How to Keep Seasonal Hires Safe in National Parks this Summer

Summer is here, and with it, seasonal hires in government areas like National Parks. It’s critical for these temporary employees to get trained on safety as quickly as possible. They’re only available to you for a short time, and working in the parks can be a dangerous occupation.

Luckily, the development of short 15-minute refresher courses has proved an effective way to bring these seasonal employees up to speed. Especially for returning seasonal employees, who might already be familiar with the process but still need to be reminded of or updated on certain training to ensure everyone’s safety while working in the dangers of the National Parks.

These employees are often more difficult to reach while on the job, since they are not restrained to one office or even a single building, they are working outside in the elements. They’re also more likely to work irregular and long hours. Therefore, getting in-person training is inconvenient and difficult. With online courses, it can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, and can be completed in a short time frame at the convenience of the employee. For example, employees can complete these courses in their own downtime or during a commute.

In addition, the consistency and ease of these refresher courses boosts morale for outdoor-loving employees who don’t want to worry about working an in-person safety session into their busy work schedule. It’s a uniform form of training in a job where consistency is unusual.

Safety procedures should serve the worker, not the other way around. Workers might sometimes use their judgment in a moment and stray away from procedure in order to actually be safe. Short, simple online courses provide the best framework of safety for these workers, without putting them in such a rigid environment to unintentionally put them in an unsafe position.

Since employees should be encouraged to use their own judgment and discretion to find the safest course of action, spending an excess of your budget on in-depth safety training is not only unnecessary, but can be counter-productive. 15-minute online courses are an amazing option as they’re cheap, can be used multiple times, and are easily distributed among employees. The short length also encourages employees to complete and pay attention to the content being presented to them.

Online courses are an amazing way to bring National Parks’ seasonal employees up to speed quickly, effectively, and cheaply. Don’t waste your or your summer hires’ time and resources on extensive and often irrelevant safety training, instead keep them actually safe by giving them a simple framework and allowing them to make judgment calls when on the job.