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To help start or improve your organization's safety and health program, see the case studies listed below for lessons learned and best practices.

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Case studies.

The Center’s research identifies and explores best practices, which in turn are the foundation for policies, programs, and practices that are implemented by organizations seeking to improve worker health, safety, and well-being. Our case studies provide concise summaries of organizational change implemented using a Total Worker Health ® integrated approach, and are based on the Center’s previous and current research projects.

The Workplace Organizational Health Study The Workplace Organizational Health Study sought to improve the health, safety, and well-being of front-line food service workers by identifying working conditions that could be modified to reduce pain and injuries and improve worker well-being. This case study, developed by the Center, summarizes the implementation of the 2+2 Feedback and Coaching tool, previously used with managers and modified for use with employees. Download the case study

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center To address rising employee health care expenses, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) launched an initiative to achieve its vision of the healthiest possible workforce, the foundation of which is an organizational culture that advances employee health, safety, and well-being. This case study, developed by the Center in collaboration with HealthPartners, summarizes the DHMC successful Total Worker Health approach and the resulting beneficial outcomes. Download the case study

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Why Use Case Studies in Safety Training?

Updated: Jan 18, 2012

Case studies provide many benefits in safety training. They are especially effective for teaching employees about accident causes and prevention.

Case studies are an excellent way to train employees about workplace safety and health issues.

• They present information in an engaging and dramatic way that grabs and holds trainees’ interest and attention.
• They deal with practical, real-life issues that may actually confront trainees on the job.
• They are like a puzzle that must be analyzed and solved, which provides a challenge for trainees and requires them to think rather than just sit and listen.
• They are usually compact enough to fit comfortably into an average-length training session.

Accident case studies, in particular, provide a way of:

• Focusing on a particular incident, hazard, unsafe act, etc.
• Analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it could have been prevented
• Encouraging interaction between trainers and trainees and among trainees

Try OSHA Accident Case Studies and give a boost to your safety training program with real-life case studies of actual industrial accidents from OSHA files. We have a great one on lifting. Get the details.

• Enhancing understanding of unsafe acts and conditions
• Stimulating trainees to think and solve problems by examining information, considering alternatives, and deciding what the safest course of action would be

Investigative Approach

Like a real workplace accident investigation, an accident case study dissects the events leading up to the accident and helps trainees:

• Identify potential hazards
• Understand accident causes
• Discuss possible preventive measures
• Determine the best methods for preventing a similar accident
• Generalize the information learned to other safety issues in the workplace
• Transfer the analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making skills learned during the case study process to real situations on the job

With all these benefits, it’s easy to see why case studies are a popular format for safety and health training.

Even your most skeptical workers will see what can go wrong and become safety-minded employees with OSHA Accident Case Studies . They’ll learn valuable safety training lessons from real mistakes—but in classroom training meetings instead of on your shop floor. Get more info.

Case Studies Help Prevent Accidents

Want to prevent accidents? Of course you do. That’s why you should try OSHA Accident Case Studies.

Animated, customizable PowerPoint slides tell real-life case studies of actual industrial accidents from OSHA files, complete with accident photos to get workers’ attention and make your safety meetings come alive.

OSHA Accident Case Studies includes 25 meetings on all key safety topics.

Even your most skeptical workers will see what can go wrong and become safety-minded employees. They’ll learn valuable safety training lessons from real mistakes—but in classroom training meetings instead of on your shop floor.

• 25 case study meetings on key OSHA topics
• Customizable visuals and text
• Fast moving, animated PowerPoint presentations
• Detailed speaker’s notes for every slide
• Printable handouts, quizzes, and slides for each topic
• Interactive exercises and questions

Safety topics include:

—Back safety —Power tools —Hazard communication —Lockout/tagout —Fire safety —Hearing protection —Confined spaces —Trenching and excavation —HAZWOPER —Ergonomics —And more!

We’ll be happy to make OSHA Accident Case Studies available for a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-day evaluation in your office. Just let us know , and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.

