Refresher Training Requirements: When & How Often

What Is Refresher Training?

Refresher training is follow-up training that reinforces what employees already learned—or were supposed to learn—in their initial training. It’s the “repeat” session that keeps critical skills sharp, updates knowledge when procedures change, fills gaps that showed up in performance, and maintains competency over time.

Why do we need refreshers at all? Simple: people forget. Fast.

According to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, memory retention drops dramatically without reinforcement: approximately 50-60% forgotten within an hour and up to 90% within a week for new information not actively reviewed or practiced. Think about that. You can deliver a comprehensive training session, see employees nodding along and passing the quiz, and watch most of that knowledge evaporate within days.

By 2026, adaptive learning platforms can detect knowledge decay through performance data and trigger targeted refreshers automatically—but the fundamental problem hasn’t changed. Human memory needs reinforcement, especially for skills that are safety-critical, legally required, or used infrequently. When employees forget these skills, it’s not just inconvenient—it creates safety risks, compliance violations, and operational failures.

Quick Answer

Refresher training reviews previously taught content to prevent skill decay and maintain competency. It’s legally required for many safety and compliance topics, typically on annual or biennial schedules. Effective refreshers are shorter than initial training, focus on high-impact content, and include practice with real scenarios.

Why Does Refresher Training Matter?

Skills Decay Without Practice

Skills that aren’t used regularly deteriorate. Research on skill retention published in Performance Improvement Quarterly shows that without practice, retention drops to approximately:

• 50% after 1 month
• 30% after 3 months
• 20% after 6 months

For rarely performed emergency procedures—fire evacuation, CPR, equipment shutdown protocols—most employees won’t remember what to do when they actually need it without periodic refreshers.

Compliance Training Has Expiration Dates

Many regulatory agencies require documented refresher training at specified intervals:

• OSHA: Annual refresher for many safety topics (forklift operation, hazardous materials, fall protection, lockout/tagout)
• DOT: Every 3 years for commercial drivers (CDL)
• Healthcare: Annual infection control, HIPAA, and patient safety training
• Food service: Food handler certifications typically valid 2-5 years
• Financial services: Annual compliance training for securities regulations

Missing required refresher training exposes organizations to fines, lawsuits, and regulatory sanctions. According to OSHA penalty information, serious violations can carry penalties up to $16,131 per violation as of 2026.

Standards and Best Practices Change

Even if employees remember what they learned, the content itself may become outdated. Industry standards, regulations, software systems, and organizational policies evolve.

Refresher training ensures employees are working from current information, not procedures that have since changed.

Performance Problems Reveal Training Gaps

Sometimes initial training seems successful, but performance issues emerge months later. Maybe employees misunderstood key points, bad habits developed, or shortcuts replaced proper procedures.

Refresher training is an opportunity to observe actual performance, identify common mistakes, and correct them before they become ingrained.

When Is Refresher Training Required?

Legal and Regulatory Requirements

Always verify specific requirements for your jurisdiction and industry—some states and localities impose stricter standards than federal minimums.

Performance-Based Triggers

Beyond legal requirements, schedule refresher training when you observe:

• Increased error rates compared to post-training performance
• Safety incidents related to training topics
• Audit findings revealing procedural deviations
• Policy violations suggesting employees don’t remember or understand requirements
• New equipment or processes that change how trained skills are applied
• Employee complaints about confusion or lack of clarity

If multiple employees make the same mistake, that signals a training gap requiring reinforcement.

Time-Based Guidelines for Non-Regulated Skills

For skills without legal refresh requirements, research suggests:

Employees who use skills daily don’t need refreshers—the work itself provides practice. Focus refresher training on skills that are important but infrequent.

How Is Refresher Training Different from Initial Training?

Shorter Duration

Initial training might take a full day or several sessions. Refresher training should be more concise—typically 25-50% of the initial training time.

Employees already have the foundation. Refreshers review key points and practice application, not re-teach everything from scratch.

Focused on High-Impact Content

Not everything from initial training needs equal attention in refreshers. Focus on:

• Most frequently forgotten concepts
• Highest-risk procedures (safety, compliance)
• Most common mistakes observed on the job
• Recent updates to policies, procedures, or regulations

Cut the background, history, and theory. Get to the practical application faster.

More Practice, Less Lecture

Initial training introduces concepts, demonstrates procedures, then has learners practice. Refresher training can skip or condense the introduction and demonstration, spending more time on hands-on practice.

Use scenarios, simulations, and real examples employees have encountered since initial training.

Performance-Oriented

Refresher training should address actual performance gaps observed since initial training. If audits show employees consistently struggle with a specific step, spend more time on that step.

