Last Updated on October 28, 2020 by Guest
Offering employee training should be a top concern of any manager if you want to scale your business and retain your employees. Here we will show you some effective ways to build a successful employee training program, a program that will reap results.
Employees are always looking for ways to learn new skills and accelerate their career growth. As per stats, 68% of employees say that the essential policy of a company is training and development.
And 74% of employees think that they are not reaching their full potential. Thus, companies can benefit a lot from training both new talents and current employees.
Having said that, creating an effective employee training program by following a systematic process is crucial. If your program is not effective, you will be just losing your resources.
1. Identify training needs.
Training needs assessment is the first crucial step in developing a successful training program. It will help you find out the gaps between existing training and training that you will need in the future.
To find out your organization’s training needs, you can focus on three kinds of assessments- organizational, task, and individual assessments.
Organizational assessment will help you find out the effectiveness and incongruities of your organization as a whole. Your team’s competencies, knowledge, and skills required to bridge any gaps can be uncovered.
You will also be able to assess external factors such as environmental policies, economy, technological advances, and altering workforce demographics. It will answer all the wheres, hows, and when.
Task assessment can help you to identify the main tasks, skills, and competencies needed to do a particular job at the most productive level. You can use skill analyses, job descriptions, and inventory surveys to find out specific training needs.
This assessment will help you answer the questions – questions like what skill has to be acquired to perform this job?
Individual assessment will help you to ascertain the existing skills and abilities of different individuals, the learning style that is best for them, and their capacity to perform new work. Besides, the assessment will also identify who within the team needs training and what kind of training should be provided. Conducting a 360-degree evaluation is recommended.
2. Pick the right training methods.
The training method you use to train your employees will hugely impact how well they engage, retain, and implement the information that is passed on.
And the learning method you pick will be determined by your budget, location, the number of trainees, training type, and goals.
Here are some crucial training methods you can use:
- Instructor-led training: This method will allow you to answer specific questions while guiding individuals directly.
- Online LIVE classes: You can conduct online LIVE classes in a virtual classroom. Trainees can easily interact with you.
Tools like Tovuti can help you to conduct Live interactive training sessions.
- Online On-Demand courses: Here, you can offer pre-recorded classes, lessons, etc., to help trainees go at their own pace.
Using the right tool like Whatfix, you can offer interactive on-the-job training. It’s super effective employee training will allow your employees to access all the training resources from within your web application, thus increasing productivity and saving time.
- Learning-as-a-Service: This method is a combination of online training, mentored learning, and on-demand resources. It will arm your employees with the tools and assistance to tackle challenges as they crop up.
- Hands-on-Training: This method includes practice and is conducted based on the needs of the employee. Though a tiresome and time-consuming approach, it can be extremely beneficial, provided the correct resources are accessible.
- Role-Playing: Role-playing is suitable for more complex roles. It allows you to see how each trainee reacts to different situations and the choices that they would have made.
3. Measure success.
As you start to implement the program that you designed, make sure to record the progress in some way. This is why having measurable and reachable goals are crucial. When the results are seen, everyone will be able to understand the program better.
Also, ensure to set clear expectations for your employees. If they are giving only vague hints about what they expect from the company in the future, opportunity wise, it will backfire if you can’t meet those expectations.
Enlighten your employees and make them understand the benefits of training for both their career growth and the company.
Plus, choose the right leader for the program. He/she has to be someone with strong ideas and a keen interest in how to develop the trainees.
4. Start developing your employees before it’s necessary.
Every company trains its new employees. But how do you tell if your company requires an ongoing development program?
It is not only large companies with complexities that require employee training. If you sense that your company’s employees are seeking growth, you can go ahead and implement the program. Both your company and employees will reap the benefits. Just ensure to fine-tune the program to fit the size and needs of your company.
In case you have several separate departments, cross-training with other departments will be of help. Or, if you have fewer employees who share a lot of responsibilities, creating an individualized program will be suitable. Allow each employee to train the group in an area where they are good at.
Developing your employees before it is necessary will ensure that no loopholes or discrepancies arise in the future. It will ensure the smooth operation and functioning of your company.
5. Give room for self-directed learning.
There will be some high-potential employees in your company who would wish to learn and progress on their own. Take advantage and allow them access to your library of tools and courses.
Allowing self-directed learning has plenty of benefits. You can accommodate different learning styles, increase the speed of professional growth, and fetch you better ROI for your investment that you make on training.
Self-directed learning is especially suitable for learning:
- Soft skills: Whether they admit it or not, employees are in need of help with soft skills. Whether it is decision making, creativity, multitasking, or communication skills, a little help will go a long way.
- Business math: A lot of employees will need help with business math, especially if they have been out of touch with math for a long time. Self-directed learning will help them to learn at their own pace.
- Point-of-need skills: If an employee has never negotiated before, it will be hard for him/her to negotiate for an expensive software tool for your company when needs arise. But if you allow them to watch a short video on the necessary negotiation skills, things will be different.
Wrapping-Up
Providing employee training will help you recruit and retain valuable talent as most of the employees are looking for opportunities to grow their careers. And when you train your employees, it will automatically scale your business.
However, an effective training program starts with understanding and identifying the training needs. Once you do that, you will have to pick the right training methods and tools. It can then be followed by measuring your employees’ progress and success.
Also, remember to start developing your employees before it is needed and give room for self-directed learning. Following all these tips will ensure that your employee training program is successful.
About The Author –
Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.