Businesses that invest in training their team enjoy greater employee retention and the right training can also have a positive effect on your profit margins.
To build a high performing organisation, you need to plan for sustained learning. Providing the training is one thing, but what happens once your employees leave the training room?
Use a combination of learning techniques
In order for your training to be effective it needs to combine formal training, ongoing coaching and peer learning. Learning a new skill is one thing but in order to master it, your employees need to apply it day in and day out.
The foundation for acquiring new skills is formal training and it works best if it is fun, practical and interactive.
Coaching
The formal training needs to be supported by coaching. When managers focus on coaching their people, they help them to use their new skills in new and different ways as part of their day to day roles. Coaching leads to positive reinforcement of the right behaviours and clear guidance on how to improve. This can have a positive impact on employee engagement and enthusiasm.
Have regular feedback sessions
As a team begins to apply what they have learned they need to share experiences and share positive feedback with their peers. It’s the job of managers to ensure that these opportunities to gather and share stories actually happen. Regular team meetings create opportunities to share feedback on training sessions. Asking different team members to take turns leading these meetings ensures that they are invested in the process. Encouraging the team to identify themes and priorities helps to reinforce key lessons.
In the current environment, digital platforms such as Zoom or Teams can make it easier for people to connect and share their learning and experiences. Making training stick requires a multi-faceted approach. For best results, combine formal training, ongoing coaching and peer learning / feedback. All of these can add up to sustainable improvement following a training programme.
Do you have any top tips for training? We’d love to hear your thoughts via our LinkedIn!
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