Follow Up From HAZWOPER

I was speaking to my colleague, David the other day and discussing my last post (here) more. I'm stunned with all that we did. The reason we created a virtual classroom way back then was that we were providing 40-hour Hazwoper training to our new hires via live instructor-led training the problem was we were flying our trainers hither and yon and if you were unlucky enough to be hired in a remote place at the wrong time you were either not trained at all and sent to the field or you had to wait weeks for the trainer to return. It was NOT a good model.

In 2012 when we put in our virtual classroom we started by having the exact same training just through a virtual google hangout. We quickly realized we needed to adjust and improve it. Over time we did just that. We found that over time we saved hundreds of thousands in travel and training costs by not flying people around, our retention of new hires increased because they didn't have to wait weeks to be hired, we saved over fifty thousand in paper and printing costs, and eventually, the quality was good enough that I became quite proud of our home-brewed solution. We even got a call from Google because they were so surprised by how much we were using their technology. We even experimented with using their AR Google Glasses for our hands-on orientation. 

We did a lot to make the training as engaging and effective as possible so that the trainees were not overwhelmed or overly bored. I think we got there eventually. The best was when I would hear from the trainees about what they thought and several who had been in the industry for years thought our training was the best they had ever had. We also won several "best in class" training awards. 

The biggest issue, and the reason we had to stop in 2017. . . we got too big. It fell under its own weight. When we trained 10-15 people it was quite do-able and slick. When you hit twenty it got tough. Anything over 20 people and it became far less effective. When we canceled the program we were hiring 50 people a week. Many of our location managers were sorry to see the program canceled. They had come to depend on it and the training we were providing was the best in the industry. Fun times! I shudder to think what I would do to it now with what I've learned through these classes.