Your Ultimate Guide to Training Your Company Employees

Learning and development in a workplace are important. Whether it’s learning specific technical skills to perform a job or developing people’s leadership qualities, it all leads to the betterment of the workplace as a whole. Here is a comprehensive guide full of tips on how to make business training a worthwhile experience for all involved.

Make training relevant

Have you ever heard a collective groan in your workplace when training courses are announced? Some people love training, but if you haven’t managed it well in the past, people aren’t always enthused about learning and development. The main reason for this is a lack of relevance. Many businesses send all their employees to the same training courses whether individuals need it or not.

When planning your learning and development schedules, make sure the training is relevant to participants. Offer different courses for people who work in different roles. Keep courses shorter where possible, including only relevant learning. When staff clearly understand why they’re attending training, they’re a lot more engaged.

Align training to staff career goals

Another way to increase relevance in training is to align courses to staff career goals. Don’t make the mistake of thinking corporate training is all about the business. Many people love training if they can see how it benefits their career. Those who are interested in career advancement, whether it be climbing the ladder or moving sideways to different roles always appreciate the opportunity to develop their skills.

On the flip side, if you’re forcing marketing staff to attend administration training just because everybody else is doing it, they’re unlikely to be enthusiastic.

Be flexible to address skill gaps

By having a wide range of training options available you can be more flexible in addressing skill gaps. You may notice that certain parts of the business are struggling with certain tasks, which is a perfect trigger for training. Being able to find relevant training courses and implement them quickly means you can address skill gaps fast.

The same goes for individuals rather than whole teams. Monthly performance meetings are a great place to identify learning needs and provide each staff member with a tailored training plan to boost their confidence and increase productivity.

Give your employees dedicated training time

When people are stuck in a training room and know that work is piling up while they’re away, they can’t engage in training properly. It causes stress and makes people wish they weren’t doing training at all. As a management team, you’re responsible for giving people the time to attend the training they need without the stress of work building up.

If possible, stagger training sessions so there’s always enough staff on deck to manage daily operations. If you work in a scheduled environment, you can easily build training time into people’s rosters. This makes them feel more supported, and they know they can enjoy training without coming back to a huge pile of work.

Consider e-learning

If you find it difficult to give your people the time to attend half-day or full-day training, there are other alternatives out there. Online training courses have boomed in recent years, with many training providers offering a whole suite of courses for different needs. Whether it’s professional development, personal development, or something more specific like Office 365 training, there are self-paced learning modules available for everyone.

It’s a more convenient way to learn, more flexible and people can even participate if they work remotely. You can even develop your own e-learning courses specifically for your company. If you’re looking for cost-effective training solutions, you need to consider e-learning.

Try virtual classrooms

Another extension of the shift to online training is the virtual classroom. If you’ve got teams who prefer their training to be facilitated and guided by a trainer, virtual classrooms are an option. There are several benefits, with staff being able to come together in an online setting and still engage in the type of discussion and activities present in-classroom training.

Plus, it’s great for people who work from home, and there’s no time wasted in heading to an external training facility for the day. Modern technology has made it possible for virtual classrooms to be extremely engaging and immersive for participants.

Cater to all learning styles

With all of these different training formats available, including classroom training, on-the-job learning, virtual classrooms, and e-learning, you’ve got the ability to cater for all learning styles. Some people love reading information at their own pace and learning by themselves. Others love group activities and facilitated sessions. Offer a variety of options, and your staff will thank you.

Provide a huge range of training options

It’s not just the style of learning that should be varied, but also the course content. Companies that really do well when it comes to training provide countless options for their staff. A great idea is to partner with a training provider that gives you access to a huge course catalogue. That way, you can make training much more personal.

If someone has specific learning needs or career aspirations, you can give them the learning and development opportunities to support those. Everyone’s needs are different, so working with people to create learning plans is the best way to ensure they benefit from training.

Build a culture of learning

When people are enthusiastic about business training, they get so much more out of it. Remember the collective groans we mentioned before? This is a sign that you don’t have a good culture of learning and development. While course content and delivery are two reasons for this, it’s also about communication and personalisation.

Clearly explain to your people why training is important and how it links back to their daily work. In addition. Make sure they understand how it benefits their future career aspirations. When training is a regular thing, and you support people to get the help they need, learning becomes part of your culture.

Plan training schedules in advance

If you do have access to a wide range of training options, you can plan well in advance. This benefits the business in two ways. Firstly, you can work closely with employees on their individual training plans. If they’re working towards a long-term goal, training feels more relevant. Secondly, it allows the business to manage resources more effectively.

If you know that a certain number of people are participating in training in advance, you can manage workloads and staff coverage more effectively.

Work with an experienced training provider

We’ve mentioned training providers a few times, and that’s because of the enormous benefit they provide to businesses. It’s not just about being able to access a huge range of training courses. It’s also about helping you develop in-house training courses and other online resources. There are massive advantages to teaming up with a training provider, such as cost-effectiveness, variety, and flexibility in training schedules.

Don’t forget about refresher courses

If your staff have completed a lot of training courses over the years, they may not be enthusiastic about doing more. However, there are so many types of business training courses that can be offered as a refresher. It’s not always the case with technical skills training, but certainly, soft skills training can be revisited after a certain amount of time.

Courses to help improve time management, communication, conflict resolution – these are all things that can fall by the wayside in a workplace. Give people the chance to do a refresher course, and watch the focus go back on all those skills a workplace needs.

Encourage feedback on training courses

Finally, you need to encourage honest feedback on training courses. Not just the courses themselves, but your training plans and overall approach to learning and development. Don’t see feedback as a negative thing. Use it to continually improve and enhance your training programs to give everybody the maximum benefit.