In the modern digital age and current economic climate, all company employees need to be on top of their game. That even applies to veteran global corporations like AT&T. So how is AT&T keeping up with industry changes?
Strategic employee training programs of course!
AT&T recently realized their workers lacked the skills to keep their company competitive. To avoid falling to the wayside, AT&T decided to implement educational programs for employees across the board.
The future-ready initiative includes a $1 billion web-based training effort. The end goal is for AT&T to be able to reeducate 100,000 employees with cutting-edge job skills.
If you are getting ready to start a training program then this article’s for you! From understanding learning styles to exploring common pain points for customers, there is a ton you can do to set your employees up for success.
Read on to learn 7 trips for how to create an effective training course for your company.
1. Identify Training Needs
The very first step you will need to take is to identify what areas your employees need training in. Simply saying you will conduct a customer service or sales training isn’t enough. Instead, to fully understand your companies training needs, you will need to create a customer journey map.
A customer journey map provides you with a visual representation of everything customers go through. By fully understanding the customer experience, you can identify pain points. Pain points are also known as areas of improvement. For instance, you might discover that you are onboarding process could be smoother. After you identify your company’s training needs, you can customize a training program that meets them.
2. Design Quality Training Materials
Moving on, training material is arguably the most important part of constructing a new training program. When you take the time to fine-tune your training materials, you are ensuring that every employee fully understands the lesson at hand. For instance, let’s say you are training a group of new hires on how to navigate new software programs.
Instead of relying on strictly digital training formats, provide employees with print outs of the different screenshots of the software they are learning. Being able to hold physical copies of the screenshots will make it easier for some employees to visualize the bigger picture.
If you are providing industry training for a specific job role, break the training material up into digestible lessons. Rather than expecting employees to grasp everything from day one, you can gradually introduce them to the new material one lesson at a time.
Lastly, the best training materials will incorporate review exercises. For instance, you could include true or false quizzes at the end of each lesson plan. Employees will enjoy getting a chance to test out their new knowledge base. The review will also help cement the new material into each employee's mind.
3. Promote Learning And Transparency
Next, you will need to create a work culture that thrives off of transparency and learning. By transparency, we mean the ability to communicate across all levels of management. If an entry-level employee has a question or concern about the material they are learning, they should feel free to express their views.
In a transparent work environment, communication is open regardless of company status. By freeing up communication between managers and employees, teaching employees new concepts becomes easier. You can quickly squash any unfounded concerns about new procedures, while also providing workers with relevant training material.
However, transparency alone isn’t enough. Companies like the Razor Group, help businesses thrive by promoting better communication tactics across the board. However, you will also need to cultivate a work atmosphere that promotes learning.
Instead of viewing learning as something only new hires do, your workforce should expect ongoing lessons to be a part of the job description. When you promote a work culture that rewards learning, employees will be motivated to grasp new material.
4. Embrace the Power of the Group
Whether you are working with a customer service department or sales team, you should always embrace the power of the group. When you put employees in a group to learn, they feel free to ask questions they otherwise might be afraid to.
As a result, employees will be able to learn as much from other students as they do from the teacher. To sum it up, group learning gives employers the ability to harness the power a collective brain presents.
5. Consider Preferred Learning Styles
Next on our list of training methods, we would like to touch on the concept of preferred learning styles. Everyone has a style of learning that they enjoy the most. Visual, tactile, and auditory are the 3 most popular types of learning styles.
A visual learner will get the most out of a training class that includes photographs, like the ones used in a PowerPoint presentation. Whereas a tactile learner would benefit more from a hands-on training class with real-life examples.
Lastly, an auditory learner will benefit from the recorded training material. Take into account the 3 primary learning styles, and find ways to use all 3 of them in your training courses.
6. Choose Motivated Trainers
You could have the best training program in the world, but if you don’t have the right people leading the class the material will fall on deaf ears. When you want to implement new business solutions or workplace procedures, you need to introduce the ideas with enthusiasm.
Look for trainers who are excited to work for you, and more importantly willing to share their knowledge. When you force someone into a training position they don't want, the results can be disastrous. Instead, keep your employees motivated by only choosing passionate leaders to conduct the training programs.
7. Track Training Results
Last but not least, you will need a way to track your training results. Simply recording what employees finish training isn’t enough. Instead, you will need to document the status of your company before and after training courses take place. For instance, let’s say you are creating training material to help boost sales. You would need a way to track sales performance before, during, and after the training class took place.
Create Your Training Program
Designing a training program means keeping the bigger picture in mind. When you can honestly assess where your employees are and where you want them to be, you can create an actionable training plan to get them there.
However, remember that everyone has their preferred learning style. Take a few minutes today to determine how you can incorporate auditory, visual, and hands-on learning in your courses.
Lastly, look for motivated team members who can help execute the training classes with passion. For more trainings tips like these, explore the HR and Career sections of the Bootstrap Business Blog.
