Employee training is essential for developing skills, enhancing performance, and increasing engagement. But how can you deliver high-quality training with limited time and budget? Here are some tips to help you improve your employee training quality and outcomes without breaking the bank or compromising your schedule.
Before you design or deliver any training, make sure you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how it aligns with your organizational and team goals. This will help you prioritize the most relevant and impactful topics, create measurable learning objectives, and evaluate the effectiveness of your training. You can use tools like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) or OKR (Objectives and Key Results) to set and communicate your training goals.
To improve the effectiveness of a training program, it is crucial to start by defining the desired outcomes. By identifying these outcomes first, we can set clear training goals that serve as a foundation for establishing specific learning objectives. This outcome-oriented approach ensures that the training is purpose-driven and aligned with goals. When considering outcomes, it is important to thoroughly evaluate and determine both the "what" and the "how" aspects of the training impact. This involves asking key questions: What specific skills, knowledge, or behaviors do we want participants to acquire? How will these changes translate into improved performance.
Training is inevitable at any level of careers. The most important part in planning a training is OKR i.e why need a training and what we want to achieve from this. Alignment with vision/mission and objectives is must. Predefined goals/objectives help to be more specific, cost efficient and high ROI.
A deliberate approach is needed to increase staff training quality and results while working within time and financial restrictions. Streamline training materials to include only the most important information and leave out any extraneous details. To take advantage of internal expertise and promote knowledge exchange, implement a mentoring or peer-assisted learning program. Additionally, to make sure that training activities are focused and successful, conduct regular assessments to gauge progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. Encourage employees to take responsibility for their own development and promote self-directed learning using well selected materials.
Aligning training with organizational goals is my North Star. It's not just about delivering training; every learning opportunity is a strategic move. It's like a GPS for your learning. Before we embark on initiatives, understanding the destination is key. SMART and OKR set the route with clear objectives and measurable outcomes. Two other effective tools that I have implemented are the Balanced Scorecard and SWOT Analysis. These frameworks bring an extra layer of strategic depth, aligning training initiatives seamlessly with the broader organizational strategy.
Considering the perspective of the adult learner, it also gives the training a purpose. Adults like to use their training immediately and need to find it relevant to the job they do. So, when developing the training and setting those goals, find a way to communicate how those training goals directly impact the employees. They will often receive the training with a more positive growth mindset when they can see its impact.
Blended learning is a combination of different modes of training, such as online, face-to-face, self-paced, and collaborative. It allows you to leverage the strengths and benefits of each mode, while reducing the costs and challenges of relying on one. For example, you can use online courses or videos to deliver theoretical or foundational knowledge, and then use face-to-face sessions or workshops to practice skills or apply concepts. Blended learning also gives you more flexibility and options to adapt to different learning styles, preferences, and needs.
***** ALERT ***** Learning professionals must have sufficient education in the science of learning to recognize when AI reproduces a myth and presents it like fact. In this paragraph, it refers to learning styles (which has no research backing). Now, the AI didn't just make it up. It is perpetuating a bad human behavior. We have to be aware of biases, misinformation, and outright inventions (hallucinations) that AI can produce. Human review is always essential.
Blended Learning is found to be very effective for our New Hire Trainings. All the time live instructor led sessions can become repetitive and monotonic. Too much e-learning videos become information overload. Excessive self study content may get overwhelming for different learner styles. We incorporate halfday independent learning sessions. In second half, its instructor led live classroom training, then it also includes demonstrations, activities or tasks. They study when they are in the early morning with fult alertness and focus, and before they deplete their attention span in the afternoon they get to practice what they learnt from their trainers and implement them. Learning seems fluid.
It's important to meet learners where they are and to offer the right options for them. Having alternatives for in-person training is helpful for remote employees or those that have limited availability. If your workforce is out in the field, ensure that you have mobile capability. Think about the complexity of the topic and if the lesson can be short and consumable or if it requires more in-depth focus. Lot's of things to consider, but know that people are learning machines and resilient. The goal is to make and serve up content that is relevant, easy to find, and engaging.
In a world where we are faced with getting the most for each dollar, online training helps to eliminate some of the costs associated with face-to-face training, airfare, accommodation etc. This means the training budget can go farther. There is also the added benefit of getting to spend more time with family and for other personal commitments because you don't need to travel for training.
