Workplace Training Programs: 5 Steps to Stronger Employees
Despite the unrest we’re experiencing at the hands of COVID, Australia’s unemployment numbers are down. This scenario offers a timely opportunity to dial up the talent engagement and retention efforts in your business.
And if you’re looking for a long-standing workforce engagement outcome, it might be time to consider workplace training programs.
The best workplace training programs are custom fit by job families, seniority and to fill recognised skills gaps across your workforce.
Today, we’ve provided a 5-step action plan for building a robust workplace training program in your business.
STEP 1: Needs Assessment
- If you’re in a regulated industry, workplace training is imperative to maintain compliance and credibility (frequency will be industry defined)
- In all other industries, recognising teams or individuals where performance gaps exist, is the best starting place
- Determine training needs for both soft and hard skills within your business: soft skills training is a great opportunity to bring together people from different divisions
- Other avenues of needs assessment can be based on career development opportunities
- Once you’ve identified the needs, document the objectives of your workplace training program
STEP 2: Workplace Training Design
- Design your workplace training based on the identified objectives from Step 1
- Ideally the design phase will factor in the following:
- Whether you engage an external party to execute, or develop the training using internal resources
- Learning format (online, in-person – with online being the obvious choice in the era of COVID)
- Training style: for example, quizzes, buddy-system learning,
- Frequency of engagement, commitment hours
- Assessment plan
- Multiple formats may be required to deliver similar content, dependent on the audience (for example, stage of career, seniority, department)
- The design phase must also factor in the style of training, such as including humour, active delegate participation and delivery mechanism
STEP 3: Content Development
- Probably the most important, and most time-consuming component of workplace training development
- Information sequencing is crucial for a logical flow of learning
- Content format considerations:
- How-to guides
- Step-by-step slides
- Audio
- Video instructions
- Discussion questions
- Role playing
- Quizzes
- Downloadable content formats
- Involve your HR and marketing teams into the content development, so the final result is engaging and consumable
STEP 4: Promotion and Implementation
- If workplace training is mandatory in your industry, you’ll need to monitor & register all required attendees for compliance purposes
- For non-regulated industries, the program’s success is attendance based, so promotion is key
- Ensure leadership of your business is behind the training, and are actively involved in encouraging their teams to attend
- Use multiple communications channels to reach all corners of the workforce, segmented according to training topics. Channels may include email, IM, social, intranet, text and office signage
- Repetition of message will boost attendance rate and awareness across your workforce
STEP 5: Evaluate Success
- Provide the opportunity for attendees to submit feedback
- Review components of the training that performed well for future program development
- Assess where the program under-performed (such as low enrolments), and develop better optimisation techniques
- Establish a data capture and tracking capability (with your HRM) so you can assess and report on the direct business impact
- A valuable model for evaluation is provided below
Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/
When developing workplace training programs, be sure to tailor it to the needs of the business, at three key levels:
- Organisational
- Occupational
- Individual
Achieving awareness and buy-in across your talent population will be crucial for attendance. And a well-designed program, suited to the audience and subject matter, will be crucial for engagement and learning.
If you’d like to discuss your latest workforce training program, don’t hesitate to reach me here. I look forward to hearing from you.
