There’s no doubt that effective training programs are the key growth driver of any organization. In a recent study, 94% of employees stick with an organization that has training programs and the company retains 30% to 50% more employees. But where do you start? How to develop a training program for employees in your organization?
Well, every organization is different and the key to improving your team through a training program depends on the specific areas the employees need to work on. You need to gather data, identify the gap, choose methods, and then develop an efficient program.
Of course, that’s not all. In today’s guide, we will learn the specific steps that you can consider to start your training program that we’ve seen worked out over and over again. So, let’s check it out.
1. Why Do Organizations Need A Training Program For The Employee?
So, let’s say, every company or every organization needs a training program. It’s the fact that as an organization or company, you can’t expect 100% and give them 1%.
You need to give them remarkable training. And if you do, you are literally going to see excellence in every corner.
Employee training programs help to improve the skills and knowledge of the employees. These improvements positively affect the workability and productivity of the employees which overall increases the efficiency of the organization.
Not only that, an efficient employee training program satisfies the recommendation of the performance appraisals. It prepares your employees for higher responsibilities and makes them feel they are valued.
When you train your employees, they will learn to make good use of the materials, tools, and equipment of the company. So, ultimately you will see the results of reduced wastage and reduced supervision.
2. How To Develop A Training Program For Employees?
Let’s be honest, beyond improving the productivity and skills of the employees, training programs boost their morale, enhance organizational performance, and reduce employee turnover.
Another study says that companies who invest in training programs have 24% higher profit margins than those who don’t.
It is enough to describe the importance of an effective training program for your organization. So, how can you develop one that is effective as well as engaging? Let’s discuss it.
2.1 Gather Data for Creating Employee Training
The first thing that you need to do is to gather data and ask your employees what they need. What it means that you may require to do is a thorough survey. You can do it at an open meeting at your company or organization.
You can get the best data from the people boots on the ground. They are not going to hide it, especially if it is anonymous.
Whatever it is, they can be the first source for you to find out what your company or organization needs.
Moreover, for the people in the organization who are delivering projects and products, you can also ask for opinions.
It is the second best place from where you can gather information about what kind of training your employees need.
2.2 Identify Common Problems to Address
Next, of course, is to assess the most common difficulties and figure out the problems that you are trying to fix through training your employees.
Assess whether your organization is having difficulties with profit, retention, qualities, or customer service.
Get data on the real problems of your organization and write that down. Now you are going to aggregate the feedback that you get from the workers, foremen, and then from the supervisors, the actual observations in the field.
Through this, you are most likely to know where your gaps are from the internal training perspective.
2.3 Find a Preferred Method for the Employee
Once you know what the problems are, you get to know what type of training you need to provide.
The next thing, in order to provide remarkable training, you need to choose your preferred method for the employee.
Find a remarkable delivery method that fits your style and your organization’s purpose. There are also other factors that influence your choice of the employee training method.
For instance, if you have a small company, in-person training is more cost-effective.
But the larger companies or distributed companies may get much benefit from online self-paced training. It will require less coordination.
Below are some most common training methods for employees.
- eLearning training which enables the employees to learn from home and according to their learning style and needs.
- Instructor-led training where the employees have face-to-face learning in the presence of an instructor.
- On-the-job training which allows the employee to learn in the flow of work.
- Simulation training is where the employees get a chance to practice tasks that are similar to the actual task.
- Video training delivers the learning experience at a lower cost than traditional training.
- Coaching is where a professional supervisor, mentors, veteran employees mentors new employees.
Now, choose your method and you are halfway there.
2.4 Find Professional Mentors or Influencers
The next one is crucial, it is to find a professional mentor or influencers to train your employee.
To develop your training program, pay attention to the social structure, which means finding out who has the most influence, and who carries the most weight by way of their opinion with the organization.
Find the most suited influencer for your organization and bring them into the development of the training program so that you can weigh in buy-in scale and support.
2.5 Develop an Outline and Create Content
And now we are on the next step. Once you get your influencer, start developing your program based on the data, the audience, the method, and the influencer, and the employee.
