The average company does employee training. They train their new hires. They go through compliance regulations. They may even whip up a course or two when something gets rolled out company wide. And, on paper, that’s good enough. But there’s training that’s done and there’s training that’s effective—and far too many companies exist in the former realm without even acknowledging the latter one.
It’s not like funding levels or investment levels are what pose the greatest concern. More often, it’s the approach, the delivery and the follow-up that make the difference. Get those pieces in place and the statistics speak for themselves about what’s effective.
When Training Is Just a Box to Check
It’s not unheard of an average training experience to have one component in common: it’s built around what the company needs to check off—not necessarily what someone needs to know and understand. The range of learning management solutions in Australia has grown considerably in recent years to show that companies don’t need a mixed collection of forgettable training. Content can be compiled and delivered in one fell swoop, forced upon employees to sit through page by page, slide by slide, and be on their merry way.
But that’s not retention. That’s encouraging the lack of retention because people are forced to accept something that’s given to them. Without reinforcement, context, and some tie-in to how it affects their daily roles, much of what’s given in a one-and-done session is forgotten within a few days. This isn’t a fault of the personnel; it’s a fault of design.
What Good Training Actually Looks Like
Good training starts with the appreciation of what someone will (and should) be doing differently as a result of the course—not just what they need to understand, but how this understanding will essentially translate to behavioral change in the field. This is common sense, yet at best, ignored, and at worst, wholly disrespected.
From there, how the training is given matters. Less is more. A shorter, sweeter experience tends to resonate better than a longer, all-encompassing experience. Why? Because people understand easier when they’re given bite-sized pieces and the time to revisit smaller topics than being forced to sit for a two-hour lecture with a one-and-done assessment. Learner options for pacing and order also work in their favor. Well-intentioned training values how people learn better than well-intentioned training which focuses on what’s best for the deliverers.
What Technology Can Do For Effective Training
This is where the appropriate tools come into play. Manual training through emails, shared drive folders, and spreadsheets limits what’s effectively possible. It’s hard to comprehend who completed what, it’s harder to assess where group-wide troubles lie, and it’s nearly impossible to institute a personal touch.
An effective platform alleviates those concerns. The technology manages the logistical pieces while the humans can concentrate on whether or not this training is worthwhile.
Feedback and Follow Through
One of the greatest tellers of mediocre training experiences is that nothing happens upon completion. No successful assessments garner any follow-ups, no real-world applications are tied back. It’s over and the employee is over it.
Good training takes completion as a means to an end, not the end. There’s some sense of retention assessment, a follow-up quiz, a proactive approach, a managerial conversation, none of which exist for assessment’s sake. Accountability matters for learners and the company needs to recognize where gaps still exist.
Moreover, it’s important to do something with that information. If people continuously struggle with one topic in particular, it needs to be changed. Companies that pay attention get better at training over time. Those who don’t continue to vomit out the same training for years and years wondering why nothing has changed.
Making Training Relevant to Real Work
Generic training is less useful than facilitation that at least somewhat connects to what someone actually does in their role. When samples, scenarios, and struggles make sense as a real-world problem someone tackles on a daily basis, engagement ramps up—and retention follows suit.
That doesn’t mean every training experience needs to be bespoke; it means some sense of respect needs to be had as to how it’s presented and if it resonates with its audience. Even a modicum of contextualization goes a long way in helping learners appreciate what they need to learn.
Making It Sustainable Long-Term
Companies who do training right don’t see it as a one-off experience time and time again; it’s part of their operating standards culture for comprehensive onboarding of new hires, refreshed offerings when things change, and differentiating skills gaps before they become performance problems.
That level of consistency takes planning ahead but it pays off. Training becomes something people appreciate instead of endure and companies wind up with a more skilled workforce instead of one who’s just wasted more hours of their life sitting through uninspiring material.
