Employee training plays a crucial role in the success of any business. It is a win-win for both the employees and the organization at large. Think of employee training as sort of like investing in your staff. It may require time and a small or significant amount of funds. But in the end, employee training expands your staff’s knowledge base and allows them to work better in their roles.
The Types of Employee Training Programs You Can Benefit From
As a manager, strive to foster a work culture that promotes growth and learning for all staff members. Your goal should be to match the right training programs with the employees who need or value them. Doing so will ensure they don’t get bored with the program or feel like it’s a waste of their precious time.
Employee training comes in different forms. This post will uncover some history and background of employee training, then highlight a few types and the benefits.
History and Background
Employee training has been around for a long time. It has simply evolved over the years into a more sophisticated process.
Employee training started as an apprenticeship in the medieval era whereby children would be sent to their masters as apprentices. The masters would educate them on craftsmanship and any skills needed to succeed.
Afterward, employee training evolved to near-the-job training during the industrial revolution. Staff members would get trained on operating machines, among other industrial tasks, on-site.
Employee training then developed into role-playing. This involved employees simulating situations and scenarios that helped them apply a skill or task. Next up, it moved to job-instruction training and computer-based training at the onset of the 21st century.
Employee training has always been a common practice since the days of yore. It grew in popularity around the 1980s and 1990s. Now, many organizations value employee training to develop and grow their staff.
Types of Employee Training
Check out this list of the most common types of employee training programs.
Technical Training
Technical training involves educating employees on the skills needed for their roles. This type relies on an employee’s competency level. If a staff member already knows how to perform a job, they may receive further training to enhance their knowledge. A few examples of skills that call for technical training include data analysis, coding, and content writing.
Sales Training
Sales training involves educating your sales team on how to improve their selling skills and techniques. The employees can learn new pitching approaches, how to use online sales tools and platforms, ways to talk to a customer, and so forth. This type may involve plenty of role-playing and interactive sessions.
Product Training
Product training is designed to acquaint your staff members with information about a product or service. You can give employees this training when they are new to the company or when introducing a new product or service. You can also give product training to your sales team to help them sell better. The information provided in product training includes:
- Instructions for using a product or service
- Features and Benefits
- Pricing and warranty
- Maintenance and care
Anti-Bias and Diversity Training
Anti-bias and diversity training helps promote awareness on issues of equality and diversity. It aims to reduce discrimination and favoritism among employees and ensure every staff member gets fair treatment.
This training also helps prevent workplace harassment and bullying. It ensures no employee receives different treatment because of their race, color, religion, gender, and nationality.
Compliance Training
Compliance training helps acquaint employees with the rules, regulations, and guidelines applicable for their roles and tasks. It helps ensure that staff members perform their jobs as per the regulations set by the government or the organization. Compliance training reduces poor governance and conduct in the workplace.
Soft Skills Training
Soft skills training involves educating employees on skills to help them act professionally and interact well with customers and colleagues. This training focuses on problem-solving, communication and listening, time-management, teamwork, and so on. It also covers ethics in the workplace, conflict resolution, leadership, and presentation skills.
Safety Training
Safety training is designed to ensure employees stay safe and protected from work-related injuries. It may involve role-playing, performing drills, and hands-on training sessions. Staff members get training on fire prevention, building evacuation, workplace violence, and handling machinery and toxic materials. Safety training may also involve first aid, protective gear, and best safety practices.
Managerial and Leadership Training
Managerial and leadership training involves educating managers and supervisors on better ways to lead their teams. It helps promote better management, improve employee satisfaction, and enable better decision-making.
Onboarding Training
Onboarding training involves acquainting new employees on the policies of the organization and the intricacies of the job. It helps prepare new hires for their roles and responsibilities. This training educates new employees on:
- Job Requirements
- Employee engagement
- Goals and targets
- Organization Background
Benefits of Employee Training and Development
Employee training is beneficial to both the staff members and the organization. Let’s explore a few of these benefits.
Increases Employee Morale
Employee training helps boost staff morale and motivate employees to perform better. It shows them that the organization cares and values them. Employee training promotes staff satisfaction and enhances their pride in the organization.
Reduces Errors
Errors and mistakes are unavoidable in the workplace. They can happen even to the most experienced employees. Employee training helps educate staff members on requirements for the job and any challenges that might arise.
Training makes employees more proficient in their jobs. It reduces any chances of them making errors and mistakes at work.
Increases Productivity
Training makes employees more confident in their jobs. They become more productive since they know new approaches and ways to perform a role. Training enables your staff to perform their jobs at higher levels.
Addressing Employee Weaknesses
By training employees, you can improve on weak skills and strengthen the ones they already possess. Employee training helps ensure there are no weak links within your organization.
Improve Employee Retention
Organizations that promote employee growth and advancement have higher retention rates than those that do not. Most employees nowadays want to work in an organization that furthers their career development. They prefer a company that values them and actively educates them.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are a few frequently asked questions you may want to know about employee training.
1. How has employee training changed?
There has been a shift in how organizations and businesses view employee training. In the past, not many companies saw the need to empower and train their employees to perform their roles better. Most of them now understand the importance of employee growth and development. Organizations have also embraced e-learning as an alternative training method in place of in-person training.
2. How do we choose suitable training methods for employees?
When choosing a training method, the first thing to consider is the employee’s learning style. Different people have different ways of learning. Baby boomers would most likely prefer traditional training methods. Millennials are most likely to prefer an interactive training session that utilizes technology tools and platforms.
