How to Build a Successful Employee Training Program

It’s official! The new-age workforce has recently made learning and employee training programs their top priority. With over 76% of GenZ learners believing that learning is the key to a successful career, it is vital for an organization to build a robust employee training program.

However, structuring a training program from scratch can be quite tricky. Getting the fundamentals right is essential to ensure long-term success. Failing to do so can lead to expensive reworks that can also drain your financial resources.

In this blog, we discuss the importance of training programs for employees and explain our step-by-step guide to help you create a successful training program. This will give you a strong base that will allow you to customize your program according to your needs and set you up for success in the long run.

Let’s get started then!

Importance of Employee Training Programs

Before we create a training program from scratch, it is important to understand why such initiatives have become a priority for most companies worldwide.

Enhances workforce productivity

Most organizations look to run in the most efficient manner possible. Company training programs help impart new skills to the workforce and build on existing ones. This equips them with the capabilities to tackle modern problems, boosting their productivity and efficiency in the process.

Addresses skill gaps within the organization

Nearly three in four professionals are looking to upskill themselves while working for an organization. This is because of rapidly changing trends with respect to technology and management styles, which may require the development of new skills and capabilities.

Employee training programs help organizations bridge this gap by ensuring competency in the most relevant tools and skills. This allows for improved flexibility and helps companies smoothly transition into the digital age of collaboration.

Aligns employee capabilities with organizational goals

Employee training programs are essential in helping employees understand what the organization expects out of them. They help identify their strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to work on areas that require improvement. 

Tailoring training programs through gamification and microlearning provides every employee with a unique learning pathway, thus helping them contribute to the overall objective of the business as a result. It also allows upper management to make strategic decisions to maximize the potential of their employees.

Prepares employees for future roles and responsibilities

The employees of today are potential leaders of tomorrow. Effective training programs often help employees build soft skills and leadership qualities, reinvesting in them to internally fast-track their transition to management roles.

Their experience in the organization makes them valuable assets thanks to their awareness of the company culture. This combined with their existing interpersonal relationships and institutional knowledge become crucial to making them effective future leaders who have been cultivated from within the ranks.

Boosts employee engagement and retention

92% of employees believe that they are more engaged at work when they undergo some form of employee training. This highlights how much employees value an organization that is willing to invest in them and help them grow in the future.

Employee training can also show the trust an organization has in its employees, helping foster trust and loyalty. This leads to lower attrition rates and helps retain top talent with much ease, making it vital for the long-term strategies of the company.

Benefits for Employees and Organizations

Employee training programs offer a win-win scenario for both employees and organizations. Let us try to understand some of the major benefits.

For Employees

1. Improves job performance and confidence

Employees are better equipped with the skills they require to perform their job competently. This allows them to perform their roles with improved confidence and improves productivity amongst the workforce.

2. Enhances career growth and development opportunities

‍Most employee training programs help employees upskill and reskill themselves, equipping them with the relevant abilities that help them progress in their careers over time. 

3. Provides clarity on roles and expectations

‍Employees get a better understanding of employer expectations and job roles during training programs. This helps avoid workplace conflicts and improves the overall culture of the organization.

4. Fosters a sense of value and belonging

‍Employees feel a sense of belonging to organizations that are willing to invest in their long-term development. It also makes them feel valued, creating a natural tendency to perform at their best and give back to the organization while contributing to its overall goals.

For Organizations

1. Increases operational efficiency and innovation

‍Employee training creates cross-functional opportunities and innovative ideas to flow within the organization. This helps for effective employ

ee rotation amongst various departments and improves productivity amongst a better-skilled workforce.

2. Reduces turnover and recruitment costs

‍90% of employees are willing to stay back in an organization if provided with the right development opportunities. This helps reduce employee turnover and expenditure on hiring new talent, which is considerably more expensive.

3. Ensures compliance with industry regulations

‍Most industries are undergoing rapid changes in today’s world. Employee training ensures that the workforce is well-adjusted to new tools and industry standards, ensuring compliance with updated safety and legal standards as a result.

4. Creates a culture of continuous improvement and learning

Employee training programs foster a healthy sense of competition and development within an organization, creating a mindset of growth that ensures employees are continuously improving while contributing to the organization.

Key Types of Employee Training Programs

There are various types of training programs that employees benefit from, depending on the organization's requirements and skill gaps. Here are the most common types of employee training that are employed by modern organizations.

