Last July, at one of the Jose Cuervo company’s factories that produces its famous tequila, six employees were killed while conducting routine maintenance work. It was a harsh reminder of the critical importance of workplace safety protocols.
The incident was all too familiar to industries like petroleum, where a 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas killed 15 people, and injured over 180 – with the accident blamed on poor working conditions and broken safety devices. The problem is felt overseas as well. For example, last year Italy witnessed a marked upturn in both workplace accident reports and fatalities.
Workplace safety remains a top priority in industrial settings, yet the incident reports continue, often stemming from preventable human errors. Learning & development (L&D) teams at these companies are tasked with implementing training programs to minimize these errors. In a profit-driven environment in which achieving compliance can take priority over all else, corporate-sponsored training methods often suffer from low engagement with employees. In this article, we’ll explore how immersive, scenario-based learning can breathe life into these programs and better prepare workers for real-world hazards.
Following the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s investigation of the BP explosion, it became clear that inadequate training factored heavily into the horrific outcomes. Three key themes emerged:
- Failure to train on proper procedures: The dangers of tower overfills (which caused the accident) were not covered in employee onboarding, tracing back to subpar training simulations.
- Deviation from standard operating procedures: Many SOPs were found to be outdated or absent, with poor hazard analysis and internal safety studies long overdue.
- Overall poor safety culture: At the time of the accident, this refinery already had one of the highest rates of workplace fatalities. Expectations of managers were unclear, and operators were not held accountable for these outcomes.
While responsibility for maintaining SOPs and overall safety culture does not typically fall on the L&D department, there is a lot these teams can do to proactively improve the efficacy of training programs. To understand their potential as positive agents of change, we can look at three drivers of underperformance for traditional safety programs:
- Low engagement, leading to poor knowledge retention. Hands-on learning in the workplace is a very effective way to improve learning outcomes. A 2014 study found that active learning increases student performance in STEM subjects, while the National Academy of Sciences concluded that physics students who prepared with active learning methods scored 54% better on exams compared to passive learners. Researchers have also demonstrated this phenomenon in a workplace setting, observing active learners’ relative improvement in knowledge retention after one month.
- Lack of a scenario-based learning application. Safety training should replicate real-life situations, so workers can react appropriately under pressure. The more life-like the training, the better employees can apply their knowledge in the field. The ability to fail and understand the consequences helps to mitigate the risk of making a mistake in the real world.
- A static, one-size-fits-all approach to training. Many companies rely on manuals and slide decks built for large audiences, which often fail to simulate real-world conditions. Without personalized learning paths addressing diverse needs and learning styles, employees often miss the chance to master the skills that matter most in their job performance.
The solution is to use interactive scenarios, virtual walk-throughs, and digital simulations to replicate hazardous situations in a safe environment. By helping trainees experience on-the-job risk without suffering real-world consequences, L&D teams can drive better learning outcomes, including learner engagement and knowledge retention. We have a name for this: immersive, scenario-based safety training.
There are many examples of immersive safety training in action, including one initiative from Mitsubishi Electric UK (MEUK), whose advanced HVAC technologies require a lot of in-depth training for technicians. Their online training lacked interactivity and engagement, leading to lower knowledge retention – which posed risks to worker safety. They needed a more scalable and cost-effective training solution, which could deliver a more engaging experience to learners.
By creating virtual reality (VR) training modules with annotated videos, voiceovers, and interactive elements, MEUK fully embraced the scenario-based learning approach.
Did the program work? The most successful immersive learning programs achieve four key objectives:
- Provide hands-on learning opportunities. Learners entered the VR training environments through Meta Quest 3 headsets, interacting directly with HVAC systems and without needing physical access to equipment.
- Teach decision-making under pressure. Through gamified experiential learning, technicians were forced to quickly assess and respond to technical challenges, building problem-solving skills relevant to their roles.
- Deliver training in customized formats. The training was delivered in self-paced format to reduce dependency on instructor availability, and was made available on laptops, tablets and smartphones to maximize accessibility.
- Collect data and optimize. The trainees showed better engagement (specifically, higher interest and retention including safety topics), while also decreasing related travel and accommodation costs.
While engineers are not directly tasked with designing and executing learning programs, they can still play a role in maximizing their impact. As the key beneficiaries of safe work environments, who better to advocate for training solutions that can reduce human error? We recommend that engineers follow a three-step model to help inspire change management through training innovation:
- Quantify the ROI to L&D and leadership. Demonstrate the fully-loaded cost of workplace accidents, to help identify the true return on investment (ROI) of immersive safety training.
- Collaborate on workforce planning. Embrace pilot programs to demonstrate the effectiveness of training. Support the collection of advanced metrics like reduced defects and improved cycle times, helping L&D prove how training investments lead to increased job satisfaction, higher retention, and better overall company culture.
- Modernize the safety culture. Be an advocate for technology-enabled learning, especially simulation-based training for high-risk or technical roles.
Occupational hazards will always be a reality in the workplace, but the opportunity remains for engineers and training professionals to collaborate on solutions. As Mitsubishi Electric has proven, an investment in immersive learning can work at scale, driving key training outcomes while anchoring the organization in a healthy safety culture.
Let’s work together to remove the word “preventable” from workplace accident reports, once and for all.
Paul Burani is Chief Revenue Officer for the immersive learning firm, ThingLink.