What's your strategy for engaging staff with relevant training?

1 Assess your staff's needs

Before you design or select any training program, you need to understand what your staff's learning goals, preferences, and challenges are. You can use various methods to assess your staff's needs, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, performance reviews, or self-assessments. The key is to ask open-ended and specific questions that elicit honest and constructive feedback. For example, you can ask your staff what skills they want to develop, what topics they are interested in, what formats they prefer, what barriers they face, and how they measure their progress.

3 Choose the right delivery methods

There are many ways to deliver training, such as online courses, webinars, workshops, coaching, mentoring, or peer learning. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the content, audience, and context. You should choose the delivery methods that best suit your staff's needs, preferences, and availability. You should also consider the cost, quality, and accessibility of the training resources. For example, you can use online courses for self-paced and flexible learning, webinars for interactive and engaging sessions, workshops for hands-on and practical skills, coaching for personalized and tailored support, mentoring for long-term and relational guidance, or peer learning for collaborative and social learning.

4 Create a supportive learning environment

To foster a positive learning culture in your organization, you need to create a supportive and safe learning environment for your staff. You can do this by providing recognition, feedback, and incentives for your staff's learning efforts and achievements. You can also encourage your staff to share their learning experiences, challenges, and insights with each other, and to seek and offer help when needed. You can also model a learning mindset by demonstrating your own commitment to continuous learning and improvement. For example, you can celebrate your staff's learning milestones, provide constructive and timely feedback, offer rewards or recognition for completing training, create opportunities for peer learning and mentoring, and share your own learning goals and progress.

5 Leverage your professional networks

One of the most effective ways to enhance your staff's learning is to leverage your professional networks. You can use your networks to access more diverse and relevant training resources, to exchange best practices and insights, and to create collaborative and innovative solutions. You can also use your networks to expand your staff's exposure and opportunities, to build trust and relationships, and to increase your visibility and reputation. For example, you can join or create online communities, forums, or groups related to your field or interest, attend or host events, webinars, or workshops, connect with experts, mentors, or peers, or participate in projects, challenges, or competitions.