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How to Use Case Studies in Your Employee Training Sessions

Case studies can be powerful tools for learning and training. They're evidence-based stories that showcase the outcomes you want, so using them as the basis for your training can make the training itself more engaging and more effective. The question is, how can you use a case study to enhance your training for learners? There are several options.

• Identify personal leadership styles
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Table of Contents

Design a case study to fit the training, develop training to fit a case study, use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate outcomes of training, use miniature case studies to prove individual points, thread a case study throughout training, ask trainees to predict case study outcomes, discuss potential alternative outcomes in case studies, turn a case study into an immersive simulation, create a framework case study and encourage trainees to fill it out.

First up, you have one major decision to make. Do you design training around a case study, or do you design a case study to fit your training? Both perspectives are equally valid as long as the study results and the training program goals are aligned.

Let’s say you choose to design a case study to fit your desired training. For example, you're trying to implement the  Delivering Exceptional Phone Service  reproducible training course for your customer service team. To back up the training, you want a case study that showcases how putting the techniques taught in the course into practice will bolster positive outcomes with customer service.

You have two options here.

• The first is simply writing a case study based on your own experiences, accentuating the necessary details relevant to the training, and pruning it down to the bare essentials to prove your point.
• The other option is to seek out existing case studies performed by renowned research firms that support your points.

In either case, you can then use the case study as a "real world" example of how the techniques in the training can be put to actual use and how they tangibly impact positive outcomes. Make sure to highlight specific aspects of the case study and how they relate to the practices put forth in the training module for better retention.

Your second option, as an alternative, is to develop your training to fit an already existing case study.

The process looks a little something like this:

• Begin by finding a case study that results in the outcomes you're seeking. For example,  this case study from Train Like a Champion  focuses on getting training to produce long-term results, something that every company can benefit from implementing.
• Next, review the case study. Look for salient details and mechanisms used to achieve the outcomes you desire. Ideally, the case study itself will support those mechanisms and expound upon how to use them.
• Finally, develop a training module that integrates the case study and its data, as well as the mechanisms you uncovered, to train your employees to achieve those same outcomes.

You can accompany the training module with the case study, with details and data uncovered along the way, or you can use it as a companion piece or use it as cited sources or proof for the claims you're making. None of these choices are inherently wrong, so pick the ones that work best with your staff and your means of training to create a better learning experience.

Longitudinal case studies are case studies that look at and measure specific data about their subjects over a long period. Such case studies can follow individuals throughout a particular period of years, their careers, or their entire lives. For example, longitudinal studies are often used in medicine to help study the long-term effects of various substances and illnesses.

A longitudinal case study can be a powerful tool for building training. You can point to specific, hard evidence that certain kinds of training not only improve short-term results and benefits for employees, clients, and companies but can increase the value of employees throughout their careers.

Using this kind of case study can be an essential part of encouraging your employees to take the training seriously. After all, it's one thing to encourage employees to participate in training because it benefits customers or the company, but it's quite a different incentive if you can showcase how that training will improve their career prospects.

The tricky part about this is that case studies can prove many different points because different people have different career trajectories and leverage different skills in different ways. That is why it can be essential to begin with training modules such as  What's My Leadership Style  to help employees identify which individuals to follow in the case study and which outcomes are most relevant to their specific situations.

If finding specific, relevant longitudinal studies isn't possible, an alternative approach involves leveraging small-scale case studies to reinforce key points throughout your training process. For example, throughout a comprehensive  customer service training  course, you can use specific case studies that highlight varied responses to an irate customer, showcasing how different approaches lead to distinct outcomes. These case studies provide tangible examples to support decisions about adopting a placating, resistant, or combative tone in customer interactions.

The benefit to this option is that there are, in general, many more small-scale case studies than there are more extensive, longitudinal case studies. Moreover, it's much easier to find them and use them to prove your points. Long-term case studies can have surprising outcomes, and they can have findings that contradict your studies and policies. That can be difficult to reconcile unless you're willing to wholly adjust your training and direction.

