Mistakes to Avoid in Your Corporate Training Program
Over the past decade, companies have steadily increased their spending on corporate training. The corporate training market grew from approximately $244 billion globally in 2009 to over $370 billion in 2019. However, the first wave of Covid-19 forced the majority of companies to suddenly transition to remote work. This period of remote work was also a test for those who had never worked remotely before.
In addition, many corporate training programs were not yet ready for virtualization. Even before the pandemic, studies revealed that approximately 75% of senior executives were not satisfied with the training programs in their companies. Now that Covid-19 is completely behind us, and we have gained a lot of experience, let's take a look at what you should avoid in your corporate training program with the lessons we have learned from this period.
Misidentifying What Will Benefit Your Employees
There should be alignment between the training offered by the L&D (Learning & Development) department and the needs of your employees. For example, recent research by Udemy reveals that 52% of L&D departments see technical skills as the top priority for corporate training programs. However, a study by LinkedIn found that employees would benefit most from social skills training. LinkedIn also revealed that employees spend more time learning when they are given individual recommendations to help them improve their skills.
Not Getting Feedback From Employees
There is no more concrete indicator than employee feedback to determine whether your training program is working. This item may seem obvious, but it is known that there are many companies that do not actually collect feedback from their employees. Therefore, you should create a regular feedback collection system and share the results with your training content providers and discuss them. This way, you will not only monitor the effectiveness of your program, but also improve its content.
Forgetting the Practical Aspect of Training
It is not enough to just teach people information. For a training program to be successful, employees also need to learn to apply the skills they have acquired. So how do corporate trainings usually work? In many, you will be asked to read or listen to the course content, and then take a test. These tests do not actually ensure learning, they only check the employees' memorization capacity. Therefore, practical tasks that allow full utilization of the new skills acquired are very important.
Experts should pay attention to the practical aspect of training when creating a training program. You should consider that when new information learned is not applied, 75% of it is forgotten within 6 days.
Not Considering Employees' Needs
Some employees have special needs. For example, some members of your team may not have been able to adapt to remote work or may be trying to overcome technological barriers. Corporate training programs should take this into account by creating simple user interfaces and ensuring that there is always accessible help for employees.
In addition, you should not forget that employees may have different learning styles. One person may be successful in one training, while another person may not like or understand the same training. As a result, the training may lose its effectiveness. You should make sure that your training is fun and engaging. There should be a sense of accomplishment at every step of learning. A sense of accomplishment is greatly provided in approaches such as microlearning, gamification, and individual learning.
Slowing Down Learning
Your employees will not have time to devote to training after working for hours on the job. A LinkedIn study conducted in 2019 found that 74% of employees preferred to learn something in their spare time at work rather than taking training after work.
You can break the training down into smaller pieces to make it more effective. Finding 15 minutes a day is much easier than one hour once a week. In addition, your employees can use training as a break while working from home. It is also said by experts that we learn information most efficiently when it is taken in small chunks. Therefore, you should ensure that the training does not take more than 15-20 minutes of your employees' time.
The growth of corporate training is great news for everyone. Because corporate training provides the personal development of your employees. L&D professionals can create trainings that employees can benefit from by taking advantage of approaches that are especially trending today. Using the right approach will improve your corporate training program.
