A Complete Guide To Effective Employee Training and Development Program

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Defining Your Employee Training and development Program

Before you start creating your employee training program, you need to know what you want your employees to learn. If you don’t know the end goal, how will you ever get there?

So take a step back. What are the skills in which your employees are lacking? Where do they need improvement? What skills would be beneficial for them to learn in order to help your business grow and succeed? Yeah, I know … these are a lot of questions that you may not have an answer to. Well, if that’s the case, it’s time to do some research.

Start by asking yourself, “What is our business missing? What could we be doing better?” Then, ask your employees the same question. Find out where they see room for improvement and where they think additional training would help them be more effective in their roles.

Once you have all of this information, create a list of specific goals for your training and development program.

Why are employee training and development programs important?

Businesses should understand that employees' skills need to be constantly upgraded, especially since technology keeps changing every day. If a company does not keep up with technology, then it can end up getting left behind in its industry. But when business owners do implement an effective employee training program, they will see the benefits of their investment.

The following are some of the benefits of a good employee training and development program:

1)Encourages Innovation:

‍An effective employee training program enhances the skills level of employees to help them become better at performing their tasks, adapt to new technologies easily and foster innovation.

2)Increase Employee Retention Rate:

An effective employee training and development program will make your employees feel more satisfied with their jobs, which will result in higher retention rate because they won't want to leave your company.

3) Increase Profitability:

‍Employee development programs also benefit your employees by helping them build skills that they can use in other areas of their lives. When you help employees grow professionally, you're also helping them grow personally. This can lead to higher employee morale, which improves productivity and profitability for your company.

4)Train New Hires More Effectively:

‍New hires can start performing more effectively sooner. This means quicker productivity gains for managers and less time spent on training by existing employees. A new hire who is trained properly can be a huge boost to any company, especially a small business.

Types of employee Training and development programs

Employees learn in different ways and with varied learning styles. Hence, it is important to understand the most effective training methods that would be suitable for your employees. Here are some of the most common types of employee training programs:

1. On-boarding training:

‍Getting new hires up to speed quickly will help them become productive in their new roles faster and reduce employee turnover rates. It is one type of employee training program. It's a process of orienting a new employee and helping him settle into his new job. The goal is to make the transition as smooth and effective as possible for him and his team.

More than just an introduction, onboarding should include all the information, resources, systems and processes that a new hire needs to know about to do his job well.

2. Mentoring

It is a process of guiding employees through their career journey by helping them in tapping their potential. It includes developing personal connection with the mentee and developing interest in their success and growth. Mentoring helps in sharing expertise, providing advice and counsel, encouraging networking and supporting career development.

3. Self-directed learning

It refers to a learning where the learner takes charge of their learning process. With this method, employees are given access to various online courses or eLearning material and are encouraged to take up courses on their own time. You can even create a self-study guide or checklist for a specific task/responsibility and ask your employees to follow it.

4. Gamified simulations

This program involves being given a real-life work scenario to work through. Simulation is especially beneficial for jobs that require regular decision-making or management of difficult situations, such as customer service roles or managerial positions.Simulation training programs can be used to train employees from different departments like sales, marketing, accounts, human resources etc. This type of employee training and development program is highly effective because it gives employees an opportunity to learn in a simulated real-life environment.

Bonus:  We have designed highly immersive gamified simulation trainings to upskill your employees .Train your employees to  perform at the top of their game by honing their skills with the help of real-life scenarios.

5. On the Job Training Program

This type of employee training program is one of the most popular methods used by companies to train their employees. In this method, the employee is trained while performing his/her actual job. The employee is given instructions and guidance by a mentor or coach who provides feedback on how well he/she performs during training. On the job training can either be formalized or informal depending on the company's policy.

You may like: Best Practices To Engage Employees Using Gamification In Corporate Learning

How can employee training and development be improved?

The problem is that many organizations still offer training in the same way they did 20 years ago, by providing classroom-based courses with information which is out of date

This type of learning does little to engage employees or create real value for the business.

To be effective, learning and development programs need to draw people into the learning process and give them access to knowledge when they need it. And they also need to provide value to businesses by developing skills which will improve performance.

Here are 8 steps to improve your employee learning and development 

1. Align your training and development programs with your organization's goals.
2. Create a culture of learning.
3. Ask employees what they want.
4. Communicate the importance of your training and development program to employees.
5. Train managers to train employees.
6. Use technology to help design, deliver, and track employee training and development activities.
7. Incorporate formal and informal training methods.
8. Evaluate the success of your employee training and development program.

Takeaway: If you want to retain top talent, you'll need effective employee training programs in place for new hires and for existing staff. And planning an effective employee training program depends on a host of factors from your industry to your organizational structure and team makeup. 

A good employee training plan takes time, but the time is well worth it for its long-term potential and the benefits your business reaps in the future..