Do you ever MANDATE your employees take a course or sit through a class whether they like to or not?
Many times, learners will do the absolute bare minimum to just "check the box".
I'm pretty sure I am guilty of this myself with previous employers.
Most of the time, these are Safety or HR related courses.... although the training could be on any topic that the learner really doesn't care about.
Today's Lesson: 5 Strategies to Make Mandatory "Check the Box" Training Better
- Change the negative stigma around training by also mixing in training that that the learner actually wants to take. Here's where to start, and here's another great article on Mandatory vs. Optional training.
- Find the pain point (the Why) that realistically relates to the learner. If it is a safety course, start with a real story how someone in their position was gravely injured or died by not following the content within that training. This will change the motivation from just checking a box to actually wanting to learn the content.
- Break the mandatory training down into smaller digestible chunks. If its information they are not excited about learning... retention will be better if you do smaller chunks over a period of time instead of trying to dump it all on them at once.
- Make the mandatory training interactive and fun. This could be in the form of simulations, role playing, team training, competitions, etc.
- Incentivize the mastery of training. I'm a fan of incentivizing the completion of mandatory training if they can prove that they actually learned the content within the course. This can be done through skill assessments, role playing, or on-the-job observation. This can be done through rewards, recognition, extra PTO time, etc.
- Think about what Mandatory training you are making your employees go through now. Run that training through the above 5 steps in order to improve retention and engagement.
- If you haven't already, read my previous article "I can't get my employees engaged in training" for additional strategies on the topic.
Much appreciation for you taking the time to read this. We as leaders have the responsibility to inspire growth and learning, and that's what this newsletter is all about. Thanks again for reading and subscribing, and I promise to continue to add value in every newsletter without any sales pitches.
