Guide to Starting a Successful Employee Onboarding Training collaborative learning Program

There has never been a better moment to launch an employee training program if your organization doesn’t already have one.

Fast-changing technology makes it difficult for businesses to stay afloat in an environment where competition is on the rise. Some skills are being rendered permanently obsolete by digital transformation, while others are more in demand than ever. Because of these aspects, it is more important than ever for businesses to invest in efficient and effective employee training.

In a global poll of CEOs, it was shown that more than half have trouble finding qualified new workers, and 80% are concerned about the availability of vital talents. Training programs for employees, and consequently Learning and Development departments, are effective recruitment, retention, and retraining strategies.

It takes more than just ordering some courses and requiring staff attendance to start a new training program. Businesses that aggressively forge ahead without the necessary planning frequently experience misaligned corporate goals, overburdened L&D teams, and a lack of support from the C-suite. Any of them could end up ruining your training regimen from the very beginning.

Instead, move cautiously. To rapidly and effectively create a valuable staff training program, and establish a collaborative, democratic learning process. Everyone in the organization gains when they participate in the learning process.

The following information will help you get started, and while you’re at it, you should look over the results of our poll of 600 American workers to learn more about the difficulties, goals, and expectations of the current workforce regarding learning and development:
Align training with corporate objectives

To be successful, an employee training program must support the organization’s long-term objectives. Although learning for learning’s sake is great, it is unlikely to win executive support or support your program’s budget.

Before launching even one training course, you must first speak with higher management. Create a training strategy that will support the company’s short- and long-term goals after learning about their aims. Create a method for identifying and prioritizing training requirements that support these objectives after that, and utilize the results to direct content creation.

Training should contribute to a stronger business.

More than just making employees smarter is what training is all about. A strong, competitive organization results from a properly implemented training program.

Here are a few training objectives that can relate to more general corporate goals:

1. Increase output or revenue

Provide employees with the tools they need to improve their performance and the bottom line of the business.

The sales team is the focal point for increasing business earnings. According to studies, businesses with effective sales training close more deals. To demonstrate the benefit of your programs, it is simple to calculate the ROI of sales training.

However, the impact of training on overall business productivity goes beyond sales. Every division of the organization enjoys the advantages. Companies who invest at least $1,500 in training for each employee see a 24% gain in profits over those that don’t, claims HR Magazine. The same article claims that a 10% increase in development initiatives resulted in a 6% rise in overall company productivity.

2. Improve onboarding.

An effective onboarding program aids new hires in becoming familiar with the business and the skills required for the position. Employee productivity is increased and ramp-up times are shortened with better onboarding. Onboarding programs that are effective result in a 70% boost in new hire productivity.

That’s not all, though. It’s crucial to establish a positive working relationship during a new hire’s initial few weeks. An effective onboarding program can increase new hire retention by 82% and reduce staff replacement costs by thousands of dollars for the business.

3. reduce the skills shortage

The current state of digital transition is really serious. Many businesses struggle to meet the need for qualified workers who can work with new technology as it develops. Seventy-nine percent of CEOs worry that a lack of critical skills will impede the expansion of their business.

You may use the personnel you already have to meet the demands of the digital age by investing in upskilling programs that expand on employees’ existing skills and reskilling programs that train employees in totally new fields.

4. Select and keep better workers

Companies are using training programs more and more as a perk for prospective employees. Candidates that consider every new role as an opportunity to learn and develop their abilities find strong L&D programs to be particularly appealing. 59 percent of millennials think that when looking for a new career, growth opportunities are very important to them.

Likewise, by enabling people to advance and broaden their skill sets within the company, development programs assist in keeping talented personnel. Ninety-four percent of workers claimed they would remain with a company longer if it supported their growth.

Determine the requirement for training

You must first determine the knowledge gaps in your organization before you can develop training programs that support the objectives outlined above. You’ll carry out a training needs analysis to do that.

There are two methods for analyzing training demands.

The first strategy is the conventional top-down strategy that is described in the majority of online articles. The L&D departments or training managers are the only ones who look into and decide what employees need to learn, making this process incredibly centralized. Based on their awareness of the knowledge gaps in the workforce, they identify learning requirements, prioritize those needs, and suggest courses.

Managers have to put in a lot of work, and it’s not particularly accurate either. As managers attempt to determine what knowledge employees possess and what they still need to acquire to perform their jobs more successfully, top-down research frequently includes a great deal of guesswork. Without the context of team member input, courses will inevitably fall short.

