Is your organization struggling with low employee training course completion rates? The value of employee training to the survival of your business cannot be understated. In 2018 alone, small employers invested around 61.2 training hours per employee. When it comes to training employees, it is vital that they are able to complete training to gain the maximum benefit.
The Value of Employee Training Courses to Your Organization
Employee training course completion is a huge investment in the success of your organization. According to Jason Monroe, who contributes to humanresources.com, “strategic spending on training and development should be treated as an investment in order for your business to run better, faster, and smoother.”
The company benefits of employees who complete their training include a more skilled team that can produce better results and innovations. A well-trained team also reduces corporate risk, particularly in the areas of compliance and safety. Companies that focus on making sure employees participate in training are well-prepared for the future because employees are ready for new technology. This attracts and helps retain employees who value learning as a career goal.
Why Are Employee Training Completion Rates so Dismal?
The current state of employee training course completion is somewhat dismal, with even free MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) experiencing high dropout rates. Some have estimated that less than 10 percent of employees every fully complete their non-mandatory training. Not completing training may be caused by a number of factors, including organizational barriers, employee barriers, and technology challenges. Employer barriers like uninspired training content, poorly delivered materials, and lack of management involvement can seriously hamper any training program.
Employees cite various reasons for neglecting to finish their learning, including lack of time, interest, and learning preferences. University of Louisville (KY) research indicated, “The attributes, skills, and dispositions of individuals prior to entry affect the external forces on participation.”
Technology can also create barriers to those who are unfamiliar or unwilling to try computer-aided training. A negative past experience with an eLearning course, outdated learning management software and internet coverage problems can contribute to a low completion rate.
What Happens When Employees Fail to Complete Training?
When employees do not complete their training, it puts the organization at risk for safety, lawsuits, and other negative matters.
For example, if an employee fails to complete fire safety training and then a fire breaks out and they are harmed, the company is held liable. In companies where training is not enforced, the return on investment is never fully realized. This is a wasted opportunity to increase revenue with a knowledgeable workforce.
In organizations where employee training course completion rates are low, employee skills quickly become outdated and they become less productive. This is never a good position to be in because competing firms with well-trained employees have the advantage.
A poor completion rate also reflects your corporate culture and values. If the company doesn’t care about employees skipping out on training, then how can they expect anything more from employees in terms of their performance on the job?
How to Boost the Employee Training Course Completion Rate
Fortunately, there are strategies that can help increase the employee training course completion rate in your organization. Using technology, focusing on using an internal LMS system for employee training can help employees find a central place to complete training consistently. Internal resources can be added to the LMS to keep learning up-to-date and unique to the organization. Administrators can monitor the progress of students and communicate with them to encourage them to participate in training.
A business can begin using technology to streamline training and encouraging participation at any time. New generations of employees often respond well to on-demand employee training modules delivered via multiple devices. Older generations may prefer a blended learning approach of some online learning and classroom instructor-led training. Custom eLearning combined with on-the-job learning is useful for increasing coaching opportunities between employees and management — a factor that has been shown to make a difference in learning completion.
It is always advisable to make training easily accessible to all employees and management so that they can take their learning with them and learn when it’s most convenient. There are times in each day that are slower than others, and a fully accessible learning platform supports spur-of-the-moment learning from any mobile device. Managers can also demonstrate to employees the importance of finding time each day to learn.
In order to increase the chance that employees will complete their training, it’s important to make training fun, relatable, and transferable to their daily jobs. Give employees access to their own metrics and make it a competition to see how your teams measure up and how the company is doing overall with learning initiatives.
WestNet Learning is an all-in-one LMS solution to easily train employees, increase employee productivity, and address safety needs. With customizable eCourse builders, analytics, reporting, certification, and re-certification tracking will help manage staff and stays on top of what matters most.
If you would like to learn more about how to engage and train your employees with efficiency so that you may increase your training course completion rates, feel free to reach out and schedule a 1-on-1 strategy session.