1. Onboarding and Orientation Training

Onboarding and orientation training are provided to new employees as they prepare for their new roles in the organization. It helps them settle into their roles quickly and understand the various functions and processes of the organization.

Key Focus

• Awareness of company policies and safety procedures
• Team building sessions to allow new employees to gel with the team
• Facilitated discussion to sort out job responsibilities and expectations 

2. Compliance and Legal Training

Companies often conduct compliance and legal training sessions in accordance with government or company policy. This type of training is to raise awareness about government laws, employee protections and other issues like workplace harassment policies.

Key Focus

• Raise employee awareness about diversity, harassment and business ethics
• Ensure governance and employee conduct in line with government laws
• Create safe working environments and develop a good organizational culture

3. Technical Skills Development

Employee training programs focused on technical skills are often conducted to build hard skills for employees of certain departments. For example, training accountants in the latest developments in accounting standards and tools.

Technical training is often required to educate employees about the workflows and processes of the company. This helps supplement their basic skills and knowledge and ensures improved performance to meet the overall goals of the company.

Key Focus

• Help employees understand Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of the company
• Ensure on-demand performance support and training, especially with new tools 
• Establish a clear link between training and job roles to ensure relevance

4. Soft Skills Training

Soft skills training is conducted by organizations to improve and develop soft skills like problem-solving, communication and conflict resolution. These skills are crucial for the personal development of employees while helping build a healthy team dynamic and client-facing abilities.

Key Focus

• Providing the right resources to facilitate soft skill development
• Providing effective feedback to employees to improve on areas of weakness
• Set achievable goals for employees to ensure effective training

5. Leadership and Management Development

Leadership and management development training is crucial for those employees who are looking to progress up the ranks of the organization. It is essential to develop leadership talent in the lower levels of the organization while ensuring existing leaders are equipped with the latest skills and are aware of changing thought processes in the industry.

Key Focus

• Build thought leaders and experts within the existing leadership
• Facilitate the growth of lower-level talent to leadership positions
• Focus on improved decision-making, team building and leadership styles.

6. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Training

DEI training is an integral part of creating harmony in the workplace, especially for large organizations with a diverse workforce. DEI trainings make employees aware of different cultures and backgrounds, helping create positive interactions and reduce discrimination among the staff as a result.

Key Focus

• Create long-term solutions to build a positive work culture over time
• Tackle existing barriers and prejudices among employees
• Create common DEI objectives across the organization, irrespective of the hierarchy

7. Cross-Training and Reskilling Programs

Cross-training employee programs are a new phenomenon where staff are trained in various functions of the organization. This promotes increased flexibility while discovering hidden talents in the workforce.

Reskilling initiatives on the other hand help employees pick up new skills in preparation for new job roles. This is usually brought about by a major change in company processes or an upgrade of tools and systems used previously. 

Key Focus

• Create an effective plan to achieve eventual objectives for the organization
• Empower employees with relevant skills to facilitate internal movement and talent recognition 
• Reward and recognize successful employees to boost participation across the organization

Steps to Build an Effective Employee Training Program

Steps to build an employee training program

Here is a detailed guide that will explain the steps required to build an effective employee training program for your organization. This will help you establish a solid foundation and ensure you achieve the required objectives while benefiting the majority of the workforce.

Step 1: Assess Training Needs

Before you begin working on an action plan, it is essential that you understand the requirements of your organization. This could be skill gaps or the creation of new job roles that require an upgrade of the existing workforce. 

This can be done by collecting feedback across the organization to identify gaps according to your employees. Leverage AI-powered tools like UJJI to analyze employee performance data to help you develop a comprehensive understanding of what exactly the organization requires

Step 2: Set Clear and Measurable Objectives

Once you have understood the reasons why you will require training for your employees, it is important to create an objective that aligns with your business goals. This will ensure that you maximize your employees’ potential while ensuring the overall benefit of the company in the long run.

An effective way of setting achievable goals is by using the SMART criteria which stands for

S - Achieves a specific outcome

M - The goal must be measured quantitatively through data collection or feedback mechanisms

A - Make sure the goal is achievable and realistic in terms of expectations

R - The goal must be relevant to the overall mission and vision of the company

T - Make sure that the goal is time-bound and achieved in a specific period of time

Step 3: Design the Training Program

The most crucial part of building your employee training program is the design phase. This is the make-or-break phase as it can help create a great training system or can lead to ineffective delivery and poor employee feedback.

