Studies show that companies spent an average of $1,075 per learner in 2017 in employee training. This is up from $814 per learner in 2016, showing an increase in businesses investing in initial and ongoing training. Depending on the size of your workforce, this can be a substantial overall figure. It's essential that you make every effort to get the most out of each dollar allocated to your employee training budget.
Your staff has uncommon challenges and individual aspects to consider when planning employee education. Your company has unique needs, a distinctive culture, and perhaps even a rare industry or niche. There really is no one-size-fits-all approach that will allow you to meet your organization's business or training goals.
Creating a custom training program is the best way to ensure that your team receives the most relevant information targeted to their needs. Delivering engaging, understandable content is vital to effective training.
Understand Needs
Start by thinking of who you're training, what they need to learn, and why. Next, identify essential training requirements for specific employees like new hires, teams embarking on a project, or a department that will soon start using a different tool or process. Get clarity on the information staff members need by involving department managers and other leaders in training.
To track progress, develop learning objectives based on the data you collect. Begin with a general overview of the content you want to provide and fine tune your plan to specify a detailed course or series that will enable employees to retain their training. From there, you can create development plans for departments and individual roles centered around this plan.
Prepare Employees for Training
Before going forward with implementation, make sure that you promote the training program to management at all levels. According to recent data, when a team's manager is wholeheartedly engaged and excited, employee engagement increases by 23% on average. Encouraging supervisors to become involved and lead by example can result in significant gains.
The most effective way to stimulate managerial staff is by presenting them with the data that shows the benefits of ongoing training. Offer statistics on things like typical rates of advancement, salary increases, and job security. Discuss the outline and agenda planned for the training program and be sure to list clear expectations.
Work with managers to provide this information to their teams in smaller groups. This will enable them to give their team more thorough details, address any concerns, and answer individual questions.
Prepare for Implementation
When all your planning and groundwork is done, you can begin to make arrangements for putting your custom training program into practice. Determine the best space for custom training. If possible, allocate a space just for job-related education. When employees meet in a designated training room, they will better understand the importance of the program.
Next, choose the best platform for your team's needs and their learning styles. Kinesthetic learners absorb knowledge through practice and direct experience. Auditory learners best acquire information when it is presented verbally. Research shows that 65% of the population is made up of visual learners, who digest information most easily when it is presented in the form of images, such as diagrams or videos.
A platform that delivers content in multiple methods ensures that your workforce will understand and retain the information they need to perform their respective jobs at the highest level.
Deliver Training
It's finally time to present your training program to employees. Be sure to present clearly and confidently, even as you're familiarizing your team with your new Learning Management System.
Breaks are essential, so be sure to time them wisely and manage them effectively. Facilitate discussions throughout the training sessions. Plan time to open the floor to questions or, if employees are participating in self-directed learning, let them know they can approach you with questions.