Between the changing labor market and the ever-growing technological evolution, it’s crucial to develop a team of employees that is skilled and prepared for the future. For this reason, as well as attracting top professionals to your business, it’s essential to implement continuous training plans that prioritize the growth of your existing workforce.
Promoting a culture of continuous training in the workplace not only encourages professional development, which is key to improving performance and productivity, but also creates a flexible and engaging working environment This article explores everything you need to know about developing a successful employee training program in your company.
What is an employee training program?
An employee training program is a training strategy or plan that provides employees with knowledge and skills to help them become better professionals. This program is typically part of the business development plan or the L&D strategy. Its main objective is to improve employees’ performance and prepare them to cover different roles.
The importance of employee training plans
Undoubtedly, any company that invests in training its employees is investing in its success. In the long term, these training plans help foster company growth in terms of productivity and innovation but employee training programs for companies have a positive impact in many other areas too:
Combating weaknesses and strengthen skills
Employee training plans are designed to identify and combat employees’ weaknesses and then get the most out of their current skills through specific training. This way, businesses end up with well-qualified employees capable of performing their tasks successfully, at their own pace, and without sacrificing quality.
Improving employee morale and satisfaction
It’s very easy for an employee to lose motivation if they are not able to perform their job according to the organization’s expectations. Strengthening skills also has a knock-on effect on employee morale.
Closing skills gaps and increasing productivity
In any organization, errors or mistakes happen, but this occurs more often when employees lack the knowledge to fulfill a specific role. An employee training plan creates more competent employees, reduces errors, and closes skills gaps that affect productivity and the company’s profitability, including those caused by changes in trends and the advancement of technology.
Improving company culture and talent retention
Professionals want to belong to companies that promote a culture of constant learning and development. A survey of over 1,500 people showed that 80% of employees agreed that personal growth was the essential quality of a company’s culture which is why developing a training plan is so important.
Types of employee training programs
The improvement in the productivity of your employees depends on the quality of the training plan you offer them and how it is presented. Below are some key instructional methods to consider when choosing the format of your training:
- Face-to-face training: A relatively traditional form of training where the teaching program is taught in person and in a classroom environment with the rest of the employees.
- Mentoring and coaching: In this type of guided training, the employee has a mentor who leads him through a specific area, sharing his experience and knowledge. Mentoring, it is often used as a guidance or counseling activity, while coaching is more geared towards acquiring skills to achieve goals.
- On-the-job training: A practical learning methodology that teaches teams in a natural environment. Employees learn by watching a peer or leader do a job and then doing it themselves.
- E-learning: A training method carried out through devices connected to the network, such as computers or smartphones. Its main characteristic is the physical separation between the learner and the trainer. E-learning includes didactic materials such as videos, games, simulations, webinars, or any exercise that generates interaction and participation. Do you want to know more about e-learning? Check this article: everything about e-learning for business.
10 Employee training programs examples
When it comes to the focus of your training program, there are various options, each of which has a specific objective. Here are just some of them:
#1 Orientation training
This type of training helps new employees understand the company’s basic organizational information and answer any questions. This plan could include, for example, online courses for managing company software, security procedures, or practical use of equipment.
#2 Onboarding training
This helps employees become familiar with the company culture, understand their responsibilities, and become part of the team, more important than ever with the rise of remote working., Check out this article to learn how to develop a successful onboarding process.
#3 Compliance training
This type of training is essential for any employee since it informs them of the regulations and policies applicable to their roles. Compliance training minimizes risks, helps maintain a good corporate reputation, and improves the work environment regarding harassment, diversity, cybersecurity, or ethics.
#4 Product training
Product training offers information about the company’s products or services, which employees must learn to carry out their work. This type of training can have different objectives according to the business’s activity. For example, it could help a sales team to answer all potential customers’ questions confidently.
#5 Leadership training
This training program allows employees to learn the leadership and management techniques needed to successfully lead teams, from communication to emotional intelligence.
#6 Technical training
This gives employees the chance to refresh their knowledge of existing technologies or learn more about them. This training plan is important for developing technical skills that improve the company’s competitiveness.
#7 Quality assurance training
This training enables employees to understand quality control processes, ensuring that the final product or service meets company standards. This training builds customer confidence and improves profit margins.
#8 Soft skills training
This type of training focuses on personal attributes and includes conflict resolution and communication. These skills are necessary for employee and business development. If you want to know more about soft skills and skills to power your team, read this article.
#9 Diversity training
Reducing the risk of discrimination and prejudice within the workplace is essential to encouraging positive interactions and raising awareness of diversity. A good diversity training plan includes knowledge about sexual orientation, race, nationality, color, religion, gender, etc.
#10 Sustainability training
ESG criteria is a set of standards related to the development of sustainability and diversity in companies. This training is essential to meet the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the UN in the 2030 Agenda.
How to design a training plan
Specific skills are required to create a high-performance work team. However, these skills are constantly evolving and changing which means the only way to stay relevant and navigate these changes is to commit to ongoing employee training. To do so, you need to know how to make an effective employee training program.
1. Analyze the current situation
First, you need to diagnose your employee’s skills status to decide which training needs they have and identify their strengths. This way, you can design a program tailored to their needs that’s likely to achieve better results.
2. Identify your goals
What are you trying to achieve? The answer to this question will be your objectives, which should be specific and measurable. For example: compliance with security policies or increased employee efficiency.
3. Choose a training method
Besides developing your training content, you need to decide on the training method. As we have seen, e-learning is one of the most engaging and easy-to-use training models, in today’s current digital landscape.
4. Select the proper training tools
If you have already decided on online training, now you must choose the tools you will use. You can start by using an authoring tool for course creation. These tools don’t require previous knowledge because the more modern versions are very intuitive. Their features include a UX-friendly interface, interactive resources to generate engagement (games,, videos, or images), productivity features such as a photo editor, and compatibility with translators, among others.
Another tool that can be hugely beneficial is a learning management system or LMS. This software is ideal for creating online training programs, segmenting study groups, assembling courses, measuring results, and managing all the pedagogy material for your training. If you want to know more, check out isEazy LMS and discover its best features.
Evaluating the results of your training plan
Now that you know how to develop an employee training program and what you need to achieve it correctly, it’s time to discover isEazy: A one-stop shop for e-learning solutions.
isEazy offers you everything you need to start a training program: Course creation software, an LMS, an app for your frontline workers, and even gamification. Boost your training program with the ultimate e-learning solutions.
