Employees Forget 70% of Safety Training Within 24 Hours!

Hermann Ebbinghaus a noted German psychologist, who pioneered early studies in memory, discovered that from the point when you learn a piece of information (100% retention), retention begins to drop exponentially. He called this the “Forgetting Curve”. What that means is, without follow-up, about 70% of learning is lost and forgotten within 24 hours of learning it.

In addition, while the loss rate does slow down, some studies show that total retention a month later is only around 10-20 %!  And that of course assumes the 100% of the learning is retained initially which is likely not the case. On a good day, we are lucky if a learner starts at 80% retention.

Over the years, psychologists have completed many experiments in the field of cognitive psychology, but researchers have not been able to replicate Ebbinghaus’ work.  The forgetting curve has stood the test of time. It is now relied upon as a sound concept.

So, does this mean that 70% of the billions spent each year on safety training is wasted after 24 hours? 

There will continue to be conflicting claims about what the forgetting curve actually is, how quickly people forget, and what trainers can do about it. You often hear safety training companies cite ‘the curve’ as the reason you need their product or service as reinforcement to the initial training or you risk losing training those safety investment dollars.

Despite the confusion, you can’t afford to ignore the forgetting curve. When lack of retention is properly planned for, it becomes another design issue. But when we pretend forgetting won’t happen or assume forgetting doesn’t matter; it will become a value killer.

Training reinforcement strategies can be more than just more training which would turn into a constant process of more training in order to enhance retention…it would never end.  Another suitable and successful alternative would be to turn the training into a habit (which is essentially repeated and retained learning.)  Doing this requires using the entire behavioral model….the training, the communications, the feedback, and the positive reinforcement….an award. 

Essentially, behavior based safety is a process to enhance the safety training that turns behaviors into habits.  When you apply continuous positive reinforcement to a training issue, you can build a habit and then go on to other important training issues. Historically small reinforcement safety awards are in fact nothing more than a training reinforcement strategy. 

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