You may also want to consider the type of training you want to give. For example, technical training mostly calls for hands-on rather than online learning.
3. What are the types of employee group training?
A few examples of employee training include sales training, managerial and leadership training, and technical and product training. Other types are onboarding, safety, and soft skills training.
4. Who decides the training to be given to employees in a company?
In most cases, it’s the HR department that organizes employee training. You might, however, find companies that put the operations department in charge of staff training and development. It’s best to empower both departments to tackle and organize employee training to ensure you choose the right training programs and methods.
If you leave it to HR, they may fail to identify the urgent training needs of the company. The HR department is not involved in the day-to-day activities of the business.
By contrast, if you choose the operations department, they might not pick the ideal training methods. This department may not consider the employee’s learning style when selecting a training method as it’s not their expertise.
5. How does training affect an employee’s performance?
Employee training increases staff satisfaction and productivity. It makes your employees feel valued and empowered to perform better in their roles. Employee training also allows your staff to understand your company and its roles. They will, in turn, do an excellent job since they now have extensive knowledge of how to do it.
6. Why don’t companies switch to e-learning for employee training?
Some companies are resistant to trying e-learning because they consider it more challenging to work with than on-site training. You may require a learning management system for distributing training materials and tracking progress and completion. Some companies simply don’t believe e-learning is an effective way to train employees.
7. What is the most effective way to deliver corporate training?
It depends on the type of training. Some training programs are better offered through e-learning. Others should be on-site. Sales training, for instance, may call for role-playing and demonstrations. This type is better done through a physical session.
8. What motivates employees to learn during training sessions?
If you want to motivate your employees for training, you first need to select training types and programs they think are valuable for their career advancement. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to force your sales team to go through technical training sessions.
Next up, try and offer incentives such as free lunch, paid transportation, or a small stipend. Don’t forget to make the training sessions engaging with breaks and interactive sessions.
9. Why is training so important in the workplace?
Employee training not only boosts your staff morale and job satisfaction. It also makes them more competitive for their roles in the organization. By training your employees, you retain more of them, hence reducing employee turnover. You’ll also improve employee productivity and the overall success of the business.
10. How long should it take to train new employees?
The average time for training new staff members should be three months. That is enough time to prepare them for the new role and induct them into the organization. It, however, depends on the experience level of the employee. New staff members who already have years of experience don’t need much training. Training them can take a month or less.
11. Does employee training produce positive results?
Yes, employee training offers a host of benefits to both staff members and the organization. It improves employee retention and morale. Employee training also allows your staff members to do their jobs better.
12. Is hands-on training better than online training for employees?
No, hands-on training isn’t necessarily better than online. These two methods both have pros and cons. It depends on the training program.
Hands-on training is more interactive and offers a better experience. Online learning, by contrast, provides more flexibility and is less expensive for everyone.
13. What are the benefits of cross-training employees?
Cross-training occurs when you train your employees the skills for a task or role outside what they know. This form of training allows employees to be versatile all-rounders. It helps grow their skill-set, thus elevating their career.
14. What are your metrics for employee training?
Metrics enable you to gauge and measure the effectiveness of an employee training session. Some metrics that come in handy are training cost per employee, drop-off rate, completion rate, and experience satisfaction.
Conclusion
Employee training is critical to the success of any organization. It helps increase staff productivity and retention. Training also identifies and addresses any weaknesses employees have in their roles and boosts staff morale and satisfaction with the job.
A few types of employee training include sales training, managerial and leadership training, and safety and compliance training. There is also onboarding, soft skills, technical and product or service training.
When choosing an employee training program, you need to select the learning style that suits your staff members best. Doing so will ensure they stay motivated throughout the training program.
Resources
In this section of the post, you’ll find a collection of resources that you can use to expand your knowledge related to employee training.
Best Practices and Strategies for Improving Employee Training
Using best practices for employee training is an ongoing process. There are always new techniques and methods available. The scope of this goes beyond this post. What’s even better is a link to the latest Google search results that you can check from time to time to get an update on the latest material published.
When you make it a habit of exploring the latest publications, you’ll always be up-to-date on your training programs. You may want to visit the link once every few months so that you’re always up to date.
Have a look at the latest search results for best practices for training your employees.
Books
Books are another excellent method to ensure your training programs are effective and up-to-date. Many listings of books offer previews where you can explore the table of contents to see if the book meets your expectations.
View the most recent Google search results for books related to employee training.
View the most recent books related to employee training on Amazon.
Courses
Many training courses are available to ensure your staff is trained effectively. However, I suggest for any course that you’re considering, do a little bit of research and check online reviews to see what other people and companies have experience with the training program before investing your time and money.
Google’s search results related to employee training courses.
News
The news is another excellent source of information you can use to expand your knowledge of corporate training. Using Google’s News site allows you to filter the search results related to employee training. You’ll receive results related to the latest stories covered by the media as well as archived ones.
See Google’s news search results related to employee training.
YouTube Videos
YouTube is an excellent site to spend some time on to gather more information about employee training. However, some videos are worth their waiting goal, while others aren’t worth the time spent watching them.
You can usually tell within a few seconds if the video is worth watching or not. Another thing to notice is the time posted for each video. For example, a 30-second video is probably not worth your time, and a seminar could be an hour and a half and something to schedule. On the other hand, a three to five-minute video is one you can watch immediately and get an overview of the author’s message.
See the most recent videos related to employee training.
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