Evaluation of safety leadership training effectiveness and supervisor behavior change in U.S. dairy farm operations

Introduction: Prior research has demonstrated that leader-focused training interventions are considered to have a much stronger influence on worker safety behavior and climate than worker-based training interventions. However, no prior research has evaluated training effectiveness of safety-specific leadership skill development for front-line supervisors on dairy farms. A tailored safety leadership training program targeting U.S. dairy farm supervisors was developed, delivered, and evaluated for its training effect on reported supervisor safety leadership behavior.

Methods: A 12-module safety leadership training program was developed and delivered in an asynchronous format using e-learning methods to 73 dairy farm supervisors, representing 30 farms across five western U.S. states. The Kirkpatrick Model was utilized to evaluate different levels of training effectiveness. Safety leadership behavior was assessed using novel methodology which utilized mobile devices to report daily safety leadership behaviors and experiences.

Results: Evaluation of knowledge gained among training participants revealed significant differences between pre- and post-test scores with medium to very large learning effect sizes across all training modules, particularly with training modules addressing safety culture, workplace conflict and safety meetings. Safety leadership behavior change evaluation revealed significant pre-post training effects across most training modules, particularly regarding safety dialogue, hazard assessment, safety modelling and conducting safety meetings.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that safety leadership training can result in essential leadership behavior change among front-line dairy farm supervisors. Additional research is needed on the effectiveness and sustainability of safety leadership training in high-risk industrial sectors such as agriculture.