Crafting an Effective Employee Training Program

Employee training programs have the potential to be incredibly effective and useful resources, and the workforce appears to value continuing education.

Did you know that 90% of employees would work longer in a company if they invested in training?

According to 360Learning, “Employee training programs, and consequently learning and development departments, are important tools for recruiting, retaining and ups-killing employees.”

Corporate employee training plans can include a range of activities ranging from onboarding new employees to teaching general or specific skills to retraining existing employees.

Whether you're looking to launch one (or more) programs or just refresh your current training plan, this article will help you design a successful training course or program for your employees. In this article, we also give you tips and tricks for designing the best employee training programs.

What is an employee training plan?

An employee training plan is a document that describes a training program. It describes the training objectives, learning outcomes, training techniques, tactics and curriculum used to train employees in the company.

Why is an employee training plan important?

Employee training offers several benefits to a company, including the following:

• Bridging knowledge gaps: Regularly assessing your employees' skills helps uncover knowledge gaps and ensures they have the skills necessary to complete their jobs.
• Increased productivity: Employees who receive regular training acquire new skills, update old ones, and become more confident, efficient, and productive in their jobs.
• Better employee retention: By implementing training programs, employees feel valued and are able to perform their tasks well. This leads to higher job satisfaction, lower absenteeism and higher productivity.
• Enabling Succession Planning: A solid employee training plan ensures you have someone who can step in when a team member leaves.
• Consistency: A solid training plan ensures that all employees work with the same data set. When all employees are trained in the same way, it promotes consistency across the team, reduces employee training costs, and ensures that company rules and procedures are followed as intended.

7 Steps to Creating a Successful Employee Training Plan

Companies view employee training and development as a long-term plan, and training helps them update their employees, introduce new technologies and enter new markets. A poorly planned or executed employee training plan, on the other hand, can undermine these efforts and put a company behind schedule, costing it millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Below, we'll walk you through the seven steps to developing a successful employee training plan and discuss the dos and don'ts of creating a comprehensive employee training plan.

1.Identify your employees' needs and develop a training plan

The first step to creating a successful training plan is to set the goals for your company and your employees and what you need to achieve them.

It is also important to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the overall long-term success of a company. KPIs can be used to evaluate the strategic, financial and operational performance of a company, especially in comparison to other organizations in the same industry.

A few questions to get you started are:

• Who is the target group of your training program?
• What are your short and long term goals?
• What is the time frame for achieving these goals?
• How will you determine success?
• What does success look like in the eyes of employees?
• Selecting the software used for employee training
• How will you assess whether the training program was successful?

2.Review available training resources

An employee training plan requires more than just identifying the needs of your company and your employees. You should also know what resources are available to you, what your budget is, and what support you can expect in implementing your employee training and development plan.

Here is a checklist:

• Do you have existing training resources (Word documents, presentations, videos, etc.) that you can reuse?
• Do you have the necessary in-house knowledge and resources (content producers, video equipment, etc.) to create your training content?
• Do you have the resources to pay training experts to create unique training content for your company?
• Are there courses available online that will meet some of your training needs?
• Can you take advantage of the many free online and offline training resources?

By answering questions like these, you will better understand what training resources you have and what areas you need to invest more in.

3.Determine the type of employee training plan

When discussing your goals, consider what training program you want to implement. Here are some suggestions:

• Workshop vs. classroom style
• Industry conferences vs. internal seminars
• Individual training vs. group training
• Management training vs. competency-based training
• On-the-job training vs. training from external sources
• Training for professionalism, safety, quality, etc.

4.Incorporate feedback mechanisms

Because no training program is ideal from the start, you should not approach your training plan as if it were set in stone. Be flexible enough to make changes when necessary. To identify problems early in your employee development program, you should continually monitor progress and obtain feedback from learners and stakeholders.

Here are some ways to incorporate feedback:

• Review test scores and reports for problematic courses (e.g. most difficult, least popular, or least engaging courses)
• Conduct surveys so employees can rate their courses and instructors.
• Encourage professors to critique the content and suggest changes.
• As your company grows and its priorities change, you should reevaluate your training program. Train your employees in new skills and workflows, remove outdated information, introduce new courses and revise existing courses

5.Design and development of training materials

An employee training plan is only as good as the training materials it contains. It is crucial that the design is thoroughly planned before development begins to ensure that nothing is missing or amiss.

Remember to focus on employee learning needs rather than what is easy for the instructor. Also, ensure that the content is aligned with the learning objectives.

Training materials may include:

• Training guides for eLearning
• Presentations with PowerPoint or slide shows
• Work aids
• Workbooks
• Online resources

6.Implementation and evaluation of the training

Plan all logistical aspects in advance, scheduling and testing the technology to make sure it works. Before the actual training begins, clarify the ground rules and communicate your expectations.

Evaluation and feedback are also important parts of the employee training process. It is advisable to ask employees for feedback immediately after completing the program so that everyone remembers it well. For maximum efficiency, consider using online surveys or questionnaires, although requesting anonymous input may be the best approach.

7.Completion of the training plan

The final phase is to write, finalize and plan your training plan. However, don't just scribble down a rough description and consider it done. Take the time to create a comprehensive employee training plan.

Types of employee training methods

Employee training plans focus on improving various employee skills to increase their performance and productivity. They also help them prepare for the demands of the future.

There are different types of employee training, and the variety is increasing every year. Each team, department and company can choose the best training techniques for new and existing employees based on their individual needs.

The following describes the different types of training methods:

1.Teacher-led training

ILT (Instructional-led Training) is a type of training in which an instructor leads a group of candidates or individuals.

2.Online training

Online training is conducted through the use of online videos, quizzes, and courses.

3.On-the-job training

On-the-job training, often referred to as practical training, focuses on the essential skills required for the job. Applicants immediately put this type of training into practice.

4.Interactive training

Group activities, games, quizzes, assessments, and anything else that keeps employees interested in the learning process are examples of interactive training.

5.Modern education

Employee training methods have evolved in the modern workplace to include remote employees and people from many cultures. Therefore, the best approach to deal with this is social and online learning.

6.Group discussions and activities

This type of employee training is best suited to problems that require a collaborative approach to solving.

7.Training of managers

A great way to reinvigorate and realign the mindset of current leaders is through leadership training.

8.Simulation training for employees

The most common method for simulation training is the use of computers, augmented reality or virtual reality devices.

9.Training in role-playing games

As with group discussions, in role plays, employees are asked to complete some of their tasks in a controlled environment.

10.Case Studies

Case studies can help employees quickly learn about real-world difficulties in the workplace.

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