Develop the outline of your program together on the major topics. Even if the influencers only weigh in the outline, they will be a great support in the program because that is a huge step forward.
Now it all comes to the outline of the program. You have to create the outline of the program that contains all training plans, hits all the important points, and is contextually organized. Once done go to the next step, start building the content.
Although it is easy to process, it is, of course, time-consuming. According to your data and program plan, create the content segment by segment.
Get a nice process with the right people developing your content and find a system that is as frictionless as possible. Try to find efficiencies and try to get the best knowledge to build the training platform.
2.6 Test Your Employee Training Program
Now you are going to deploy your first training program. Evaluation and feedback are also an important part of developing an employee training program.
It is best to try to obtain this type of feedback from the employee so that the information is fresh in everyone’s mind.
You can consider online surveys or questionnaires for efficiency as soon as the program is developed. If you take the feedback anonymously, it will be best as it may take the pressure off from the employees.
2.7 Measure Success and Re-evaluate
As the employee training program is now developed, it is time to measure the success of the program. Indeed, you may have to analyze the results in the next month or soon.
Analyze whether the program has met the objective, or whether there are any tangible changes.
You have to determine if there is a decrease in costs, changes in productivity or corresponds with a rise in revenue.
If reevaluation is needed, go for it. Check what is working or what is not working and measure metrics differently.
3. Challenges That You May Face While Developing A Training Program For The Employees
Below are some common challenges you may face while developing a training program for employees. Let’s get to know them all.
3.1 Lack of Time and Resources
The first challenge that an organization faces in developing a training program is that they sometimes have a shortage of time and resources to do so.
Due to this, there is a chance of developing outdated or irrelevant training programs that may not meet the requirements of the organization. That’s why you have to make a strategy and budget wisely to overcome this challenge.
3.2 Buy-in of the Employee
When you introduce a new training program, it is a must to gain the buy-in of the employees. It is necessary so as to make the employees on board and totally aware of what you are expecting from them.
The training program may be diluted without the buy-in of the employees of your organization.
3.3 Accurate Success Measurement
You may need to provide accurate success measurements to see how the training program is impacting your organization. Yet it can be challenging to figure out metrics to use, follow up, and adjust future plans.
However, in this case, specialized training and courses may help you a lot by providing the proper experience for the evaluation.
3.4 Remote and Hybrid Workforce
You know remote and hybrid workforces are the biggest challenge in the training program for the employee. If your workforce is geographically dispersed, it will be hard for you to manage the program. That’s because you will experience a lack of face-to-face communication or time differences etc.
3.5 Business Strategy Alignment
You may find it challenging to align the training program with your business strategy. This challenge will lead to a waste of time as well as money, resources, and performance. All you need to do is align your training program with the business strategy to overcome this challenge.
4. FAQs
Now that you get to know the steps of developing the employee training program, let’s check out the answers to the queries that are mostly asked about it. It will be a help to know more.
4.1 What makes a successful training program?
To make a successful training program a tried and true tool used is the SMART mnemonic which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Once you find out the training needs of your employees, use this SMART method to develop the objects and make a successful training program.
4.2 What are the major steps of a training program?
A training program for the employee consists of five major steps. They are assessment, motivation, design, delivery, and evaluation. These five stages guide you to the strategies with the potential to enhance the training program. Moreover, it also offers methods to achieve those strategies.
4.3 What are the four elements of a training program?
Training, trainer, trainees, and you or the manager are the four elements of a training program. Before getting your employee to your training program you need to ensure these four elements.
4.4 What is the content of a training program?
Training program content is the instructional material that is designed to impart information. The content of the training program can be practical or theoretical and has many forms such as text, images, illustrations, video, and audio.
5. Final Words
Well now that you have gone through the whole article, you might understand that developing a training program for your employees is just a linear sequence of steps.
The training program development process includes gathering information, identifying the common problem, and choosing methods accordingly. At last, create the program outline, content, and evaluate for success.
All in all, develop your training program with the simple question, ‘Why?’ Just try to find the answer and the rest of the steps will flow in sequence!