Why Safety Training Gets Forgotten the Moment People Leave the Room
October 20, 2026
Why is safety training forgotten? Linda Tapp, past ASSP president, shares how EHS professionals make interactive training stick.
If you've ever run a training session and watched half the room check out before you finished the first slide, this episode is for you. In this episode of Grounded: The EHS Podcast, host Morgan Serrano sits down with Linda Tapp, President of SafetyFUNdamentals. Linda has spent more than 35 years working on one stubborn problem: how do you make safety training something people actually engage with, learn from, and carry back to the job?
Why is safety training forgotten? Linda Tapp, past ASSP president, shares how EHS professionals make interactive training stick.
If you've ever run a training session and watched half the room check out before you finished the first slide, this episode is for you. In this episode of Grounded: The EHS Podcast, host Morgan Serrano sits down with Linda Tapp, President of SafetyFUNdamentals. Linda has spent more than 35 years working on one stubborn problem: how do you make safety training something people actually engage with, learn from, and carry back to the job?
What You’ll Learn
If you've ever run a training session and watched half the room check out before you finished the first slide, this episode is for you. In this episode of Grounded: The EHS Podcast, host Morgan Serrano sits down with Linda Tapp, President of SafetyFUNdamentals. Linda has spent more than 35 years working on one stubborn problem: how do you make safety training something people actually engage with, learn from, and carry back to the job?
What You’ll Learn
- Why safety training gets forgotten the moment people leave the room, and how “sneaky training” keeps lessons alive on the job
- How a skeptical room of arms-crossed supervisors became Linda’s proof that participation beats lecturing
- How to meet small companies where they are
- What it really takes to move away from the “safety cop” approach and build relationships on site
- The networking habit most people skip, and how a few notes on a bathroom mirror grew into a community of women in safety
- How far PPE fit has come for women, and why better fit benefits everyone
- Why the Workers' Memorial left Linda angry, and how it can sharpen your own why
Linda Tapp is President of SafetyFUNdamentals and a former president of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), where she was the tenth woman to lead the organization since its 1911 founding. With more than 35 years in occupational safety and health, Linda has trained teams across industries and countries, and her work centers on one stubborn question: how do you make safety training something people actually engage with, remember, and carry back to the job? She is known for active, participatory training methods, has written books to help other professionals use them, and regularly speaks on training, leadership, and professional development. A longtime solo consultant, Linda also helps safety professionals develop their own written content to build credibility and grow their careers.
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