5 reasons why digital training is the best investment
01 December 2021
As businesses across the oil and gas sector face environmental and economic crossroads in their investment strategy, is there a one-stone, multiple-birds solution?
Smart investment in effective training has the potential to optimize performance, increase competency and output, as well as reducing serious incidents and costly mistakes.
But, how teams work has changed in such a short space of time. With hybrid working and remote global teams here to stay – face-to-face training is no longer practical or cost effective.
With companies increasingly considering moving their training online, here are five reasons why training – and more importantly digital training – is the best investment.
1. Look to the future.
The oil and gas industry is already well on the road to a digital future that makes operations more sustainable and more profitable. As we look to the future, being flexible and capable of adapting to new opportunities and complying with ever increasing regulation is vital. The ability to roll-out relevant training at a rapid pace is at the heart of maximising gains in this new environment and must be a core strand of immediate and future investment.
Finding the right solution is key, and questions must be asked about whether the traditional training methods that remain prominent in the oil & gas sector can still deliver. Given the propensity for digital solutions to fit around operational requirements and, crucially, improve knowledge retention several times over, it’s unsurprising that these solutions offer a better fit for operators’ flexible needs.
2. Improve technical skills.
Improving individual worker competencies has a direct impact on output and your bottom line. A future-focused training programme sustainably levels up all elements of your operations by delivering a tailored course that closes competency gaps by matching them with a combination of technical modules.
Digital training methods are allowing HR Managers to easily connect competence matrices to auditable, continuous training programmes using significantly more effective training techniques. Modern, digital training should blend quizzes, assessments, video and other interactive content such as 3D scenarios to create training that sticks. Meanwhile, the reporting functionality should provide actionable insights.
3. Improve employee engagement.
Employees are much more likely to stay and develop their career with a company that actively supports and enables them to develop their skills.
A recent survey of more than 1,400 people found that almost half of them (49%) didn’t believe that their employer was offering them enough learning and development opportunities (Undercover Recruiter).
As well as reducing staff turnover, investment in training delivers opportunities to promote qualified candidates from within, creating a clear pathway for a focused workforce while also encouraging the transfer of knowledge and skills throughout teams.
4. Improve safety.
In a complex working environment, a safe workforce is one that takes every step to mitigate risk and never faces a scenario they haven’t prepared for. Training is a direct route to providing workers with the wider operational competence and knowledge that improves their ability to make quick decisions in safety-critical situations. As a result, training can save lives, save money and prevent damaging environmental disasters.
Undoubtedly, the global oil and gas industry has made significant strides towards improving its safety record, however there is never room for complacency. At Norwell EDGE we believe that choosing a digital approach to highly complex training will ensure the entire workforce builds a solid foundation of knowledge across offshore and onshore processes, allowing individuals to make good decisions in pressure situations, even if not directly relevant to their day-to-day area of work.
As we embrace the digitalisation of other aspects of our sector, digital training offers huge opportunities to upskill our workforce and ensure we are doing all we can to make sure people go to work and come home safely. Environmentally, too, a digital approach to training seems a simple but important step, not least by removing often extensive (and costly) travel associated with traditional training methods.
5. Get the EDGE on the competition.
Approaches to training have an often-ignored potential to create room for competitive advantage. Competition within the oil and gas industry has always been driven by innovation: pioneering developments in robotics; directional drilling; flow technology; and dynamic positioning. With the industry now embracing the benefits of digitisation, what about training?
Those companies who invest in their people and modern approaches to training are more likely to weather transformations in the industry and come through stronger than ever.
Sharpen your performance with Norwell EDGE
With digital training methods proven to deliver knowledge retention rates almost three times greater than traditional classroom training, focused training programmes with this level of effectiveness have potential to directly impact productivity.
Maximising the effectiveness of the digital approach, Norwell EDGE training even allows learners to put their skills to the test in a series of virtual scenarios – a risk-free environment to build confidence and apply their learning.
Also not to be ignored is the reduced operational disruption, removing the need for large teams to be removed from the workforce for several days in order to undertake training.
Norwell EDGE is driven by this need for a flexible yet effective approach to technical training. Available 24/7 wherever you are on the world, on any wi-fi connected device, EDGE allows learners to complete training online at a time and place that works for both individual and employer. For a simple and flexible implementation, the modules can even be integrated with operators’ own internal training platforms.
