse whether the root cause is lack of training of the operator.

Step 7: Improve the training program

Use the results from the monitoring and measurement of the training program to achieve continual improvement. For instance, if scores from environmental course assessment are low, course design should be improved.

Improving the environmental training programs also requires continual research of new tools, modern technologies and learning methodologies that will help to achieve the EMS training goals. In addition, good planning and active involvement of all members of the company will allow the organization to continually improve its training strategy.

Source: https://ems14001consultant.wordpress.com/