The second strategy is bottom-up and decentralized. Anyone at the company can report a training need using this method. The needs and interests of your staff can be directly communicated. L&D administers the system, accurately ranking demands, and managing their fulfillment rather than prescribing training requirements.

With this strategy, staff members actively participate in the design of training. Analysis of training needs is a continuous process that changes as the business and its workforce do. In addition to being quicker and more effective, it is also more accurate.

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Put training needs in order.

Not all training requirements can be met at once. You’ll exhaust yourself and use up all of your training funds. Instead, give priority to the training requirements that will enable you to achieve the training objectives you set out at the start of this process.

We advise using Boston Consulting Group’s Growth-Share Matrix to classify training needs according to their cost and organizational impact. This is our special method for skills gap analysis.
You will then have a plan for which training to focus on first. Prioritize the “stars” – needs that have the most impact at the lowest cost. Reduce the importance of expensive training that won’t advance your organization’s objectives.

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Improve Your Skills Gap Analysis

Pick the best employee training strategy

It can be difficult to choose the appropriate training approach as you think about how to best teach your team. Review these five widely used staff training techniques to determine which is best for you.

1. Personal instruction

Any strategy that requires employees to be physically present in the workplace is referred to as in-person training. Employees may participate in hands-on training, seminars, workshops, classroom training, or requirements that they watch videos or study manuals at their desks.

In-person training courses are typically more expensive and more difficult to plan logistically. Businesses must spend money on physical training materials, in-person trainers, and perhaps travel and venue costs. Since you need everyone to be accessible at the same time and in the same location, these can be quite difficult to schedule. You will need to repeat the full training if an employee is absent on the day of the session if you don’t want them to fall behind. Many businesses were left looking for e-learning options as Covid-19 closed its locations around the world.

2. Online instruction

Over the past ten years, an increasing number of businesses have switched from on-site training to online training. This move is being made because contemporary online training technologies, which make it simpler to learn anywhere, at any time, have significant advantages over traditional in-person training methods.

Online employee training, sometimes known as e-learning, is conducted fully online. Online courses, simulations, webinars, mobile learning, and group learning activities are all examples of online training.

Online training is far more adaptable than traditional training. When it’s convenient for them, employees can learn at their speed at their computers. Learning ceases to be a singular event and instead gets ingrained in both daily life and corporate culture. Training can be completed from any location, making it more convenient for remote businesses or businesses that temporarily become remote due to external events.

Online training is not only more affordable and practical, but it is also more well-liked by the participants. 51% of employees prefer self-guided online training, according to a Vyond poll.

3. Integrated Education

Online and in-person training are both used in blended learning, also known as hybrid learning. For non-remote businesses, blended learning can act as a transitional step between existing programs and fully online education.

Without spending a lot of money on in-person training, L&D departments can scale up their training initiatives with the aid of a blended learning program. For instance, you might follow up an in-person training session with a virtual practice session or you could add a webinar to a seminar. Companies are seeing the value of combining in-person training with online learning as more staff work remotely and from home.

4. Microlearning

Because the courses are overly lengthy, many employee training programs have low course completion rates. Employees find it challenging to devote an hour or more of their hectic days to training. Microlearning is the solution.

Instead of taking hours to complete, microlearning courses are brief learning experiences that last 10 or 20 minutes. They cover less information than a standard e-learning course, but in smaller, easier-to-digest portions. Compared to lengthy courses, microlearning is simpler to create and easier for employees to use in their regular work. Microlearning, as opposed to conventional e-learning, increases knowledge retention, according to studies.

5. Peer instruction

Peer training takes place when staff members collaborate to learn from and with one another. Compared to passive solo learning, peer learning or collaborative learning is a more active and interesting form of education.

Peer training can be included in your programs in a variety of ways. Through collaborative learning, prioritizing training based on employee requests, and making everyone at the organization a subject matter expert in one or more areas, Bytecasting promotes a culture of peer learning. Peer learning across the entire company enables us to exchange institutional knowledge and spread innovations quickly.

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Tools for teaching employees

You’ll need the appropriate learning tools to support an online learning program if you decide to establish one, which we think you should. Although there are many different learning platforms available right now, we advise using a collaborative learning system instead of a typical learning management system because it’s simpler and quicker to set up and maintain (LMS).

The software that you use to design, share, and keep track of online courses is known as a learning platform. The majority of products advertise themselves as learning management systems. The most common sort of learning platform is an LMS, however, it has some significant shortcomings for contemporary L&D departments.

