Do you want your employees to get more joy out of your training program? Perhaps you plan to do some social engineering tests and worry that your staff will not learn anything from them. Whichever is your case, know that you are not alone. Many business owners struggle with effectively training their employees. Nevertheless, it is achievable, provided you know what you are doing.
To give you a helping hand, we have prepared this article. Below you will find a few helpful tips that will allow you to engage your employees in training and get better results. If you wish your training efforts to be successful, read on.
Use Entertainment
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Learning is a mental process, which means your employees need time to comprehend information and make sense of it. When you think about learning, are you reminded of sitting quietly in the classroom? If so, you are not alone. Many people associate learning with the school environment. Unfortunately, this association is wrong and leads to training failures.
In order to have employees learn something new, you need to appeal to their emotions. That is why you should use entertainment in your training program. Entertainment will capture your employees’ interest and make them want to learn more. Moreover, watching other people do something interesting will be fun for them.
Emphasize the Practical Aspects
Practical experience is one of the most important factors that affect employee retention. People need to see how things work in real life in order to get convinced. As such, during training sessions, you need to emphasize the practical side of things. You can do so by:
- Showing examples of how an application or system functions and what other people do with it
- Encouraging participants to try out new features themselves
- Letting them ask questions and answer them
- Providing tasks that allow them to practice working with new tools or techniques;
- Facilitating online discussions on various topics
Build Personal Relationships With Employees
Your employees are not robots who follow commands without questioning them. They are human beings who have their own character traits and preferences. Therefore, you should build a relationship with each employee in your team. You can do so by:
- Asking each employee about his/her background and interests
- Taking an interest in their hobbies and lives
- Inviting them to discuss a topic they are interested in
Keep in mind that building personal relationships with employees does not mean you should start being lenient with them. On the contrary, you should demand more from them and expect superior performance from them. You have to be fair and honest with them, and they will respect you for it.
Use Different Training Methods
The more training methods you use, the better results you will get. It is vital to have various training methods at your disposal because each method works differently for different people. In order to motivate people to take part in training, you need to put them in a pleasant atmosphere as well as offer snacks and drinks. Here are some of the training methods that you can employ:
- Classroom-style course
- Online seminar
- Quizzes that allow people to test their knowledge
Offer Feedback Sessions After Each Training Session or Event
What good would it do if your employees learn something only once? They will soon forget what they learned and will not use it anymore when they need it. Why would they? They never got any feedback on their performance. As such, you need to offer feedback sessions after each training course or event.
These sessions will allow you to demonstrate to your employees how they will benefit from what they learned. You can also give them tasks to complete at home to ensure they remember what they learned during training. Furthermore, these sessions will encourage your employees to ask questions regarding specific topics or problems they are having at work. As a result, the training program will be more productive.
Set Realistic Expectations for the Training Program
While it might be tempting, it is not a good idea to promise your employees too much from your training program right away. People tend to overestimate their ability to learn something new when they are told how great they can be at something (for example, if they become master data scientists). As a result, they feel overwhelmed and give up sooner than they should.
To avoid doing so, tell your employees that it takes time to learn something new and that they should not expect anything great from the training program right away. Also, make sure you explain to them that there will be no magic pill that makes everything perfect overnight – change is gradual and requires hard work and dedication from everyone involved in the process, including you as the manager and trainer.
You can also encourage your employees by telling them that if they work hard enough, they might qualify for the promotion (or another award) sooner than expected! Remember – positive reinforcement works!
Make the Training Program Memorable
Have you ever gone to a training session only to realize that you have already forgotten most of the things you learned? How did that make you feel? If you are like most people, you were probably annoyed and frustrated. This is why you need to make your employees remember what they learned. You can do so by implementing creative training methods as well as by putting them in a pleasant atmosphere. Employees will remember things that made them feel good and those that were fun to learn. Here are some of the things you can do:
- Offer snacks and drinks (water, coffee, tea, juice)
- Regularly test their knowledge
- Make everything as simple as possible
- Start discussions with them
- Give examples as much as possible
- Set up a relaxed environment
Keep Training Sessions Short and Concise
In order to ensure your employees get more out of your training program, make sure it is short and concise. The longer a course lasts, the less likely it is that participants will remember what they learned. Moreover, people tend to get bored listening to a person speak for too long. As such, keep each training session short and informative. You can do so by:
- Starting on time and ending on time as well
- Providing tasks that require quick thinking and action from employees
Spread Out Training Sessions Over Time
It is vital to spread out your training sessions over time in order to avoid employee burnout. People tend to get frustrated if they try to learn something new and fail repeatedly. As a result, they become demotivated and want to give up. That is why you need to spread out the training program over time and let employees practice what they learned at work in their spare time. This will allow them to get accustomed to new concepts gradually, which will make the learning process easier for them.
Conclusion
Providing your employees with high-quality and interactive training has many benefits for you as a business owner. Your employees will appreciate that you are investing in them and helping them deepen their knowledge. In return, they are more likely to remain at your company longer. And you will have an opportunity to internally allocate people to different positions without additional costs for hiring, onboarding, and training newcomers.