The biggest potential drawback to this option is that there are many small-scale case studies, many of which can have contradictory outcomes. With the vast pool of small-scale case studies available, there is a risk of cherry-picking examples that selectively support a specific viewpoint, regardless of their overall value. This practice could compromise the integrity of the training content and may not provide a holistic representation of the topic at hand. Trainers should exercise caution and ensure that the chosen case studies are relevant, unbiased, and contribute substantively to the overall learning objectives.

If you think back to some of the more effective textbook designs for schools in higher education, you may find a through-line. Many effective textbooks include an ongoing, long-term set of examples, or "characters," they follow along the way. For example, in courses where you learn a language, a textbook will often have a set of characters who interact in varying situations to showcase quirks of language, particularly conversational use of the language.

A case study can be used in this manner for your training. Fortunately, many comprehensive and overarching training courses have these kinds of examples and case studies built into them.

The goal is to allow your trainees to explore training in a multifaceted way. That might include links to studies, links to infoboxes, video interviews, and much more.

An added benefit of this training method is that you can make a single training module much more comprehensive in terms of answers to common and uncommon questions. Training employees from a point of knowledge can be surprisingly challenging because it can be tricky to judge even what the trainees don't know. Providing in-depth, interlinked, embedded answers to questions for trainees to explore helps bring everyone to the same page.

One thing that sets effective training apart from ineffective training is the level of interactivity. When training is interactive and engaging, trainees learn much more from it by participating in "real-life" examples and demos of the training in action. This approach enables participants to apply their knowledge in real-life situations, promoting a deeper understanding and emphasizing their problem-solving ability to choose appropriate resolutions.

One way to help encourage engagement in training is with a case study that puts that training into action. Divide the case study between setup and resolution, and have the trainees read the setup portion of the training. Cut it off as the individuals in the case study are making their decisions based on the training (or ignoring the training).

Then, ask the trainees to predict what the outcomes will be. Encourage them to write down their predictions. Then, you can progress with the case study and reveal the actual results of the training. While some case studies may follow predictable paths, introducing occasional curveballs keeps participants on their toes. These unexpected twists challenge trainees’ critical thinking skills and their ability to adapt their problem-solving strategies. You can then discuss why they made the predictions that they did and what led them to their decisions, whether right or wrong.

This interactive approach not only transforms training into a participatory experience but also creates a platform for meaningful discussions.

Like the above, you can leverage case studies and predictions to speculate. How would the outcome have changed if the individual in the case study made a different choice or acted differently?

What changes would your employees make?

"After reading a case study together or independently, you can have your participants write a different ending to the case study. For example, if you read a story about a woman who improved her communication skills after attending a workshop (just like the one your students might be in), have them write what would happen if she didn't attend the workshop. Have them write what would happen if she was engaged/not engaged. Ask them to consider what is going on in the woman's life that might impact her ability to communicate appropriately or efficiently during the time of training. Writing a different outcome prompts participants to consider the whole story and not just the parts that are presented to them." –  TrainingCourseMaterial

For an interesting case study of your own, you can ask your trainees to read a situation and convey how they would act in that situation before implementing the training in the first place. Then, progress through the training modules. When finished, ask the trainee to revisit, see how accurate their behavior is to the goal, and ask them what changes, if any, they would make.

Once again, studies show that the best training is training produced in the form of an immersive simulation.  

Look for industry case studies about particular incidents.  Several agencies  produce comprehensive investigations into the circumstances behind industrial accidents, often in factory, warehouse, or shipping processes. These case studies can form the basis of a scenario wherein you ask your employees to role-play how they would respond if the incident occurred in your facility.

You can then use the realities of the investigation to enforce consequences in the simulated disaster. For example, say you're training employees to handle a chemical spill in a warehouse. The established procedures outline specific actions to be taken. Within the simulation, introduce a scenario where one employee is found unconscious within the chemical spill. This introduces a critical decision point: will someone attempt a rescue, and if so, will they do so without proper preparation? You can then remove this individual from the training scenario because their actions led to them being incapacitated.

There are many such examples. Always remember that most, if not all, industrial and commercial regulations are built on the back of people dying because of loopholes or unforeseen circumstances.

