How to Get More Out of Your Employee Training Programs

Are you responsible for creating employee training programs? Have you been less than impressed with the approach your company has taken in the past? Are you ready to make some immediate improvements?

There are many steps you can take to get more out of your employee training programs. It’s not always easy to make a change – especially if you are familiar and comfortable with your current system – but the right moves can generate a variety of benefits for your company.

1. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Go back in time 25 years and employee training programs are nothing like what you see today.

With the help of technology, such as SAP SuccessFactors, business owners and HR professionals have access to a variety of tools that can help with many training related details.

Technology can help guide companies of all sizes spanning every industry imaginable.

You simply need to find the solutions that make the most sense for the way you run your business and train current and new employees.

2. Set Clear Goals

Simply put, you can’t achieve great success with your employee training programs unless you set clear goals. Neglecting to do so will lead to a disconnect among the company as a whole, the trainers, and employees.

Take for instance training related to the simplification of security operations. It’s one thing to say that you’re going to train employees on this subject, but another thing entirely to set goals and outline how these will be reached.

3. Create Engaging Training Material

The word training is one that employees never want to hear. Even those who are new to a company dread the training process. This doesn’t have to be the case. You can protect against this by creating engaging training material.

Is your training material outdated? Are you finding it difficult to engage employees?

It may be time to review your current material with an eye toward making a change. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do away with everything you have used in the past, but a few alterations here and there could be just what you need.

Tip: Just because you have access to advanced technology doesn’t mean your employees should sit at a desk all day long. Depending on the job responsibilities, training may be a hands-on activity. An example of this would be training a person on how to use a particular type of equipment, such as a dolly or U-boat.

4. Stick with a Schedule

There is nothing worse than a training schedule that lacks consistency. You need to push the process forward, one step at a time, in a manner that makes sense for both the trainers and trainees.

Maybe you train for four hours in the morning, take an hour break, and finish the day with another four hour session.

Or maybe you start with on the job training in the morning, and then move into a classroom setting in the afternoon.

It doesn’t matter what type of schedule you set, as long as it’s consistent from day to day. This helps your trainees get in the right frame of mind.

5. Don’t Rush the Process

Many studies show that it can take an employee one to two years to become fully productive.

This doesn’t mean the training process has to last this long, but it’s important that you never get too far ahead of yourself.

It may take several weeks for an employee to become comfortable working on his or her own. In some cases, it may even take several months or longer. It all depends on his or her level of experience and knowledge, as well as the job requirements.

By setting goals and sticking with a consistent schedule, you’ll have a better idea of how long it will take for an employee to be fully trained.

Conclusion

There are many things you can do to get more out of your employee training programs. Make sure you’re always seeking new ways to improve, as the way you train your employees can be the difference between their success and failure.

How do you feel about your employee training programs? Does it make sense to alter your strategy in the future? Share your top training tips in the comment section below.