5 Things You Need to Know About Occupational Health and Safety Training (Southern California Facilities Expo 2025)

Do your workers understand how to do their jobs safely—and could you prove that to OSHA if you needed to?

The general duty clause of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a safe environment for their workers and comply with occupational safety and health standards. Additionally, OSHA mandates that employers provide training for employees to make sure they understand how to do their work safely, said Raul Guzman, Director of the OSHA Training Institute Education Center at California State University, Dominguez Hills, at a Thursday educational session at the 2025 Southern California Facilities Expo.

But what kind of training are you required to provide and when? The short answer is that it depends on the job. Start with these five basics and build on them so you can keep your people safe.

1. How to Know When Training is Needed

There are three training triggers you’ll want to familiarize yourself with—four if you live in California or another state that has its own state plan for occupational safety and health. They include:

• OSHA Publication 2254. This document summarizes all of the training requirements set forth by OSHA. It covers everything from the use of powered platforms for building maintenance to personal protective equipment and fire protection on the jobsite.
• Cal/OSHA Safety & Health Training and Instruction Requirements. This only applies to employers in California. It includes an easy-to-navigate table that explains the type of training, when and how often you’re supposed to conduct it, and who should take it (for example, an impacted employee or a supervisor). If your state has a state plan similar to Cal/OSHA, it’s worth checking with them to see if they have their own occupational health and safety requirements.
• Whenever you implement a required safety program. If you’ve implemented a safety program you’re required to have, such as an Injury and Illness Prevention Program or a Heat Illness Prevention Program, you need to train your employees on the contents of that plan.
• If the job itself presents a risk. Not all training requirements are spelled out in the standards because it’s impossible to account for every job and every situation workers can find themselves in. “Ask yourself, ‘Does the job I’m doing represent a risk?’” Guzman said. “If the answer is yes, you need training.” Jobs that present risks could include any job that requires workers to use a ladder or power tools, for instance.

2. When to Set Up Training

Be proactive about training, Guzman advised. “I can’t tell you how many times I get a call from a company that’s reached out to me and says, ‘Hey, can you provide SkilSaw training to our employees?’, but it happens after they receive a fine from Cal/OSHA,” Guzman said. “Call me before.”

Work with your contractors to make sure they’re also following safety regulations. For example, if you’re working with welders, are they wearing the required respirators?

3. What Training Modalities You Can Use

OSHA released a letter of interpretation regarding training modalities, Guzman explained. “People ask this question a lot—is online training valid?” he said. “The answer that OSHA came up with is, it depends. You have to take it on a case-by-case basis.”

For example, if you’re training employees on the content of your Injury and Illness Prevention Program, you could use online, computer-based training to accomplish that. But other trainings like fall protection, hazardous waste operations, or any equipment-specific trainings, need a hands-on component to be effective. You can also set up hybrid training, in which part of the training is computer-based and the other part is hands-on.

4. How to Make Sure Training is Effective

Remember these five principles for effective training:

• Training must be conducted in a language that workers understand.
• The training space should be conducive to learning. “It’s not like, ‘Hey guys, grab five buckets and sit there and listen to what I’m saying,’” Guzman said.
• Consider a variety of methods, including, but not limited to, job training, lecture, computer-based training, discussions, classroom exercises, demonstrations, and guided practice.
• The training should be performed by a subject matter expert, a qualified person, or a competent person. A competent person has training, knowledge, and experience to address hazardous conditions in the workplace. They also have the authority to take prompt corrective measures and have been designated by the employer as a competent person. A qualified person is someone who has specific knowledge on a specific topic, like an electrician or forklift operator.
• All training must be documented. “If it’s not documented, it never happened,” Guzman said.

“A recent study by NIOSH indicates that training alone is not sufficient to result in reduced morbidity, mortality, or injury,” Guzman added. “For training to be effective in preventing occupational injuries and illness, it also requires management commitment, investment, and worker involvement with a comprehensive hazard identification and risk management program. Training alone isn’t going to solve the issue.” In other words, if your company doesn’t buy in to the importance of training, workers won’t learn what you need them to learn.

5. Who Can Provide Training

Look no further than ANSI Z490.1, which spells out who should be conducting training, how it should be conducted, what types of records should be maintained, what constitutes a good learning environment, what modalities can be used, and more. Think about including an assessment as part of your training to have proof that the person walked away with a certain level of knowledge, Guzman advised.

“What are the benefits of training?” Guzman asked. “Reduced workplace accidents, improved safety awareness, ensuring regulatory compliance, enhancing productivity, and it can potentially lower insurance costs. And by the way—training costs are tax-deductible, citations and lawsuits are not.”