It can be a challenge to actively engage workers in mandatedcompliance trainings. As one company has discovered, gamification can make the dryor repetitious material they must master more palatable.
The Mosaic Company isa world leader in mining phosphate, a substance used in the manufacturing ofplant fertilizer. The firm employs nearly 9,000 workers in six countries. OSHAand MSHA compliance regulations mandate that the company provide new US-basedmining employees with 24 hours of instructor-led safety training when theystart their jobs. Existing employees must receive eight hours of refreshertraining on required safety topics each year.
Mosaic was aware of the fact that employees were not particularlyenthusiastic about participating in the mandated training. Disengagement wasespecially pronounced among existing workers, who often complained that the refreshertraining consisted of the exact same boring material, presented year afteryear.
It was evident that change was necessary. Mosaic partneredwith Indiana-based Bottom-Line Performance (BLP) to completely revamp these training programs. Mosaic hadfour key goals for restructuring the training: meet the regulatory requirements,support a safety culture, engage workers in the material, and build businessacumen.
The result is Phosphate Foundations, an innovative solution Mosaic is now using to onboard newhires and refresh the knowledge of existing staff. Phosphate Foundations wasthe only Gold winner in the Best Advance in Compliance Training category at the 2016Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards.
Instructional design
According to BLP marketing director Steven Boller, a bigchallenge was that, by law, the training had to be completely facilitator-ledand could not contain any electronic components. “We usually partner withclients to create some form of blended learning that features a mobile app, eLearningcourses, or online game, but in this case, we couldn’t do any of that. We hadto come up with some other activities,” he said.
Instead of creating a digital simulation game to teachparticipants how to properly position equipment in the field, Bottom-LinePerformance designed an activity that used tabletop sandboxes and made cutoutsof the mining equipment so learners could actively practice equipment positioning(Figure 1). The tactile component was a unique solution. “While that was aconstraint for this project, [it] actually wound up leading to a lot ofcreativity,” Boller said.
Figure 1: Tabletopsandbox
In addition to the hands-on sand play, which was a big hitwith participants, the curriculum engaged employees in the mandated safety materialvia gamification and game-based learning techniques.
“We turned the instructor-led portion into a gamifiedjourney using a 48-inch-by-36-inch, beautifully illustrated map thatrepresented a mine site,” Boller said (Figure 2). Traveling through sevendifferent areas, each representing steps in Mosaic’s mine-to-market process,learners were taught how to identify hazards and stay safe on their sites.
Figure 2: Mosaic’smine site map
“Rather than just chugging through an agenda, gamificationmade things a little more interesting for the learners,” Boller noted. Facilitatorsalso used customized flash cards and puzzles to illustrate points and engageparticipants (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Laminatedcards made learning more interesting
Big-picture goals
Perhaps most importantly for Mosaic, the restructuredtraining provides new hires with valuable context about the company and itsmission. It connects their jobs to big-picture goals—illustrating how Mosaichelps the world grow the food it needs, and the important role employees playin this scenario.
“New hires walk into training on day one wondering, ‘Who isMosaic?’ At the end of day four, they know: ‘We are Mosaic,’” notes BLP on aproject webpage.
The revamped training material for the annual refreshertraining has seasoned employees progressing through a similar learning map called“Risky Rock Mine,” where they are tasked with identifying and eliminating hazardsin each section of the mine they visit. It also reminds employees of thecompany’s mission.
“Although there were games all throughout the curriculum, Ithink the reason that the project was so successful was because it took a stepback from the gaming piece,” Boller said. “The company did a good job oflooking at the regulations they needed to comply with and the procedures thathad to be taught, and very intentionally connected them to a more high-levelbusiness acumen about what the company is and what they want people to knowabout their organization.
“Rather than telling someone, ‘You have to take this courseon how not to fall off a platform,’ they showed how following the procedures ishelping Mosaic achieve its mission, which is helping the world grow the food itneeds.”
Impressive outcomes
Mosaic’s revamped training programs are alreadydemonstrating results in the areas of improved job performance, compliance, andrisk awareness. When surveyed immediately after the first training, 76 percentof learners said they expected the training to improve their job performance byat least 10 percent in the coming 12 months. When they were surveyed again sixweeks later, this grew to 81 percent. Managers rated the statement “Theemployee has been able to successfully apply the knowledge/skills learned inthe class on the job” a 4.42 out of 5.
By putting a new twist on what may be perceived as dry content,BLP made the required safety compliance training more interesting forparticipants. Overall, the new-hire training received a 4.41 out of 5evaluation for increasing engagement, while the annual refresher trainingreceived an overall course evaluation score of 4.26 out of 5.
Comments from participants included:
- “This is the bar for good training.”
- “The trainers were great and made me glad towork for Mosaic.”
- “This class wasn’t what I expected. I had toactually pay attention.”
- “I couldn’t sleep through the annual refreshertraining this year.”
“Phosphate Foundations proves that compliance training doesnot have to be boring or dull,” concludes Linda Anhalt, EHS training manager atMosaic.
Andy McGuire, Mosaic’s director of operations for learning anddevelopment, agrees. “Linda Anhalt came up with a new and innovative idea onhow to deliver an engaging, interactive, and integrated performance-basedcourse for safety compliance training, which has historically been viewed ashighly necessary but needing much greater participant engagement,” he said.
