There is a common misunderstanding shared between big and small companies that employee training is too costly. In fact, developing human capital is one of the best business investments a firm can make.
Every organization’s success is defined by its staff. Upgrading their skills and knowledge brings your company to a higher level too.
According to experts, corporate training makes workers more competent and up to date with latest industry standards. Moreover, it makes the company’s policies and procedures clearer, thus minimizing incidents and mishaps. It also eliminates weak links within the company – allowing people to take over from one another and require less supervision. And, when done right, training programs also increase employee motivation and job satisfaction – something money cannot buy.
To make corporate learning low-cost and more accessible, you can always create a well-polished online course. It could be modified, supplemented and used indefinitely – whenever and wherever needed.
If you are planning a training program, or looking to improve your current one, you will benefit from the steps described below.
1 – Define training needs
As already mentioned, corporate training is an investment. It will only be effective if you first define desired outcomes. Identify your company’s strengths and deficiencies and analyze what kind of training your business will gain.
Once you have a specific goal in mind, you can decide on a topic and program type. You can use a survey, a focus group or use employee records and performance data.
To warrant a higher course success, make its topic as specific as possible. Solve a particular problem, for example, teach or update a needed skill.
2 – Get to know your audience
A company training program is of little use if it is too complex or unrelated to the employees’ actual duties. Construct the training program around your audience.
To do that, answer the following questions:
- What is the trainees’ current knowledge of the topic?
- What are their education and background?
- What are their expectations and attitudes?
Plan the course structure, schedule and methods around your target group.
Define clear and realistic learning objectives, progression and assessment. Make sure the training is challenging enough to keep the learners interested but not so hard to demotivate them.
3 – Customize content
Make sure the course is presented in a creative and engaging way. Your employees may be obliged to participate, but really taking in and applying new skills is ultimately up to them.
- Engage trainees in an open and welcoming online environment.
- Hire a professional writing service if you feel you can’t write an expert content by yourself.
- Provide practical knowledge that they can immediately apply to their jobs.
- Present the information in small, convenient chunks with clear summaries.
- Include various formats and activities for every learning style.
- Use lots of relevant and memorable images, charts, video and audio materials.
- Encourage discussions.
4 – Make Use of good Design Practices
Make sure the training materials are polished and visually appealing. It may sound as an unnecessary hassle, but good design actually makes people more engaged and inclined to give a higher evaluation of the experience.
That is especially important in an online course where the user interface is essentially your classroom.
5 – Take full advantage of Feedback
Corporate training is an ongoing process. It doesn’t end with finishing the training session.
To reinforce the usefulness of the program, you need to analyze its performance and keep refining it.
Some good questions to answer are:
- What worked best?
- Which topics evoked most questions and discussions?
- What problems and technical difficulties did the learners face?
- What was the trainees’ feedback?
- How did the course affect employee performance?
- Were the business objectives reached?
With the ever-changing economy and technologies, developing human capital is essential for every firm that wants to be competitive. It is important to create a corporate culture that values and encourages personal growth. And to achieve all that, training programs are a must.
An effective online course can keep staff informed and up-to-date. A really effective one will encourage workers to keep developing their knowledge and skills independently. And that is one of the most significant but underestimated effects of corporate training.
Plan and build your business strategy with improvement opportunities for your workers and reap the rewards for years ahead.
Written by: Nicole Hall
Nicole Hall is a freelance writer and content marketer for Write My Essay. She is a learning addict and online learning enthusiast, has successfully launched 3 corporate learning courses and numerous product trainings. Connect with her at LinkedIn!