No matter the size of your business (SME/Enterprise) robust (and regular) employee training courses can help in enhancing employee productivity, improving business efficiencies and eventually streamlining revenue management. The reason that businesses today need to focus on developing and implementing regular employee training programs is to help employees stay abreast of rapidly evolving trends while also helping them capitalize on their core strengths for better business success.
HR Technology News: Lessons From Managing A Remote Workforce
Designing these courses is no cakewalk. Every employee training has to cater to a different purpose, while ensuring it can be adapted to different employee skillsets and learning styles.
So what does it take to design and implement a cost-efficient yet result-oriented employee training program? Here are a few best practices:
Cater Your Course Curriculum And Agenda to Different Employee Hierarchies
Beginners who have just entered the workforce will require a different training style with more detail to help handhold them through various aspects of the role, the product/service, the methods used within the company / industry, etc. High level hires will need a much shorter timeframe to understand the integrities of the business, role and future plans or management expectations.
Segmenting your employees on the basis of hierarchy while structuring employee training programs ensures that the learning methodology used (interactive quizzes, QnAs, live video demos for a younger audience versus credible informative content for a slightly more mature employee level) and format used to bring them up to speed aligns with their background.
Always Implement Multimedia Formats In your Employee Training Program
New hires can sometimes feel inundated if they are given too much information to go through too soon. For certain technical roles, it is easy to assess effectiveness of employee training programs because managers can get them to do tests on a regular basis. For other roles, passing off a load of content heavy materials as part of an employee training curriculum or program will do little to help ensure that they understand their role, responsibility, business objective and tasks.
While structuring employee training programs, it is beneficial to include different delivery styles (video/audio/short presentations, interactive presentations, live QnAs, etc) during which managers break down various components in an engaging manner. An interactive story and real-time examples or practical scenarios will also help deepen the impact of the training program.
HR Technology News: Driving Business Impact With Better Quality Talent Data: 3 Factors To Consider
Include Formative Assessments to Understand Employee Training Program Outcomes
To understand the effectiveness of your employee training program, it is crucial to regularly assess how employees are learning and also how quickly they grasp new training lessons. Formative assessments (reviews, tests, group discussions, mock presentations, etc) can help give a detailed idea of which employee has reached what level in the program and where certain others need improvement. When corrective measures are implemented in time, it helps ensure employees are better prepared for upcoming tasks and projects and are at the output level with no weak link in the team.
Last Thoughts
A well thought out employee training program can equip your workforce with the latest skills and knowledge they need to boost their own performance, thereby leading to a growth and shift in team performance. The emergence of better e-learning software and employee training software (now coupled with augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence capabilities) will change the future of employee training to lead to better progress and productive in outcomes from these initiatives.
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Mehdi Daoudi, CEO and Co-Founder at Catchpoint