5 Employee Training Ideas Every Company Should Steal

Your employee training programs are only as dull as you let them be. We’ve all been there - sitting in for meeting after meeting but leaving without learning much. Some of us might have zero workplace training experience, where most skills and knowledge are self-taught. 

Over the years, employee training sessions have earned them a bad rep for being boring or useless. Still, truthfully, there are many ways to flip that around and effectively innovate an engaging training experience. This is extremely important if you want to attract and retain your best talents and for the continuous growth of both your employees and the company. 

Whether you're training a new hire or mentoring a more seasoned employee in developing new skills, there are various techniques you can use to make the session more effective and less boring.

 

#1 Match top performers with new hires

The most effective way to onboard new staff is to let them work with or ‘shadow’ the team lead or top-performing employee for a few days. The supervisor or seasoned employee can help get the new hire settled down, guide them through expected tasks and projects, and let the trainee see how someone experienced does their job. This personal approach enables new employees to better register information by applying learned skills in real-time and translating them into daily tasks. It also allows the trainee to voice questions more comfortably and at their own pace, unlike in bigger training settings. 

Certainly, larger training sessions can be more expensive and time-efficient for an organization. Still, they’re often less personalized and barely enough for new hires to process the information delivered to them. That’s why companies should emphasize more on mentorship and employee-run training.

 

#2 Incorporate narratives into your training

Storytelling is most effective when you customize the message for a specific audience group. It leaves an emotional imprint where employees understand and remember interesting stories much better than instructions alone. Not only that, but stories are also more effective at motivating and getting trainees excited about working with others. 

However, do remember that your storytelling should be as simple as possible. Give trainees short, punchy stories relevant to their work so they can apply them to their daily jobs. 

 

#3 Take your training anywhere, even outside the office

Some people learn better in a more casual, relaxed setting. Many businesses nowadays have taken on the notion of a lunch-and-learn session where a team leader or any employee from the company gives a short seminar-style presentation while refreshments or lunch are served. Such sessions typically encourage brainstorming and comfortable, open communication between employees of all experience levels. 

The bottom line is to make your training as memorable as possible. From lunch-and-learn to out-of-the-office sessions, you set yourself up for personal, meaningful connections that get new hires engaged and boost team morale.

 

#4 Offer microlearning initiatives

Busy schedules around the office and reduced attention spans have made effective learning and growth harder to thrive in the workplace. That is why microlearning - short, focused, and often interactive learning initiatives averaging between 5 to 10-minute segments - has become increasingly popular in the modern workforce.

It helps new hires to learn quickly while performing their daily jobs and improves knowledge retention since the format is short and bite-sized. Nevertheless, it is important to note that microlearning initiatives are best applied to simpler training needs rather than complex skill sets.

 

#5 Provide e-learning opportunities

In today’s modern and fast-paced world, we’re learning in more ways than ever before. Offering e-learning opportunities is a good way to make learning more readily accessible to your employees, especially if you have remote or hybrid work arrangements in your company. This approach allows new hires to learn and improve at their own pace, anywhere and anytime. 

For example, rather than giving out bulky training materials that can be dreadful for new trainees to read, you can invest in fun and engaging onboarding videos instead. 

With an effective training program, you build a better team and reap all the benefits below:

• Better aligned goals and expectations

• Increased job satisfaction and motivation

• Higher productivity and quality work

• Improved team morale and functionality

• Increased retention rates and reduced turnover

• More inclusive and engaged work culture

• Enhanced workplace relationships

 

Final Thoughts

With all the best practices discussed above, you can effortlessly breathe new life into your employee training programs. Of course, employee training programs may take considerable time, budget, and effort, but they will benefit your company in the long run. Because when your employees have all the training, knowledge, and skills they need, your company will run more smoothly and grow in more ways than ever. 

 

 

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