Choose your training method wisely depending on the model of work you follow. While techniques like shadowing and mentoring may be more effective for on-the-job training, you may have to adopt training modules and on-demand content for employees in a work-from-home or hybrid model.

The next focus should be on creating content that is relevant and engaging for your employees. Avoid long-form content with unnecessary jargon that may cause fatigue among participants and lead to reduced completion rates.

Instead, adopt newer strategies like gamification and microlearning that allow learners to understand complex concepts in a simple and interactive manner. This will improve knowledge retention and ensure increased effectiveness as a result.

Utilize modern AI learning and development tools like UJJI which help you customize training programs according to an employee’s aptitude and skillset. Unique learning pathways will help them maximize the training program, leading to both employees and organizations benefitting from the training.

Step 4: Deliver the Training Effectively

Once you have finalized the design of your training program, it is important to create an actionable plan to deliver the training effectively and efficiently. 

Choose a convenient time when employees will be able to spare some time from other functions of their job without much hassles. Ensure that logistics are well organized, with pre-requisite material and other arrangements being made to ensure minimized distractions and improved participant comfort.

It is also crucial to choose the right instructor to deliver the content efficiently to the participants. Make sure they have the right qualifications to assist learners and clarify any doubts that they may have during the company training program.

Step 5: Evaluate and Revise the Training Program

Once the training is completed, it is important to gather the feedback of your participants. This will allow you to identify any issues or gaps that they would like to have addressed, thus allowing you to tweak the training program in the future.

HR departments must follow up with the participants to see the long-term benefits of the training. They must be able to present quantitative measures of the outcomes with stats regarding RoI and employee satisfaction to give a clear picture to higher management about the overall effectiveness and if the program has met the company’s required long-term objectives.

Modern Approaches to Company Training Programs

With learning and development being revolutionized in recent times, here are some of the new-age approaches that companies have adopted for their training programs.

Collaborative Learning Platforms

Studies have shown that peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing improve learning and knowledge retention. This also fosters a sense of team building within the organization, creating a positive work culture that reflects well in the long run. It also ensures optimized resource sharing practices which can help companies reduce costs.

AI and LMS Tools in Employee Training

With the advent of AI, Learning Management Systems have become empowered like never before. With quick curation of learning content, gamification strategies and rewards and recognition programs, they make employee training a lot more fun and engaging for their participants.

Another benefit of LMS tools is their ability to analyze and track employee progress in real-time. This allows for quick updates and changes to ensure the potential of the training program is maximized.

Mobile-Friendly and On-Demand Learning Options

With employees prioritizing comfort and convenience in recent times, many companies have created training modules that are optimized for mobiles. This allows them to access relevant content at a time of their choosing, allowing them to access content on the go. As a result, this leads to improved participation and engagement, helping the organization achieve its eventual objective.

Best Practices for Successful Employee Training Programs

Here are some of the best practices that you can implement to ensure the success of your employee training programs.

Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning: Create a culture of learning and development within the organization, encouraging them to take part in various training programs. This allows the workforce to become more flexible and goal-oriented while also becoming more skilled in various aspects of the business.

Aligning Training Programs with Career Development Goals: Ensure that the final objective of your training programs aligns with the career aspirations of your employees. This will ensure active participation and increased completion of training courses.

Securing Management Buy-In and Support: Make sure that upper management is on board with your employee training programs, providing you with the necessary financial and material resources to ensure its success.

Tailoring Programs to Diverse Learning Styles: Programs must be tailored to meet specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of employees while also accommodating their aptitude and existing skillsets. This will help you provide the best learning solution to ensure they maximize such opportunities.

Conclusion

Employee training programs are the cornerstone of most learning and development plans in an organization. A successfully designed and executed training program can help the company reap its benefits across multiple years while also creating an empowered and upskilled workforce in the process.

At UJJI, we handle your employee training program needs from start to finish. From content curation to gamified LMS platforms, we ensure that clients have a hassle-free experience while creating a new training program. 

Our advanced analytics tools powered by AI also provide you with real-time feedback, allowing you to make quick changes to ensure improved effectiveness and increased employee knowledge retention and engagement.