Tailor refresher content to real-world challenges rather than assuming everyone forgot everything equally.

How Do You Design Effective Refresher Training?

Step 1: Analyze What Needs Refreshing

Don’t blindly repeat initial training. Identify specific knowledge or skills that have degraded:

• Review incident reports and error logs
• Conduct observations or audits
• Survey supervisors about performance gaps
• Test current knowledge with assessments

Focus refresher content on actual gaps, not theoretical concerns.

Step 2: Set Clear Objectives

Define what participants should be able to do after the refresher. Use measurable, observable terms.

Weak objective: “Review fire safety procedures”

Strong objective: “Correctly demonstrate fire extinguisher operation (PASS technique) and identify when evacuation is safer than fighting a fire”

Step 3: Make It Interactive

Passive reviews don’t work. Adult learning research consistently shows that practice beats lectures for retention.

Effective refresher formats:

• Hands-on skills practice with feedback
• Scenario-based exercises simulating real situations
• Group discussions of challenging cases
• Quiz-based reviews with immediate feedback
• Peer teaching where employees explain concepts to each other

If your refresher training consists of re-watching the same video from initial training, expect minimal impact.

Step 4: Address Common Mistakes

Use refresher training to correct misconceptions and bad habits that have developed. Present common errors observed on the job and have participants identify what went wrong and how to fix it.

This makes training immediately relevant—employees recognize situations they’ve seen or done themselves.

Step 5: Update for Changes

Highlight anything that has changed since initial training—new regulations, updated procedures, different equipment, revised policies.

Refreshers are an opportunity to communicate changes and ensure everyone transitions to current standards.

Step 6: Test Competency

Don’t just expose employees to content—verify they can demonstrate competency. Use skills checks, practical assessments, or certification tests.

Documentation of refresher completion plus demonstrated competency provides regulatory compliance evidence and identifies employees who need additional support.

What Are Refresher Training Best Practices?

Schedule Proactively

Don’t wait until training is overdue or an incident occurs. Build refresher training into annual calendars with sufficient lead time.

Use employee scheduling software to plan training sessions that minimize disruption to operations and ensure all relevant employees can attend.

Make It Accessible (2026 Technology Enables Flexibility)

Modern refresher training leverages multiple formats and delivery methods:

Traditional formats:

• Live sessions (in-person or virtual webinars)
• Self-paced online modules
• Hands-on skills verification sessions

2026 innovations:

• Microlearning refreshers: 3-5 minute modules delivered via mobile, spaced over weeks
• Adaptive refreshers: AI-powered platforms detect knowledge gaps and deliver personalized review content
• Just-in-time refreshers: Triggered when employees access rarely-used systems or before performing infrequent tasks
• VR/AR simulations: For hands-on skills (equipment operation, emergency response) that need realistic practice
• Job aids with embedded learning: Digital work instructions with training checkpoints built in

For 24/7 operations, asynchronous online options ensure all shift workers complete required training without operational disruption. Mobile-first platforms make refreshers accessible during breaks or commutes.

Track Completion and Compliance

Maintain records of who completed refresher training, when, and what topics were covered. For regulated training, include:

• Training date
• Duration
• Instructor name and qualifications
• Topics covered
• Assessment results
• Next refresh due date

Digital training management systems send automated reminders when refreshers are due and centralize documentation for audits. Workforce management platforms can track attendance at training sessions and link completion to employee records.

Connect to Performance Management

Integrate refresher training into employee performance reviews and development plans. If performance issues relate to skills covered in training, schedule targeted refreshers as part of improvement plans.

Measure Effectiveness

Use the same training evaluation methods as initial training:

• Pre-refresher and post-refresher assessments to measure knowledge improvement
• On-the-job observation to verify behavior change
• Performance metrics (error rates, incident rates) before and after refreshers
• Participant feedback on relevance and usefulness

If refresher training doesn’t improve performance, revise the content or delivery method.

How Do Different Industries Use Refresher Training?

Manufacturing and Construction

Heavy focus on safety refreshers due to OSHA requirements and injury risk:

• Equipment operation (forklifts, cranes, powered tools)
• Fall protection and ladder safety
• Lockout/tagout procedures
• Hazardous material handling
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) use

Refreshers often include hands-on demonstrations and competency checks observed by safety officers.

Healthcare

Both regulatory compliance and patient safety drive frequent refreshers:

• Infection control and hand hygiene
• HIPAA privacy and security
• Patient handling and fall prevention
• Emergency response (codes, rapid response)
• Medication administration protocols

Many hospitals conduct brief refreshers during shift huddles or staff meetings rather than scheduling separate sessions.

