It’s only natural for existing employees to roll their eyes at mundane, black-and-white training and development courses some organisations still insist on dishing out. But it’s time to step into the 21st century with a modern employee training system.
Creating an employee training program suitable for everyone is a tough gig, however, it’s more important to understand what’s needed for their success. While you could set it up yourself, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel with plenty of great training systems readily available.
If you’re ready to take this next step, it’s important that you’re prepared and know what to look out for. To help, we’ve compiled our top five features your employee training system must include before making this workplace-changing purchasing decision.
Here’s what to keep an eye out for:
What’s an Employee Training Program?
An employee training program is exactly what you might imagine from the name. It’s a company-wide training system that is put into place to facilitate the training and development of employees.
What might be new to you, is that this does not only have to be qualifications or traditional technical skills that we generally associate with workplace training. On the contrary, an employee training program can include anything to help develop employees.
Do you think there is something missing in your company culture? Create a training program around it. Aren’t sure if your managers have the necessary leadership skills to guide the company? Sort it out, today!
Software for Employee Training Programs
While there is a variety of software that can help you set up the perfect employee training program, you need to make sure that the one you choose matches your desired outcome.
Learning Management System (LMS)
The more “traditional” approach to handling learning and development at the workplace is through a learning management system. These platforms are designed to impart specific skills that are necessary for employee growth. However, they can be rather limiting. And that’s where LXPs come in to play as they feature some of the most innovative employee training methods.
Learner Experience Platform (LXP)
LXP’s (learner experience platforms) have taken over traditional professional development methods in the form of an online portal. LXP’s are basically designed to save time, allow employees to work at their own pace, and provide interactive elements through a personlised training plan.
Organisations yet to transition are essentially falling behind, burdened by disadvantages amongst the employee training tools world. The experts have proved personsalised training delivery and social learning systems are the key to maximising corporate training and compliance training.
What to Do Before Purchasing Software-Based Training Programs
Each employee training program varies in features, compatibility, and user-friendliness making a search for the best training management software an extensively overwhelming task.
As demand increases, so do the number of new online employee training software developers.
So how do you know which LXP will suit you and your employees’ learning path requirements?
Answer these three core buyer’s guide questions for clarity on what your organisation wants to achieve from its online employee training structure:
- What specific employee training programs or online courses will you offer? – Including sales training, compliance training, or workplace-specific course content for new hires.
- How will it fit the organisation’s goals? – Will online courses include simple knowledge transfer, solid learning objectives or will it be more compliance-based?
- Who are the courses designed for? – Consider the differences in course content you’d have to establish between new employees, existing staff and management training programs.
5 Must-Haves to Look for When Buying New Employee Training Software
Customisation & Content Creation Tools
While a comprehensive default library is a great start, customisation and the ability to upload your own content are imperative. ‘Starter pack’ or built-in courses are primarily used as foundations and will only get you so far regarding high-quality training development.
Compliance qualifications unique to your industry, or training mediums better suited to a company might need to be implemented such as:
- Video – Offering assistance with explanatory complications combining visual and audio instructions.
- Audio Only – For those looking to learn while multi-tasking using loudspeakers or headphones.
- Interactive Courses – Including highly-engaging course elements like polls, games or competitions.
Ease of Set-up of the Learning Platform
Secure an LXP that’s more a plug-n-play type deal, both with the initial set-up and for integrations. It needs to be efficiently incorporable, as a platform difficult for admins to navigate will guarantee to be a struggle for learners.
It’d also be worth introducing an SSO (single sign-on) for lightning-quick logins, but we’ll get to the importance of its user-interface capabilities shortly.
Put simply, resources wasted on extensive installations, integrating software, and implementing employee tutorials is time that new course content could have been up and running.
Performance Management & Professional Development Monitoring
Progress is only as good as its measurement.
Ask a consultant about your desired employee development programs data and progress monitoring tools and how they’ve been designed to track and report. Does it have the tracking or recording features you specifically need for your business?
Comparison capabilities are important to track employee training progress too. You’ll want to have the ability to measure individual performance and month-on-month improvements, so be sure to demo a few LXP’s for these deeper insights.
Training Platform Accessibility/Usability
Employees won’t use development programs or any online training they don’t enjoy. User-friendliness with a conveniently designed interface should make up a company’s dream online training software platform.
Ensure it’s mobile-optimised and compatible across all device types to encourage remote activity participation.
Simplicity is the key, so your new LXP should include advanced browse and search features, along with progression or completion indicators for heightened motivation.
Communicational and chatbot functionality are also critical for enhancing social learning and soft skills amidst everyday tasks and interactions.
Course Content Personalisation
Perhaps the most significant takeaway from our buyer’s guide, content personalisation sits at the helm of must-haves for online employee training.
Individually tailored online training courses drive the entire demand for businesses to select one learning platform over another.
Whilst not everyone learns similarly, identical tasks and competencies can be accomplished virtually the same, with the only difference being the delivery system.
An LXP’s online training tools that ‘package up’ content into skill levels, delivery preferences, collaboration methods and more personalised features, categorises and simplifies things for both students and admins.
Found the Perfect LXP? Include These for a Better Corporate Training System
Incorporate Assessments When Creating Courses
Information retention levels are areas training managers often let fall by the wayside.
Their courses, content delivery, and motivational tactics might all be satisfactory, however, it’s not much good if its training effectiveness isn’t being monitored via online assessment.
Both pre-training and post-training assessments should be included within any course. This helps identify any gaps in the content, suggesting where they could be improved or added upon.
Training management system testing requires:
- Results that compare previous and current performance levels, not only the knowledge accumulated.
- A way to show how your learning objectives address how employees perceive their own performance – i.e., Do they believe they’re being tested on what needs to be assessed?
- Answers to open-ended questions – Ditch the ‘yes/no’ questions so you can track employee progress with highly detailed answers for more in-depth monitoring.
Combine Soft Skill Development with Everything
Many newcomers to business and younger employees often lack what is deemed as ‘soft skills’. Basic interpersonal skills seem to be a little less existent among younger generations as technology eliminates opportunities for extensive practice in these areas.
The most progressive thing organisations can do is incorporate soft skills training into the already-ultra personalised LXP outfit.
You’ll be hitting two birds with one stone, managing workplace-specific education, general communication, and problem-solving skills as well.
Find the Best Employee Training Program Today
Now that you know some of the most important things to look out for, you will have no problem finding a successful training and development program that suits your organisation’s needs.
If you’re looking to get started, Cloud Assess offers a free trial where you can test out the effective training program today.
