What are the best ways to motivate trainees or learners?

Learning can be a fantastic motivator for employees. It's not just about gaining knowledge; it's like a boost of energy that gives them a reason to work. When they learn new things, they feel really good about themselves, like they've achieved something important. This feeling pushes them to do their best and improve both their personal lives and their careers. This motivation can make them strive to do better and reach their own goals, whether at work or in their personal lives. What's even better is if we simply ask employees what skills they want to learn to do their jobs better. This can make our team even stronger and happier because we're helping them grow and become better at what they do.

It’s the employer’s role to facilitate employee motivation and figure out what employees need to motivate them. There are a number of ways to do this so your company becomes the one everyone wants to work for. It could be something as simple as ensuring equipment and systems such as the intranet work effectively, running an employee engagement survey, or buying the team lunch once a month. 1.?Improve corporate and team culture 2. Develop a modern work environment 3. Provide an Employee motivation platform 4. Provide transparent and clear communication 5. Encourage teamwork 6. Encourage innovation and creativity 7. Express gratitude 8. Recognize a good job 9. Express clear company goals 10. Give individual and team rewards

Simple involvement during the training like deciding whether we will continue to the next part of take break first, or how long the break session will be are some examples what we can do to facilitate the autonomy and choice to improve the motivation of learners (especially adult learners).

Learners should get clear explanation on how the learning experience will impact to their roles or responsibilities. One of the Adult Learning Principles mention that readiness, means after attending the learning session, what relevance they will get from the session to their work field. If there is little or even no impact on it, learners will loose their motivation to learn.

Experiential learning works best towards motivating adult trainees/ learners. Which entails learning by doing instead of being told or taught. This approach also capitalizes on the wealth of experiences and prior knowledge that adults bring to the learning process. Simulations and gamification are powerful tools in this approach. Simulations let adults practice in realistic situations, helping them understand complex ideas better. Gamification uses our natural love for competition and rewards to make learning fun and engaging for adults.

Fun can be great and it certainly helps for a lot of topics. But it isn't a requirement for learning and can be counterproductive especially if it falls into what could be termed "enforced fun". Just as humour is subjective, what is a fun activity for many people may actually exclude others from contributing or even engaging. They may simply be shy or introverted, or they may be neurodivergent and the fun element becomes a blocker.

Make sure trainees know what they are receiving from the training or what's in it for me (WIFM). This looks at training from the perspective of the learner. Ensure that learners know what they will get out of the training. Will this make their jobs easier, get them to a promotion, get them to their quota, etc.? Creating a WIFM statement will help them understand why the training will benefit them. You can position this WIFM statement at the beginning of training to get the buy-in needed from the learner.

Motivating trainees or learners requires a multi-faceted approach that goes beyond traditional methods. While incentives and rewards have their place, my opinion is that fostering intrinsic motivation through purpose and personal growth is more impactful. For example, providing meaningful and challenging learning opportunities, such as real-life projects or simulations, can ignite a sense of purpose and engagement. Additionally, creating a supportive and collaborative learning environment where trainees can openly share ideas and receive constructive feedback enhances motivation.

Motivation could come from a desire to learn, a need to learn, or a manager pointing at you and saying ‘take this course!’ Whatever gets a learner started on a course isn’t as important as the learning experience itself. We need to do better with engagement and showing the learner that they have improved (in some way) for having taken the course. Build interactions that represent the activities of the learner in their day-to-day work. Add straight forward knowledge checks that boost confidence. Create appropriate, well crafted assessments that allow a learner to showcase their newfound knowledge or skill, and remember that it’s not a one-shot deal: there is a wealth of information in the finished assessments, not just a trainee score!