Your lead to employee training and spread
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You want your employees to do their job well. But how can you achieve that?
Sure, you provide them with industry-leading tools and software. You keep your proverbial door open to answer any questions they might have. They try to make tasks and processes as manageable as possible.
All of this is important, but there is one more important point that must be on your list - proper employee training.
If you are considering improving or implementing the training and development of your employees in your company, you are in the right place.
In this guide, we will cover the following:
1. Definition of training and development
2. Advantages of Employee Training and Development
3. Types of Employee Training
4. Implementation of training and development
5. Selection of a training provider
What is employee training and development?
Employee training is the process of equipping employees with the guidance, knowledge, and resources they need to perform excellently in their position. Training and development are often mentioned in the same breath, but there is a slight difference between these two terms.
Employee training - Targeted instruction in the execution of specific tasks, the completion of duties, the use of tools, etc.
Example: You create a step-by-step process to teach employees how to submit a support request to the helpdesk.
Employee development
offering coaching and support to help employees expand their skills, advance their careers, and grow within your organization.
Example: An employee wants to get better at public speaking, so you offer them access to seminars, courses, and opportunities that help them improve.
Do you see the difference? Training focuses on a specific task or process, while development supports employees in achieving their overall career goals.
Even though the two are somewhat different, they go hand in hand - especially because they build on each other. After all, proper employee training lays the foundation that employees need to perform their tasks well before they consider further career development.
What advantages do training, and development of employees offer?
Why do companies need a training and development plan for their employees? What does it bring them? Companies that focus on appropriate training and career growth can gain a lot, including:
1. More competitive recruitment
Employees want the training and support they need to do their jobs well. In fact, a Gallup study found that consider development in their job important. Training and development programs are something you can (and should) promote in your recruitment materials to attract more top talent for your open positions.
2. Higher employee retention
Learning and career opportunities can also encourage your best employees to stay, as they feel valued and supported in their careers. A report by LinkedIn states that 94 percent of employees say they would stay with a company if it invested in their training. To take it a step further: Higher employee retention means that companies save on the costs of hiring and training replacements.
3. Improved employee morale
Satisfaction and happiness of employees are also key to a positive corporate culture and low turnover. Consider it this way: If employees feel that they have everything they need to do their job well, they are much more likely to enjoy their work. This leads to improved morale in your team and company.
4. Higher productivity
When your employees have the basics, they need to perform their tasks, they can not only complete them more effectively but also more efficiently. This has a positive impact on your team's performance.
5. Fewer skill gaps and bottlenecks Skill gaps are real
According to research by the Association for Talent Development, a staggering 83 percent of companies have skill gaps. Training and development programs help companies close these gaps by supporting their existing employees in acquiring new skills that benefit the company. Combine all these advantages and you have the greatest advantage of all – improved company performance.
Are there different types of employee training?
When you think of employee training, you might easily imagine a dry seminar or tutorial. Forget this outdated notion of what effective training looks like.
As employee development has taken center stage, there are countless different training methods through which you can impart knowledge to your employees in a way that resonates with them the most. These types of employee training can include the following:
1. Individual training:
An employee is assigned someone who guides them through the processes, answers questions, and provides support. Examples of this include
●Coaching
●Mentoring
●Job Shadowing
2. Practical training:
An employee learns a new skill or process by performing it, rather than having it explained to them. Examples of this include
●Simulations
●Challenging tasks
3. Online training:
An employee is trained through an e-learning experience that allows them to learn at their own pace. Examples of this include
●interactive online courses
●Online workshops or seminars
4. Group training:
An employee learns together with a group, for example, by being informed about a new company-wide process. Examples of this include:
Seminars
Workshops
Conferences
5. Assessments:
An employee is evaluated so that he and his employer can get an overview of where he currently stands in terms of skills and knowledge. Examples of this include:
●360-degree performance evaluations
●9-box grid, a common individual assessment tool
●skills gap analysis
Of course, there are many overlaps between these different types of employee training, and often numerous methods are used in combination to create a comprehensive and helpful training and development program for employees.
How can you effectively implement training and development programs for employees?
Like any other type of new initiative, you undertake, a training and development plan is not something you create and then step back and watch it work its magic.
It requires active participation, commitment, monitoring, and improvement – not just from the employees, but also from the organization.
Let's go through some best practices for effective training and development plans for employees against this backdrop.
1. Set helpful training goals
Employees need to have insight not only into the training programs they complete but also into how these initiatives help them. Why should they be interested in it? What will this program achieve?
One of the best ways to do this is by setting SMART training goals. SMART goals are:
●Specific
●Measurable
●Achievable
●Relevant
●Time-bound
This gives employees a concrete goal to work towards, rather than participating in training and development opportunities because they feel obligated to do so. Set these goals together with your employees so that they feel involved in their own training and development.
2. Get the approval of the leaders
Effective training starts from the top down, and you will have a hard time getting employees on board with your offerings if your leadership team and executives remain silent on the matter.
Unfortunately, 83 percent of learning and development professionals say their leaders support employee training, but only 27 percent say their leaders are active advocates for employee training and development.
So, make sure that all managers in your company are informed about your programs, what you aim to achieve with them, and how they can best support their own teams. If the leaders participate, it is more likely that the employees will do so as well.
3. Involve your employees
Training goals and programs should not simply be imposed from above. Instead, you should involve your employees and actively listen to them to ensure that you provide opportunities that support their own career wishes and goals.
You should not only ask what they want to learn, but also how they want to learn it. Maybe you have offered many real-time seminars, but your employees would prefer online training that they can integrate into their own schedule.
Consistently ask for feedback so that you can provide training and development programs that meet your employees' needs – instead of adding another task to their to-do list.
4. Commit to continuous improvement
Feedback is only valuable if you respond to it. That means your employees are not the only ones who should be learning. You should do that too.
Stay updated on trends in corporate training. And when you receive feedback from learners about what works well and what doesn't, use this information to make strategic changes and improve your training and development offerings.
For example, you may have already heard that gamification can make your training more engaging and captivating. And who hasn't already noticed that social media platforms cater to shorter attention spans with "just-in-time" content? By incorporating these elements, you show that you care about your employees and achieve better results.
What should you look for in a provider of employee training?
When it comes to employee training, the importance of online training should not be overlooked. Convenience is more important than ever. Many employees therefore prefer learning offerings that allow them to work on topics at their own pace.
For this reason, many companies have introduced a learning program for employees in the form of training platforms or a learning management system (LMS) like Go Skills, which allows them to manage all their development and training needs in one place.
But when you are looking for your own training provider, what should you pay attention to? Here are some features you should definitely have:
●Flexibility: Your LMS should be flexible enough to grow with your team.
●User-friendliness: Employees will only use your LMS if it is intuitive. Make sure that user-friendliness is a priority and that your employees are not overwhelmed.
●Immediately usable courses: Seamless access to pre-made training content and resources.
●Microlearning: Microlearning offers short lessons on a topic and is often much easier for employees to handle.
●Gamification: Game-based learning makes topics much more interesting with rewards, badges, leaderboards, and much more.
●Customization: Ability to customize and create your own content within the learning platform.
