Many workplaces are in the midst of a migration to modern learning methods. Technology has allowed employers to make learning more readily available. Additionally, it has empowered employees to take their training and development into their own hands.
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A study has shown that two out of three employees have left a job due to a lack of training and development opportunities. Meanwhile, the CIPD’s Working Lives survey underscores the critical role of skills development and access to training in employee well-being.
Clearly, giving employees easy access to knowledge and training, at the right time, is critical to not only attracting the best talent, but also improving employee performance. With this in mind, what can you do to embrace modern employee training in your workplace? These are our top tips…
1. Analyse and prioritise
First things first: you need to conduct an analysis of your current staff training needs. In addition to taking into account the company’s objectives and the skills required to drive it forward, you should also canvas employees to find out their goals and preferred areas of development. Discussing training needs with line managers and getting a clear idea of where skills gaps lie is an essential step. Once you know your training requirements, you can then think about prioritising the most important initiatives.
2. Determine your budget
Before you can start thinking about the best ways to use technology to train your team, you need to determine how much of the company’s budget you can afford to spend. You should take into account how much the training will cost to implement, how many working hours you’ll lose due to staff training, and the potential gain your business will experience from having a more able workforce. Furthermore, you should weigh up the expense of employee training against the likely cost of hiring and inducting a new employee with the skills you need.
3. Implement adaptive learning methods
Busy employees want to consume information at their own pace and at a time that suits them. Delivering content in manageable, digestible chunks that employees can access as and when they need is the key to modern training and development. Further, allowing employees to personalise their training to fill the gaps in their knowledge and access the learning through various paths and content allows them to learn in their preferred way.
4. Leverage video and mobile learning
The marked increase in flexible working practices means today’s employees want to be able to access learning wherever they are. Video learning is fast becoming the preferred training and development method. Employees can access content as and when they need it, making it perfectly suited to micro, just-in-time learning. Make sure training videos are accessible on – and optimised for – mobile devices, including legacy content. This gives employees the chance to engage in training and development whenever they like.
Some organisations lack the technology to make that happen. Hence, short-term rental of devices like tablets, mobiles and laptops ensures everyone has access to the resources they need, whether they’re at work, at home or on the move.
5. Could social learning work for you?
Most millennials use social media to network with their friends. However, an increasing number of next-generation learning platforms harness the power of social to create a collaborative learning experience. Therefore, employees can use social learning to access information, seek expert advice and receive mentorship online. They can also their experiences and insights in real-time.
6. Boost interactivity, and evaluate training success
While online video training has a place for remote workers, and social media and network sites can provide good content, technology can also help enhance on-site and face-to-face training. Tablets or laptops provided to trainees with agendas, course content, videos, and interactive quizzes allow trainers to get across key messages more efficiently, and gain feedback swiftly.
A key part of managing any modern employee training initiative is to evaluate its success. Hence, linking your training technology to online questionnaires or exams can swiftly show if the training is working as planned, and if trainees are enjoying the course. If the staff are finding any issues with the delivery of the training or the content itself, you can make the necessary changes over time.
7. Deliver staff training on your employees’ terms
At Hire Intelligence, you can rent all the technology you need to deliver innovative training and development programmes on your employees’ terms, from the tablets, laptops and interactive voting systems to support interactivity, to screens and projectors for main presentations. Please get in touch to discuss your requirements with our team, or request a quick quote today.
