I need to get together about 8 people for First Aid and Fire Marshal Training. Have found a provder that can come to us for quite a good group deal (£500 per training session for up to 12 persons). HR sent out an email to departments asking for one volunteer from each but no one has responded. Now I need to approach people on an individual basis. Any tips on being persuasive?

Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel

Why don't they want to turn up? It could be an operational reason; everyone is busy now but if you reschedule it might be more popular. It could that some manager is blocking people doing this sort of training; they regard it as taking people away from their proper job

No dates have been sheduled yet until I have enough people, so it's not dates putting people off. This is a company with busy people but it is not the only one. Good point about managers though, I'm now thinking to ask HR to send a follow up email stating that it is the managers' responsibility to provide at least one volunteer by a certain date.

bit cheeky i guess but could you not promote the use of the first aid qualification outside of work?  Historically people have jumped at the chance of being trained through work as it will benefit extra curricular activities such as local sports team/guides/brownies etc.

Also dispelling myths about legal action being taken against first aiders.  In this day and age everyone is terrified of being held responsible for helping people.

Making it a requirement of management to provide a volunteer kind of reminds me of the hunger games....wonder how many tributes you get haha

I’m updating our first aiders/Fire Marshals at the moment. Today I put signs up at all of the printing points and in the kitchens and I have had a good response so far. I also let the new starters in my H&S induction know that they can sign up to be a first aider or fire marshal.

Previously I have asked for volunteers at the end of any other H&S related meetings or training. If you are in a low risk environment then offer the 1 day course - once I am happy with the amount of 3 day course FAs I will be getting as many people on the 1 day course as possible.

Use external current events to get your point across, I am based in London and we had an external company come in and carry out a security talk after the recent attacks (Run, Hide, Tell Etc.) and I got them to push the importance of FAs and FMs and I set up a desk with a signup sheet, this got a lot of names.

As LeanneD stated also mentioned it looks good on your CV (especially for those who are new to employment), so push this.

I would avoid forcing people to do these roles as they might not take is seriously, but I would make sure all managers mention it to their employees and they encourage them to attend.

Employees should be paid for the time spent on training courses provided by their employer but you could provide further incentives by offering free breakfast/lunch/refreshments for the duration of their course.

Originally Posted by: Natasha Hamblin

Employees should be paid for the time spent on training courses provided by their employer but you could provide further incentives by offering free breakfast/lunch/refreshments for the duration of their course.

They will be paid for their time of course but that's a useful tip about refreshments. Musn't forget the tea and biscuits!

Originally Posted by: Invictus

Don't just ask the managers to volunteer staff get them to also volunteer and lead by example, yes of course they are to busy but so is everyone else.

We have at least one manager per area trained in either or both and we also have supervisors and employees it works well having a good cross section of employees and plus the ower can often influence the managers to become pert of the system.

Thank you, I was actually thinking along these lines myself when reassessing the situation today. After a brief discussion with HR it seems unlikely senior managers will become involved but hopefully the lead by example thing should encourage middle managers.