Whether a company is onboarding new employees, introducing a new product, or prioritizing employee safety, the necessity for continuous employee training programs remains constant. Implementing practical training empowers employees to excel consistently and ensures a perpetually safe working environment.
Recognizing that employee training and development are mutually advantageous for the workforce and the employer, companies should view it as a strategic business investment. While there may be associated costs, the eventual payoff regarding enhanced productivity, job performance, and a secure workplace makes it a worthwhile and profitable endeavor for any organization.
Types of Employee Training Programs
Different types of training help a company work better and grow. Let’s talk about three important ones:
Orientation Training
Practical employee orientation training is essential for providing new hires with fundamental organizational information and ensuring their readiness for roles within a company. This program mutually benefits employees and employers by educating new hires, facilitating a successful start in their positions, addressing inquiries, and enabling immediate contributions to the organization. Critical components of an employee orientation training program include;
- Self-paced online learning programs for job-specific technical training
- online courses explaining the nuances of enterprise software, information on safety procedures, hands-on training with machines and equipment, in-person group training sessions, and simulation exercises for soft skills development such as customer service, team-building, and client management.
- Formal courses from external vendors covering business-related topics are integrated to offer a comprehensive orientation experience.
Onboarding Training
Onboarding training is essential to swiftly acquainting new hires with their roles, fostering an understanding of their responsibilities, cultivating familiarity with company culture, and facilitating their rapid transition into productive team members.
Diverging from the brief employee orientation lasting 1-2 days, the onboarding process unfolds as a series of events spanning a week, a month, or even a year in certain instances. It plays a necessary role in seamlessly integrating employees into the fabric of an organization, ensuring a comprehensive and sustained assimilation.
- To establish a foundational understanding of the organization’s products/services, clients/customers, and organizational structure: Providing a comprehensive overview of the organization’s products/services, clients/customers, and organizational structure.
- Utilizing online or instructor-led sessions to deliver information on corporate aspects, sales strategies, business plans, and goals. This is often presented through video onboarding to enhance engagement.
- Discussing between the new hire and managers to clarify expectations, establish priorities, and define deliverables.
- Offering insights into company goals and the organizational chart and delineating employee Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on job descriptions for a comprehensive understanding.
- Providing essential information about compliance requirements to confirm adherence to organizational policies and regulations.
- Develop a customized plan for each employee based on their role, goals, and projects, fostering seamless integration and progression.
Overall, in onboarding, employees should understand their responsibilities and goals within the organization. They should be proficient in acquiring the resources needed for their roles and comprehend how their contributions align with team and company objectives.
Compliance Training
Compliance training is a type of workplace education required by laws, regulations, or company policies. It educates employees about the rules and regulations of their job or industry. A well-designed compliance training program prevents improper behavior, ensuring good organizational governance. It reduces risks, safeguards the organization’s reputation, and fosters a secure workplace environment for employees.
Examples of courses covering government-mandated and industry-specific compliance policies include:
- Anti-harassment compliance programs guide responding to bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment.
- Diversity training highlights the strengths of diversity and teaches how to work effectively with individuals of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and abilities.
- Cybersecurity programs instruct employees on efficiently managing sensitive information and train them on the strategies, tools, and systems required to protect personal data.
- Ethics and compliance training covers risk assessment, methods to encourage whistleblowing, employee accountability structures, and a system for addressing grey areas and conflicts of interest.
Leadership Training
Leadership training is a valuable tool to refresh and recalibrate the mindset of existing leaders within your organization. Simultaneously, providing leadership training to other employees empowers them to comprehend their current roles and equips them with the skills needed to evolve into exceptional leaders in the future.
Leadership development training programs yield numerous benefits, including heightened employee morale and retention, improved decision-making, more robust team formation, and enhanced leadership styles. To kickstart an effective leadership training program, consider the following steps:
Define Leadership Needs
- Identify specific leadership gaps within the organization.
- Evaluate employees to pinpoint potential leaders based on their current and potential contributions.
Create a Succession Plan
- Develop a succession plan to document critical skills and knowledge for leaders to pass on, preparing the next-generation workforce.
Set Organizational Alignment and Goals
- Align the leadership development program with organizational needs to ensure the right leaders are in place to address gaps.
Choose Training Techniques
- Select suitable training methods tailored to the organization’s size and type, such as coaching, mentoring, leader-to-leader development, group-based leadership development, job rotation, or job shadowing.
Measure Results
- Establish measurable criteria for the success of the training program.
- Consider metrics such as the number of participants completing the program, promotions post-training, and peer feedback on developing practical leadership skills.
By following these essential steps, your organization can implement a robust leadership training program that addresses current needs and prepares a dynamic and capable leadership pipeline for the future.
Technical Training
In the ever-evolving landscape of industries, the continuous emergence of new software applications and technologies necessitates employees to stay updated to stay caught up to the competition. Technical training is instrumental in empowering your workforce with essential technical skills, enabling them to navigate and master the technical facets of their roles.
To effectively implement technical training for your employees, consider the following approaches:
Link Training to Career Progression
Demonstrate a clear connection between technical training and career advancement to motivate and engage employees throughout the training program.
Highlight Real-World Impact
Showcase how technical training positively influences an employee’s day-to-day work, emphasizing its practical applications.
Utilize Subject Matter Experts
Leverage subject matter experts to facilitate practical instructor-led training sessions, ensuring quality and relevance.
Customization for Engagement
Allow learners to customize their training experience, fostering increased engagement with the content.
Interactive Training Methods
Shift away from traditional lecture-based sessions and embrace interactive methods like interactive walkthroughs, gamification, and interactive video training for a more engaging learning experience.
On-Demand Availability
Recognize the importance of on-demand access to training content, integrating it within live applications to empower employees to summon information whenever needed.
Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP)
Integrate technical training within the software using Digital Adoption Platforms. This provides employees immediate access to relevant information, resources, documentation, and workflows, enhancing efficiency in working with new software.
By incorporating these strategies, your organization can ensure that technical training is not just necessary but an engaging and accessible resource that aligns with the dynamic demands of the modern workforce.
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