Are you getting ready to bring a new employee on board, or promote someone to a higher area of responsibility? Perhaps you have an established training schedule in place, or maybe you’ll be experimenting with some new educational modules.
Before you start these sessions, though, you might want to back up for a second and take a look at how you’ll be implementing this training. What mediums will be used? Will your employee get the opportunity for hands-on experience? And what resources will he or she get access to?
Below are several of the primary factors you should consider before the employee training begins.
Go unplugged
Are you planning to sit a new employee in front of a computer and have that person complete hours of simulated scenarios? While this might seem like a cost-effective way to avoid having to use live trainers, it can be detrimental to your employee’s growth and productivity, and to your bottom line.
How much of your employees’ training is accomplished with software? If your answer is “all of it,” that’s not a good sign.
You might want to reassess your company’s employee development strategy. Get your people outside and away from technology for a bit.
A wide range of factors can have a negative impact on an adult’s learning experience when it all occurs on software. Some of the variables that can impede people’s growth and progress include:
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Comfort level with computers (especially if the job doesn’t require the use of computers)
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Lack of dynamic feedback; software can’t answer all the trainee’s questions
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Different learning styles: a digital curriculum emphasizes visual information, which can be hard to digest if you’re the type who learns better by doing or hearing
If you find that your training schedule heavily favors computer use, think about balancing out that ratio with other learning methodologies.
Job shadowing
You can help put trainees in other people’s shoes by having them shadow seasoned employees as the latter do their job. This can help the new person see how tasks are actually performed, so they will break through their anxiety.
They’ll learn about necessary skill sets through observation. Be sure to leave time at the end of these sessions for questions.
These experiences can help empower your talent. Soon, they might even feel comfortable taking on direct responsibilities.
Human resources and training development professionals frequently struggle with adult education strategies. You want to provide your employees with training opportunities that they’ll be able to retain.
Avoid using software for all your training, because this can alienate some trainees from learning important skills. Use multiple teaching formats to help trainees stay engaged with their development.