7 Key Features Your Employee Training Program Should Have

Hiring the right employees for your business is a huge factor in your company’s overall success. After all, without the hands working behind the scenes to produce the product, provide the service or sell the inventory, there is no profit made. Therefore, hiring the right employees, then training them properly is of vital importance. One way to ensure this task is completed up to your high standards of a business owner, you can bring in a personnel service company, like Consolidated Personnel Services, to provide this service for you. Read on to learn what to look for in any employee training program or what any program you create should involve:

1.) Set Measurable Goals

Before beginning any employee training program, the end goal of the program should be laid out in terms of a measurable result. What do you hope to accomplish with this program? What problem needs to be solved with this training? Properly and clearly identify the initiatives of the training program before beginning the training program is vital to its success.

2.) They Should Include Assessments

Any worthwhile employee training program will include some form of assessment. It makes sense as your employees can only improve if they retain the training they are learning. Therefore, pre-training assessment combined with post-training assessment enables you to create a program that will address any holes in your employees’ training. Post-training assessment will also ensure your employees retained what they were taught. Keep these tips in mind when creating an assessment test:

• Perform skill or task-based assessment that reveals actual performance, not just knowledge.
• Determine how your training objectives address how your employees’ perception of their skill development and professional goals.
• Ask only open-ended questions, no yes or no answers.

It's also a good idea to forego the standard “test” format and create fun, almost game-like assessments that will be less stressful for employees to complete.

3.) Provide Training in Various Mediums

Not everyone learns the same way. Therefore, an effective employee training program will provide more than textbook style training or educational tools. It can include videos, interactive content, images, or other types of mediums (more on this below). Ideally, you will provide a wide range of options, so all employees are properly and effectively trained, no matter their personal learning style. Consider the following types of training for your program:

• Video: This is an engaging tool that combines both audio and visual content.
• Interactive content: This encourages your employees to participate in their training by allowing them to complete various tasks like taking a poll or quiz, playing a game, or engaging on a message board.
• Audio: This is obviously an audio format of training information, often through a podcast. Employees can even train while completing other tasks by listening via earbuds.
• Images: Diagrams, infographics, and photos all work to keep employees’ attention by visually showing them step-by-step instructions on various tasks.

4.) It’s Accessible

No training program will be effective if it’s not easy for your employees to participate in or complete. Ideally, instead of a one time, come one come all, approach, your employee training program will be accessible in a central location at your business, allowing employees to access training on their own schedule, when they have time, not during perhaps the busiest part of their day.

5.) Provide Some Form of Professional Development

Another aspect of a successful employee training program is an aspect of professional development. Many, if not most of, your employees likely want to advance their career. They want to learn new skills, to allow them to move up the ladder, take on more responsibility, which will perhaps move them towards a pay raise or a higher title. Employees will be much more willing to learn new tasks, methods, or skills if they know it could lead to some sort of career advancement.

6.) Have Leadership Support

No employee educational program will work if they don’t feel the higher-ups are buying into the program. The leadership in your company needs to provide accountability and outline expectations as well as be willing to participate in some manner. Even the leadership in your business should understand how an employee program will eventually impact the bottom line of the company and improve each and every employee’s career. Therefore, everyone needs to buy into any educational program you have. If new employees don’t feel existing employees care about the training program, they won’t either. The engagement and excitement about any employee training or advancement program need to come from the top down.

7.) Ensure Relevancy

All training material and methods should be relevant and up-to-date. No employee wants to waste their time with training that is no longer applicable. Therefore, to ensure the proper level of employee focus and engagement, make sure all resources provided, such as informational packets or videos, contain only current, relevant information.

Your Next Step

If coming up with an employee training or educational program that includes all the above elements seems overwhelming at best and impossible at worst, there is some good news. You can hire employee personnel services to orchestrate this program for you, allowing your employees to ascertain the best training available while being engaged and encouraged in the process. This will in turn lead to the development of employees who are passionate about and willing to work hard for your company. Contact us at Consolidated Personnel Services to learn more about this and our other services. Let us use our expertise to create a personalized employee training program ideally suited for your specific company.