The learning process is centralized by LMS systems; only administrators can designate and distribute courses. Creating them often entails a time-consuming, expensive procedure that takes specialized equipment and years of practice to achieve. The fact that LMS systems are not employee-centric is crucial. Employees are unable to explore courses, managers are unable to design learning routes, and teams are unable to collaborate to produce learning content.
A collaborative learning system, on the other hand, invites participation from every employee in the firm. You have all the tools you need to develop a course right in front of you thanks to collaborative editing features. Employees request courses and indicate training requirements. To address those needs, other employees develop courses. Prioritizing learning needs and managing course quality are L&D’s responsibilities.

Information reaches employees more quickly thanks to this democratic method of course building. Additionally, it makes editing simpler and allows for greater feedback, ensuring that courses are always current and relevant. Employees pick things up more quickly and effectively. In comparison to a conventional LMS, engagement is higher and course completion rates are nearly five times higher.

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How do you choose a learning management system?

Recognize the various employee training options.

All training is not created equal. There are particular criteria and considerations for each kind of staff training. You will need to modify your training methods for each type of instruction to match the demands of the students.

new hire orientation

Onboarding, also known as new employee training, includes all the instructions that new hires require to comprehend the business, the workplace, the equipment, and their particular role. Since this is the new hire’s first engagement with the business, a seamless, considerate, and helpful onboarding process is crucial. Make the onboarding process interactive so that new hires experience a sense of belonging and not only learn what is required of them.

As soon as an applicant accepts a job offer, the onboarding process begins. Establish a preboarding program to engage them emotionally before their first day of work. Preboarding initiatives should welcome new hires and prepare them for what to expect on their first day.

Adapt an employer’s onboarding instruction to their particular position within the business. Assign each new hire a buddy or onboarding coach to help them with the process and answer any questions they may have. Make role-specific learning paths for courses that assist new hires in becoming familiar with the equipment they need and their duties.

Continue to gather input from your new hire throughout the process so that you can continue to improve the onboarding procedure for future employees.

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Compliance education

Any training that is required by the law, a professional association, or the business itself is referred to as compliance training. It includes everything, including diversity training and anti-bias training. Despite having a terrible reputation for being tedious and required, compliance training contains a lot of crucial knowledge.

One of L&D’s most crucial but least glamorous tasks is compliance training. Utilize active learning and peer learning strategies to make training more engaging and effective.

Utilize active learning strategies like quizzes, games, and simulations to keep staff engaged. Increase the message of interpersonal training by using employee voices.

It’s critical that compliance training is kept current, so gather real-time employee feedback as you develop the curriculum.

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customer care instruction

Customer service training includes all the instruction that front-facing staff members require to represent the business confidently and competently. This covers product knowledge, problem-solving techniques, communication abilities, and conflict resolution.

Customer support representatives must continuously pick up new skills to keep on top of user inquiries. These frequent training might be more enjoyable if there were collaborative learning components.

Customer support representatives need to be aware of changes and new features to their products. Utilize internal experts’ experience by having product managers or engineers design familiarisation programs.

Role-playing conversations and criticisms that allow representatives to put their new knowledge and abilities into practice will help to incorporate active learning into the process.

Sales education

All the training required for sales professionals to successfully negotiate and close agreements is included in sales training, also known as sales enablement training. Excellent sales training directly impacts the bottom line of the business and is an excellent method to show the return on investment of your training initiatives. Since salespeople are frequently quite busy, it might be difficult to get them to make time for learning. Offer microlearning courses to promote ongoing training. They are a quick and simple solution for salespeople to fit learning into their hectic schedules. We advise leveraging collaborative learning to provide sales training that is quicker and more efficient.

Here is an illustration of a customized sales training session on a tool that will assist our sales representatives in demonstrating the ROI of our platform to potential clients:

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Manager education

To properly manage their direct reports, anyone who supervises other employees needs training. A sometimes underutilized yet crucial program for developing more capable managers and a stronger workplace culture overall is managerial training. Managers must improve their people management abilities now more than ever as more businesses move partially or entirely distributed.

Finding a technique to teach the soft skills that make a successful supervisor—communication abilities, bias training, conflict resolution, and goal-setting—is the main problem of manager training. To stay on top of their reports, remote managers in particular need to have excellent organizational and communication abilities.

To assist in educating managers in these soft skills, a collaborative learning system is ideally suited. Utilize tools like peer feedback, role-playing, and first-hand accounts from other managers.

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