There’s no doubt that preparing a training program is a challenge every employer must face. Even though all employees have different personalities and work styles, you need to be able to connect to all of them. Your goal is to empower them so that they become more efficient in their jobs.

It’s definitely easier said than done, of course. That is why veteran managers use their experience to judge how to go about their training program. To help you out, here are some things you should know about employee training.

The most common challenges in employee training

It’s not easy to set up a training program. Since each company is unique, what works for one organization might not work in yours. Thus, you need to create a development program that addresses your own training challenges. However, the problems in creating these development programs are usually similar.

Keeping employees empowered and engaged

Without professionally growing in their current workplace, an employee is more likely to resign and look for a more fulfilling job. According to a study by Gallup, 32 percent of employees said that the lack of career advancement or learning opportunities is the main reason why they would quit a job. This means that if employees don’t like being stuck in a job where they aren’t learning anything new.

As an employer, this means that you have to heavily invest in your training programs. However, your training has been relevant to the needs of your employees as they should be able to apply it in their current work.

Teaching them time management

One of the most difficult things to teach would be time management. However, it’s essential as it’s one of the most important aspects of work. Effective time management among employees can lead to better productivity. If your employees lack this skill, they won’t get tasks done efficiently. You will compromise deadlines and lose clients.

This is why employers usually invest in the best CMS aimed to help employees organize their time and resources. In any case, training is still necessary as employees won’t be able to use these CMS without knowing the system.

Teaching effective communication

Communication is another big challenge that most employers have to face since not everyone is a team player. However, teamwork is needed if you want to align your people with the company’s goals. All your employees have to know how to communicate not only with their direct colleagues but also with other departments. That way, the operations of the business steadily flow.

Updating skills

This is another pain point for most employers because updating skills require a full session with a lot of visuals. The problem with most lecture sessions is that they’re too long and draggy. Plus, most employees have their work to attend to and can’t take a full day off just to attend a class. This is why most sessions are already done online and are mandatory to take.

Creating an effective training program

Thankfully, technology has become so advanced that there are available programs that employers can use for training. With these programs, they can get rid of the usual way of training and go for something a little bit more efficient.

Webinar tools are all the rage these days because these give an easy-to-access and dynamic way of learning. To create webinars, you can use tools like ClickMeeting. It is free to use and has a lot of amazing features that you can take advantage of when you train your employees. But exactly how do you create an effective training program with such tools?

Step one: Conduct a training needs assessment.

Step two: Create learning objectives.

Step three: Design and develop training materials.

Step four: Set up a calendar invite with the link to the webinar made available.

Step five: Create a webinar room and customize the registration so only invited guests may join.

Step six: Make use of the tools for your webinars such as chats, screen sharing, etc.

Step seven: Share a downloadable version of the webinar with your employees so they can backtrack.

With webinar tools like ClickMeeting, teaching things like time management, resource management, communication skills, and even technical skills needed for work will be much easier. 

Essential tips on training employees

Even if you have the best webinar program the internet offers, you yourself have to be a good leader and know how to train your people. Here are a few tips to help you become the ideal trainer:

• Be hands-on: As a leader and mentor, you have to be hands-on with your employees. Even after the training is over, encourage your people to approach you any time for extra supplemental training and education.
• Encourage questions: Encourage questions both during and after the training. Most employees are actually shy to ask questions even in a webinar because they’re afraid they’d look stupid. At the start of the webinar, already tell the participants that all kinds of questions are welcome.
• Emphasize application: This is probably the one thing that a lot of trainers overlook. When you give your webinar, you should always emphasize the application of the knowledge. Don’t just tell your employees what has to be learned. Tell them where they’ll use it both in their work and in their general career life as a whole.
• Give easy access to the webinar replay: Finally, always give them the link to the webinar replay. There are some people who can’t retain information after just one sitting. They have to go through their notes over a few times so that they can fully absorb the lesson. To make things easier, just give them the webinar replay so that they can watch it at their own leisure time.

Conclusion

Providing effective training has always been one of the hardest aspects of a business. Take note that humans are complex, and you’ll be dealing with a whole lot of complex minds. As an employer, you have to know how to approach these complex minds and make sure that they learn what has to be learned. Webinar tools such as ClickMeeting offer a way to do that. These tools allow your employees to stay engaged, effectively learn the lesson, and know how to apply them properly.