Background

The meat processing industry was identified as a high-risk industry in Australia during Covid and, as such, had to demonstrate they had appropriate protocols in place to help prevent outbreaks at their manufacturing sites. One key protocol was the requirement for meat processing plants to appoint and appropriately train Covid Marshalls. In states such as Victoria, this was a mandatory requirement and failure to comply could lead to a plant being ordered to close by Health Authorities.

The Challenge

The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) sought support from the Australian Meat Processing Corporation (AMPC) with the request to engage Response Group International to build a self-paced eLearning course on the role and responsibilities of Covid Marshalls including their role in ensuring plants complied with their own Covid Safety Plans.

“Unfortunately, state-based programs available to train Covid Marshals were generic in nature and did not consider the intricacies of the food production industry, specifically red meat processing,” said Response Group International Director of Strategy and Business Development, Paul Eldridge.

“Our challenge was to work with AMPC to create an interactive and engaging eLearning available on any device at any time to help meat processing plants train their Covid Marshals in a relatively short time frame – less than 3 months.”

Solution

The Covid Marshal training course was developed for the red meat processing industry. Training included examples of operational procedures that would be common in most plants to ensure that learners engaged with the material to enhance learning outcomes.

“We used our capabilities in Research, eLearning Solutions and Technology Solutions to research, write, design and build an engaging and interactive training program that was suitable for sign off by each state government,” said Paul.

“There was an urgency to design and deliver the training relatively quickly because there was a risk that a plant could be shut down if they didn’t have a suitably trained Covid Marshall on each shift.”

“Adding to this complexity, we had to ensure that we included relevant state based legislation and regulation to ensure that Covid Marshall’s in each state had access to up-to-date and accurate legislation.”

Result

• 97.3% – Average Result
• 90% – Completion Rate
• $14 – ROI

“Our innovative training solution included industry-relevant videos and information, along with clickable images, scenarios, learning games and self-guided learning experiences,” said Paul.

“Impressively, the engaging eLearning experience resulted in an average result of 97.3 percent and a completion rate of 90 percent.”

In November 2021 it was announced that AMPC’s Covid-19 Marshal training course won a Gold Award for the best pandemic resource at the LearnX Awards which judged submissions from New Zealand, Singapore, and the US.

“Covid Marshal was also one of five projects chosen by AMPC for an external review conducted by KMPG to quantify return on investment for AMPC,” said Paul.

“And, of the five projects, it delivered the highest return on investment – $14 for every dollar invested – which tends to back up a lot of statistics regarding the effectiveness of eLearning when it’s done well.”

In addition, no plant in Australia that went through the program was issued a non-compliance for not having a trained Covid Marshall onsite.

Paul’s key strength is his ability to think strategically, map out future states and design business models that cleverly leverage technology to build growth in a sustainable and profitable way. As the Response Director of Strategy and Business Development, Paul is responsible for helping to shape the future direction of the business.