Designing a strong, engaging training program will help your company prepare its employees to be productive and to succeed in their roles. Here are four ways to make your staff training more effective.
Create Instructional Videos
Building a library of training and development videos can make it easier for your employees to access the instruction they need. Rather than battling scheduling conflicts to hold an in-person training session or pull staff away from projects at a critical juncture, using videos to disburse information can enable employees to get up to speed when they have sufficient time to devote to the material.
When employees receive training through videos, it can also boost their retention of what they’re being taught. Research shows that employees find visual content more engaging than lectures and printed materials, meaning that they are more likely to remember and use information that is presented to them in an interesting way.
Instructional videos can also be effective tools for hands-on learning. When an employee is attempting a duty he or she is unfamiliar with, a video tutorial can demonstrate the steps they need to take to get the job done and walk them through the task as they are undertaking it.
Implement a Buddy System
Whether you’re training a brand new hire or looking to expand the skill set of an existing employee, pairing one worker up with another who excels at his or her job can be a smart way to make your training more effective. A strong staff member can walk trainees through common responsibilities while sharing experiences and divulging tips and tricks they’ve learned for doing the job effectively.
Training with the buddy system can also help ensure the person doing the learning isn’t feeling overwhelmed or confused by what they’re being taught. In a lecture or a group training environment, individuals often do not feel comfortable speaking up if they are lost or need help with something. Typically, they’ll be more likely to ask for help from a mentor they are working one-on-one with, and they’ll benefit from getting direct feedback as they’re learning.
Institute Daily Check-Ins
When employees are learning something new, if they find any part of the task unclear or overwhelming they can quickly feel as if they are in over their heads. Checking in with your staff daily as they are undertaking something new can keep the line of communications open so they’ll be more likely to reach out before they get too lost or fall behind. Knowing that someone is there to keep an eye on their progress and talk them through a challenge can be a critical part of the training process, especially for new hires.
Solicit Feedback
Although employee productivity may be the strongest measure of the effectiveness of your training, gathering and reacting to feedback from trainees is important as well. Finding out from employees which parts of your training process worked well for them can help you expand on the strengths of your program, whereas learning about areas that were challenging or unhelpful can help you tweak them going forward. By conducting surveys and interviews with training participants, and encouraging and rewarding honest responses, you’ll get invaluable guidance when it comes to developing future training programs.
Training employees in a way in which they’ll be more apt to retain and use the information they’re given is key to ensuring they’ll perform their jobs successfully. Using video materials, pairing staff with experienced buddies, following up regularly, and implementing what you learn from feedback can help you make your training programs more effective and your employees more productive.