Food Service

Focus on food safety and public health:

• Food handler certifications (renewed every 2-5 years)
• Allergen awareness
• Temperature control and HACCP principles
• Sanitation and cross-contamination prevention

Refreshers often coincide with health inspections or following foodborne illness incidents.

Transportation

DOT regulations mandate specific refresher intervals:

• Commercial driver training (every 3 years)
• Hazmat transportation
• Hours-of-service compliance
• Vehicle inspection procedures

Refreshers include both classroom review and on-road evaluation.

What Are Common Refresher Training Mistakes?

Making It Identical to Initial Training

Re-delivering the exact same content in the same format produces minimal engagement. Employees zone out because they’ve seen it before.

Refreshers should build on initial training, not repeat it word-for-word.

Skipping the Performance Gap Analysis

Training without knowing what needs reinforcement wastes time. If employees remember 80% of content but struggle with specific 20%, spend refresher time on that 20%.

Treating It as a Compliance Checkbox

When refresher training exists only to satisfy regulatory requirements, it becomes a boring formality employees endure rather than value.

Even compliance training can be engaging if it addresses real workplace scenarios and includes interaction.

Poor Timing

Scheduling all refresher training in December because it’s “due by year-end” creates training fatigue and poor retention. Space refreshers throughout the year and coordinate with slower operational periods when feasible.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Refresher training isn’t about assuming employees forgot everything—it’s about recognizing that skill retention naturally decays without practice, regulations require periodic updates, and standards evolve over time.

For compliance and safety training, refreshers are legally required and protect organizations from liability. For other skills, refreshers maintain competency and address performance gaps before they become serious problems.

Effective refresher training is shorter, more focused, more interactive, and more performance-oriented than initial training. It addresses actual gaps observed on the job rather than blindly repeating old content.

Don’t wait until an incident or audit forces the issue—build refresher training into your annual calendar, track completion proactively, and measure whether it’s improving performance.

Looking for tools to track training completion and manage compliance? Explore ShiftFlow’s workforce management solutions or see pricing for your team size.

Sources

• OSHA – Training Requirements in OSHA Standards
• OSHA – Penalties
• Performance Improvement Quarterly – Research on Skill Retention
• Farnam Street – The Spacing Effect
• Association for Talent Development – Learning Management System Definition

Further Reading

• Training Effectiveness: How to Measure Whether Training Works – Methods for evaluating training impact
• Training Evaluation Methods and Frameworks – Systematic approaches to measuring learning outcomes
• Employee Scheduling for Training Sessions – Planning training that minimizes operational disruption

Frequently Asked Questions

What is refresher training?

Refresher training is follow-up training provided after initial training to reinforce skills, update knowledge, and prevent skill decay. It helps employees maintain competency by reviewing key concepts, practicing skills, and addressing performance gaps that emerge over time.

How often should refresher training be done?

Frequency depends on skill type and risk level. OSHA safety training typically requires annual refreshers. High-risk skills may need quarterly review. Infrequently used skills benefit from refreshers every 3-6 months. Always check regulations for legally required intervals.

Is refresher training legally required?

Yes, for many compliance and safety topics. OSHA requires annual or triennial refresher training for hazardous materials handling, forklift operation, fall protection, and bloodborne pathogen exposure. Healthcare requires annual HIPAA and infection control updates. Food service requires periodic food handler certification renewal.

How is refresher training different from initial training?

Refresher training is typically 25-50% shorter than initial training, focuses on high-impact content and common mistakes, includes more practice and less lecture, and addresses performance gaps observed since initial training. It reviews rather than re-teaches from scratch.

Do employees need refresher training if they use skills daily?

Generally no. Employees who perform tasks daily maintain proficiency through regular practice. Focus refresher training on skills that are important but infrequent—emergency procedures, annual compliance topics, rarely used equipment, or skills that show performance degradation.

What’s the best format for refresher training?

Effective refreshers are interactive and scenario-based. Use hands-on practice, realistic case studies, group discussions, and skills demonstrations rather than passive lectures or videos. Online formats work well for knowledge review, but skills requiring physical performance need hands-on sessions.

How do you track refresher training compliance?

Maintain records including training date, duration, topics covered, instructor, assessment results, and next refresh due date. Use learning management systems (LMS) to automate reminders, track completion, and store documentation for regulatory audits.

What happens if employees fail refresher training?

Provide additional training and coaching, then retest. Employees who can’t demonstrate required competency after refresher training should not perform those tasks until they pass assessments. For safety-critical skills, failing refresher training may require returning to initial training level.