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Common Steps to designing an effective Training Program.

 

You might be tempted to postpone employee training in your company due to lack of enough time and resources, but for the success of any business, your staff skill set must be up to date and complete.

When you decide to take on staff training, you'll want to ensure that you spend your time and money wisely. It is, therefore, essential to create an effective training program to boost the plans for your employee development.

In this guide, we will outline various steps to help you create an effective employee training program. Read on for more.

What is employee training program?

Training programs are a set of special development plans aimed at improving employees' skills in a company. Although they come in various forms, they usually include educational instructions and guided activities that can enhance the performance and productivity of staff members.

Generally, HR professionals and managers create employee training aligned to the company and development goals. Find out the benefits of employee training in the following section.

Benefits of employee training.

There are several benefits an organization can get when they create effective training programs. Here are the common ones;

1.   Enhanced employee engagement.

Training and development programs can help improve employee engagement in many ways. When you allow your team members to hone their skills, they'll produce more efficient, and quality works.

This type of opportunity makes employees engaged and happy about what they do. What's more, a development program that addresses their needs directly restores their morale, leading to employee satisfaction rates.

2.    Team building.

Training in teams helps staff members connect with each other, therefore leading to team building while addressing organizational and personal development needs. This kind of interaction and engagement helps team members become like-minded and bond when they are tasked to handle any organizational needs in future.

3.   Improved employee potential.

As a company, when you invest your time and resources into training your employees, you’ll build their potential. This does not help the company only; it also motivates employees to strive for success by overcoming challenges at work.

Additionally, this depicts that your organization cares about improving the staff’s overall career path, giving it a positive community view.

Models of employee training programs.

There are different methods an organization can apply to create an effective training program. Here are some types of employee training programs that are commonly used by managers and HR professionals.

a.   Virtual Learning.

This is a model of training that has increasingly become popular in recent years with the increase in digital advancement. This form of training program comprises different interactive and engaging media activities, such as videos, games, guided reading, and other organization-focused components.

Virtual learning is very simple to implement and relatively cost-effective, especially for companies with remote employees. However, one notable limitation of this learning program is the lack of instructional guidance for employees.

b.   Instructor-led training.

This is one of the traditional and timeworn types of employee training used by most HRs and managers. Usually, the training is directed by certified development experts who may mix instructional tools and information material to deliver their lessons.

c.     Hands-on training.

Hands-on training is generally a personalized approach to staff development. It is a form of training that incorporates experiential development opportunities through on-job practice.

Through hands-on learning, employees can quickly get into their tasks and start to understand where they are best fitted in an embracing organizational structure. Although this form of employee training can be effective, it demands a lot of resources and time from the organization’s side.

d.    Coaching.

Coaching is an employee training approach that aims at addressing individual needs in a small but influential group. It involves highly trained personnel offering new employee goals, guidance and advice to enable them to build their skills.

This form of training has become a common method for enhancing staff performance by offering one-on-one and personalized training strategies by the participants.

e.    Succession training.

This type of training is designed to help hone the skills and talents of future leaders in the organization over a long period of time. Succession training identifies top performers in an organization and prepares them to succeed in the current leadership.

This form of training is very difficult to implement since it can reduce employees' morale who are not picked to participate.

Apart from this, succession training helps you prepare future leaders without incurring exorbitant costs to lead teams effectively.

Strategies to create an effective training program in an organization.

Because companies and their staff are different, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating an effective training program. However, there are several other approaches you can implement to design good employee training and development programs.

Here are some common steps you can use to train your employees.

 

• Appoint a training and development program manager.

 

For the seamless running of your training, you may want to designate an employee that docket. This manager can be you, the current training officer, or an external party who can bring a new perspective to the business.

Regardless of the person who is picked for the task, they should be able to manage staff training and development. They should design, plan, and implement any training initiatives and even track the process.

 

• Assess employee training needs.

 

After you've appointed a training manager, they should do an assessment of different employee training needs and identify various knowledge gaps. Performing employee assessment helps reveal crucial feedbacks that you can use to devise a learning method that boosts training goals.

With this kind of research surpassing the efforts, the development and training manager can design an initiative to address any vulnerabilities and challenges that your team may be facing.

 

• Create a program that addresses your organizational needs.

 

Once you finish assessing employee training needs, the training program officer should strive to align these learning needs with company goals. The manager can achieve this by evaluating the company's performance over a given period of time and checking for any inconsistency in production.

Having a data-backed insight behind an undertaking can boost the general positive impact it will have on an organization. Therefore, the training and development manager needs to evaluate the training program will interfere with the company’s mission, goals and objectives.

A good training program must have a clear purpose and expected results to be effective in the long run.

 

• Describe goals and benchmarks.

 

This strategy is aligned with the expectation of your training program. You need to have a clear plan for each step of your training. Choose relevant training materials and create an evaluation framework.

Inform the administrators and supervisors about the program's intent and ensure the program is aligned to set objectives. If the organization does not have an in-house training facility, you can resort to renting a seminar hall or any other room suitable for learning.

 

• Be creative with course content.

 

When training managers are putting together the curriculum, they should remember to be modern and creative with their approach.

Because, on average, people spend a lot of time on the internet reading, watching and listening to several amounts of content, keeping employees engaged during the training period can be a challenge.

To get the utmost engagement with your employee during training, you need to use relatable, entertaining, and original content in your training.

• Be transparent with the training objective and rewards.

While creating an effective training program, you need to see it from the staff’s perspective because they would want to know the reason for attending the training. Therefore, letting them know the reasons and the incentive they need to expect will increase their engagement in a big way.

Furthermore, transparently describing the training aims and whatever incentive is there improve employee buy-ins, which plays a vital role in the success of the training program.

• Allow leaders to engage.

It is always vital to include top organization leaders in the training program. Though the program might not be directly related to them, their presence can stress the importance of training. The presence of leaders helps with reinforcing expectations and accountability.

When top leadership is present, employees feel they are honored, which in turn boosts their morale and general job satisfaction.

Conclusion

Almost everybody understands the benefits and values of workforce training. When implemented correctly, employee training makes workers more skillful, which improves productivity, increases revenues, and reduces waste, costs and inefficiencies.

As a manager, it is therefore important to understand the basic steps you can follow to create an effective training program for your employees.

Follow these steps to design a great employee training program; appoint a training manager, assess employee training needs, create a program that addresses company needs, describes goals and benchmarks, be creative with the curriculum, be transparent on your goals and incentives, and include top leaders in the program.