How to Create an Engaging Employee Training Program

Introduction

Providing your employees with learning and development opportunities is one of the best ways to improve your business performance. But to reap the most benefits from your workplace training, you need to make sure it’s engaging.

We looked at the latest State of Workplace Training survey by Ipsos, which revealed some interesting findings:

• 90% of employees like to access training materials anytime, anywhere
• 89% say that workplace training should be relevant and personalized
• 88% agree that employee training should be fun and engaging
• 87% want to be able to apply training to real life
• 83% value flexible training programs
• 75% prefer short training sessions
• 66% find gamification important for training effectiveness

Making employee training fun, exciting, and engaging is just one piece of the puzzle. With all the factors above in mind, we’ve created a list of the essential tips for creating an engaging employee training program. Let’s get to it.

1. Conducting a Training Needs Analysis

A Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is the process of identifying your employees’ training needs. It’s the most important step to developing a program that they’ll be interested in. Without it, your training may end up being boring for some or most employees, which wouldn’t bode well for training effectiveness.

A TNA will help you identify a skills gap and nudge you in the right direction. It will help you create the right learning objectives and goals, thus enabling you to create the right content.

2. Utilize Employee Training Software

With employee training software, you can streamline how you create and deliver a training course. Just make sure it has an integrated LMS.

Some online training software solutions come with pre-built course templates and ready-to-use courses that you can customize to suit your team’s training needs and learning objectives.

You can upload existing training materials, create learning paths for personalization, and add multimedia to make the modules more engaging. You can even track your trainees’ engagement levels, not to mention their real-time progress and performance, and share instant feedback.

3. Create Video-Based Learning Modules

Videos are generally more effective for knowledge retention than text-based content. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include any text in your training modules. After all, not everyone is a visual learner.

Accommodate everyone’s learning style by creating video-based learning modules that include text-based content. Make sure the videos are short and sweet because people have a short attention span. The last thing you want is to disengage your trainees and make them skip the most relevant parts of the training.

4. Focus on Microlearning

Microlearning is key to combating short attention spans. By delivering bite-sized content, you’ll keep your employees engaged throughout the entire training program.

Whether it’s a five-minute video or any other type of short-form content, you won’t lose their attention. They’ll be able to learn on the go or during a lunch break and retain all the information quickly.

5. Relate the Course Material to Real-World Examples

Real-world examples are excellent for better knowledge retention. They’ll help your employees understand how to apply the new knowledge and skills on the job. Include them in every concept you explain.

6. Include Lesson Recaps

Recaps after every lesson are vital for knowledge retention as well. Highlighting the main takeaways will help your employees absorb the knowledge and understand why the covered points are important for the job, their overall performance, and career advancement.

7. Implement Gamification

Game-based learning is one of the most effective learning methods. Implementing gamification into your workplace training will help your employees’ natural competitive streak. That way, the training will seem like a fun game, where leveling up is an opportunity to showcase their knowledge and skills.

Make sure your chosen online training software offers gamification features so that you can incorporate gaming mechanics like points, badges, levels, and leaderboards. You’ll inspire healthy competition, improve motivation, boost engagement, and increase training effectiveness.

8. Use Quizzes for Assessment

Quizzes are fantastic assessment tools for making your employee training interactive. They’re fun, engaging, and give your employees a playful way to retain everything they’ve learned.

What’s more, they can give you an insight into their strengths and weaknesses. You can use the data you obtain to identify the areas for improvement and further personalize the training.

Nearly every employee training software comes with features for creating quizzes, which you can do from scratch or use ready-to-go, customizable templates.

Make the Most of Your Employee Training Programs

Employee engagement is crucial for training effectiveness. Following the tips above will help you achieve your training goals and objectives, empower your employees, and build a strong team that knows how to lead your company to long-term success.

To make all your training efforts effective, harness the power of your online training software’s reports and analytics, and use the data to optimize your future training programs.