Here are some effective strategies: Peer-to-Peer Training: Encourage experienced employees to mentor or train new hires. This not only saves money but also fosters a culture of knowledge sharing. On-the-Job Training: Incorporate on-the-job training where employees learn while performing their roles. This practical approach enhances real-world skills. Assessment and Certification: Design assessments to measure the effectiveness of training. Provide certifications or badges for completed courses to motivate employees. Peer Evaluation: Encourage peer evaluation and collaborative learning. Employees can learn from each other and provide constructive feedback.
Feedback is crucial for improving your training quality and outcomes, as it helps you identify what works and what doesn't, and how you can make adjustments or improvements. You can collect feedback from various sources, such as learners, managers, peers, or experts. You can use different methods, such as surveys, quizzes, interviews, or observations. You can also use feedback to reinforce learning, by providing timely, specific, and constructive feedback to your learners during or after the training.
FEEDBACK is critical. I have found as a powerful tool for development. I give FAST feedback to learners. Frequent, Accurate, Specifically & Timely. Learners value it. The more the learn from an insightful feedback they are always ready implement. Offcourse, feedback is a double edged sword. But that should never stop learning rather enhance it further. Sometimes, my learners look forward to feedback 1on1 sessions. I find 1on1 as the most effective method. Its personable and spot on. As a trainer, I love to have feedback on my work too. We use anonymous surveys for my performance from the learners. What were their expectations? What was the highlight during training? Any recommendations Keeping open questions brings in more feedback.
Role play exercises add tremendous value to the feedback portion. This engages the heart and head of the audience, giving other participants the opportunity to learn from and among their peers. Because each individual learns differently, the role play exercises opens eyes to perspectives they may not have thought of before, thus opening the conversation for suggestions, ideas, and additional input. This is one avenue to observe if what is being taught is falling on fertile soil.
Providing constructive and timely feedback to employees/trainees is super important. It helps them work on their weaknesses. Having 1 on 1 interactions can be extremely beneficial for them.
Engaging modules are crucial for growth of members participating in the training, however, feedback is inevitable for the company to grow too.
Periodically, throughout the training sessions, you need to check in with the learner to make sure they're learning the material correctly. You should ask the learner to demonstrate their knowledge to make sure they are on the right path. If a learner is not learning, then corrective action is needed. Feedback should be immediate and corrective so the learner knows exactly what to correct. Offer guidance on how to correct their actions. If necessary, retrain them on that particular aspect of the training. If your learners don't learn what you need them to, the company has wasted the time, effort, money, and other resources put into the training.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel or spend a fortune on creating or buying new training materials. You can leverage existing resources that are already available or accessible, such as online courses, podcasts, blogs, books, or articles. You can also tap into the expertise and experience of your internal or external network, such as colleagues, mentors, coaches, or consultants. You can use these resources to supplement, complement, or enrich your training content, or to provide additional learning opportunities or support.
Don’t under-estimate the power of curation. There’s plenty of worthwhile and value adding resources out there. However context is king, not content. Therefore whatever you choose to use, you have to find the relevance to people and ensure you help them to draw that connection.
In my experience, there are two key ingredients to leveraging resources: - learner experience (reuse, reinvent the narrative of past success or past perceived failures). When placed in a safe learning environment experience from a standpoint of empathy and safety, the effectiveness(in my case English language) is doubled! - play the imitation game to detach from emotional setbacks. This makes the learner less self conscious in a fun environment
Also, remember that your team have different perspectives, approaches and strengths. Utilising your team in training to support each others learnings can not only contribute to productivity but also empower your staff!
Una opción para aprovechar los recursos existentes es que los trabajadores más veteranos o expertos en ciertas materias impartan la formación.
To leverage existing resources, we need to do: Identifying Assets: Assess internal materials, expertise, and technology available. Repurposing Content: Adapt existing materials for training purposes, reducing development costs. Internal Experts: Tap into employees with specialized knowledge to lead training sessions. Collaborating: Partner with departments or individuals who have relevant resources or experience. Sharing Best Practices: Encourage employees to share successful methods and materials. Budgeting allocation: Allocate funds strategically, prioritizing areas where external resources are necessary.