This approach allows employees to engage with the training material in a hands-on, realistic manner. It not only reinforces the importance of adhering to established protocols but also highlights the potential repercussions of deviating from proper procedures. The immersive nature of these simulations helps employees internalize the lessons, making the training more impactful and applicable to their day-to-day responsibilities.

Finally, another way to use case studies for training is to turn your trainees into case studies themselves. Build a framework or a template of a case study, with questions about the scenario, their responses, the training, and their behavior after the training. Encourage trainees to fill out these case study templates, then participate in training, and fill them out again. For added value, track these employees for months afterward to see where they've gone, how they've implemented their training, and how it has improved their careers.

The use of case studies can be a powerful training tool, but they can only be effective if coupled with practical training modules. After all, you can't know how to reach your goals without knowing where you are. That's why we offer dozens of training options in our reproducible training library, as well as dozens more assessments (both instructor-led and self-guided) to help establish baselines and build awareness.

Check out our training library, and find case studies that align with your company values and learning objectives.

To learn more about how to help your employees, check out our  What’s My Leadership Style  course. This course is a management development tool, leadership style assessment, and online training workshop. This comprehensive tool is designed to pinpoint an individual's leadership style, offering valuable insights for organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors. By utilizing this tool, professionals can enhance their performance and cultivate the skills necessary to evolve into effective and impactful leaders within their respective roles.

Do you have any questions or concerns about using case studies in your employee training sessions to provide the best outcomes for your learners? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we'll get back to you! We make it a point to reply to every message we receive, and we would be more than happy to assist you or your company however we possibly can.

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About our author

Bradford r. glaser.

Brad is President and CEO of HRDQ, a publisher of soft-skills learning solutions, and HRDQ-U, an online community for learning professionals hosting webinars, workshops, and podcasts. His 35+ years of experience in adult learning and development have fostered his passion for improving the performance of organizations, teams, and individuals.

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• Case Studies

Benefits of Using Case Studies in Training

• July 29, 2022

Many people who are trying to learn a new concept find that they benefit from training that makes use of real-life examples. After all, no amount of theoretical knowledge can ever compare to the first-hand experience of dealing with a real problem. By seeing how others have tackled similar challenges, learners can grasp new techniques and develop creative solutions of their own. This is why using case studies in training is a wonderful method to help learners digest information in an easier way.

What Are Case Studies?

Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community. Typically, data is gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g. interviews, observations, questionnaires). The findings from a case study are usually presented as a narrative, which can be either linear (presenting the events in chronological order) or thematic (organized around themes and patterns).

Why Should Case Studies Be Used in Training?

There are plenty of benefits to using case studies in training. These benefits include but are not limited to:

Understanding Key Concepts & Practicing New Skills

When it comes to training, case studies can be an invaluable tool. By working through real-life examples, learners can develop a deep understanding of key concepts and how they can be applied in practice in the workplace. This provides learners with an opportunity to practice new skills in a safe and controlled environment.

Encouraging Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Case studies are an important tool in training programs as they encourage   critical thinking  and problem solving. By providing real-life examples, case studies help participants to understand the implications of their decisions and to develop creative solutions to complex problems. Additionally, case studies can be customized to specific industries or organizational needs, making them an effective tool for addressing specific challenges. And because they are based on real-world situations, case studies provide a realistic perspective that can be valuable in both personal and professional settings.

Offering Engaging Material

Incorporating case studies in training offers a wealth of material for learners to engage with. They provide real-world examples that can be related to the learner's own experiences, and, in turn, encourage discussion and debate. In addition, case studies can also be used to challenge learners' assumptions and help them to think critically about the issues at hand. Because of this, they are an invaluable resource for any trainer who is looking to create an engaging and challenging learning experience.

 As any experienced trainer knows, educational methods that are both new and engaging are essential for keeping participants interested and ensuring that information is effectively retained. Using case studies as part of your training is just one easy method to help your learners be successful.

For more great tips and methods, be sure to   visit our blog . Or,  contact Safety Mentor here  to learn how our services can help take your business to the next level.

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