One of the best ways to improve your training quality and outcomes is to make it engaging and fun for your learners. This will help them stay motivated, interested, and attentive, as well as enhance their retention and recall of the information. You can use various strategies to make your training engaging and fun, such as gamification, storytelling, humor, interactivity, or personalization. You can also use different media, such as images, videos, audio, or animations, to make your training more appealing and dynamic.
No one likes a dull training. Learning has to be engaging. People learn quickly and digest it better when they perceive, it to be 'fun learning' Humor (again being cautious, avoiding stereotype and inappropriate jokes) ideally incorporate real work related ones. I call Story Telling to be 'Story Selling' That is best way to engage audience. People love stories. (See what i did there?) Games - even simplest hangman is at times a great icebreak and can be connected to the topic of the day. Jigsaw Activity and Scavenger Hunt are some great ways make learning not become hardcore or traditional learning.
A un adulto no puedes darle una clase magistral, puesto que la información sabe encontrarla y leerla. Lo que hay que hacer es que sea una formación amena, práctica y orientada a los objetivos de aprendizaje
I absolutely agree with this especially! No one wants to feel inferior or made to feel insecure in the work place. A kind gesture, a genuine smile, a helping personality and total understanding of the other’s perspective is crucial. Making the process of training fun, engaging and comfortable yet informative and effective, not only leaves a fantastic long lasting impression, but also a good standing at the workplace. Don’t forget to reward with words of affirmation and gratitude.
One of the key methods to make training engaging is ??? Contextualising the Training ??If information is given without context, it is extremely difficult to understand, thus lowering engagement. ??What is very clear to the trainer may not be clear to the learner unless there is context given. e.g for Sales training for improving targets, instead of diving directly into the methods for improving sales. Context such as " Sales for ABC region " or " Sales to GenZ customers" specific to the business challenge helps keep the audience engaged. ?? An engaged audience is more likely to implement the methods & achieve goals.
You’ve got to keep it interesting. Space the learning, make use of breaks, and find ways to engage all parts of the brain. Thinking, play, interaction, curiosity, they’re all key parts to engage and at different parts of the learning. Use stories that people can relate to, push people to stretch themselves beyond their realm of comfort, and involve them in design and delivery wherever you can.
I've never met an L&D team with ALL of the time and ALL of the money. Working within constraints is part of the deal for every corporate function. Time is the biggest barrier to workplace learning, so it must be a primary consideration for every L&D team. We only have so much time to tackle so many problems. Employees only have so much time to complete so many tasks, including training. L&D must balance efficacy with efficiency when architecting a learning ecosystem built for scale and aligned with the everyday realities of today's workplace. By shifting our focus from building/delivering programs to integrating/maintaining systems, we can put the pieces in place to handle more challenges, more quickly while maximizing our L&D investment.
Make training an accountable aspect of an employee's career. Most of the employees find it difficult to manage workload along with training. Imagine having a never ending to-do list at work and you have to now devote two hours to a training. You know it is important, you know it is for your own good but somewhere in the back of your mind, all you can think about is getting back to work. Because when your work is not done on time, the time you spent in training is not going to give you a leeway. So, how do we solve this problem? We communicate. Talk to the leaders and reporting managers, and send periodic communications about the trainings. Set expectations around work prioritization during the training period and be supportive. That's all.
Build in leadership reinforcement. As trainers we sometimes feel that we are responsible for it all, but what happens outside the classroom is even more important. Educate leaders on the content and create tools and talking points to help them reinforce what people are learning. This will also help create a learning organization for the company.
Before you start expending time, effort and resources, get clear on "what good looks like" - what a "quality outcome" is. Clarify the necessary level of learning. If simple awareness is needed, don't over-engineer the solution. Get clear on the constraints that may box in your options. Leverage all available (internal or external) resources, looking for creative ways to optimize them in the particular situation (remembering that application of the exact same solution to all people/locations may/not be the best). Be well my friends. Keep up the fire!
Less is more. Get hyper-focused on what you want your learning content to achieve. This is especially true with "soft skill" training where we need people to do things or behave in a certain way. Change is very difficult, habits are hard to break. Every soft skill training program should try to identify the bad behavior, demonstrate the positive behavior, then practice, reward, and measure the result. Don't try to solve multiple behavioral problems at once, it won't work. Stop it!