Low employee productivity, poor task management and too many meetings — if your business is dealing with these issues, then you need to teach your employees how to manage their time better.
But what exactly does time management training entail? And how can you ensure it actually works? This article will take you through the practical steps of setting up an effective time management training course in the workplace.
We’ll cover the following:
- What is time management training?
- Benefits of time management training for employees
- How to organise a successful time management training short course
Next read: Are you an entrepreneur? Check out these time management tips for small business owners catered specifically for you.
What is time management training?
Time management training is a practical skill acquisition programme that teaches employees to organise and prioritise their tasks effectively.
During the course, employees learn how to apply time management skills — like goal setting, scheduling and delegation — to their day-to-day job to ensure that tasks are completed on time and with a satisfactory outcome every time.
Why is time management training important for employees?
By committing to time management training, organisations can:
1. Increase productivity of employees
Ninety percent of respondents to a Timewatch survey said effective time management would increase their productivity in the work environment. Employees learn to optimise their task execution process, so they’re not spending too much on tasks or taking on more tasks than they can realistically handle.
With highly productive employees, your organisation can scale output without necessarily increasing overhead costs at the same pace — which means you save money. You can invest these funds into more strategic initiatives that grow your business — like providing better employee benefits and launching new product offerings to capture new markets.
2. Improve work-life balance
About 64% of respondents in a 2022 Reclaim.ai survey said they were burnt out “because they just don’t have enough time to get their actual work done”.
The problem isn’t that there isn’t enough time allocated to work. Rather, employees are overwhelmed with distractions like decision paralysis, poor prioritisation and task overload — leaving them playing catch-up on task execution.
A Time management course trains employees how to organise and prioritise tasks so they only take on what they can handle and delegate the rest to others on their team. As such, employees can focus on quality task execution instead of spreading themselves thin across numerous responsibilities.
A good balance translates to a healthier, happier and more engaged workforce.
3. Become more efficient
During the time management course, employees learn to identify and eliminate time wasters. This process requires auditing a typical workday to know how much time is spent on important and routine tasks. After all, you can’t fix what you don’t know.
Once done, replace the time waster with a less demanding task that achieves the same purpose or minimises the amount of time spent on it. Say your team spends three hours daily on meetings; that’s a time waster. Switch to asynchronous communication — like sending weekly updates in Notion or via email — to cut back on meetings and use that time for core tasks.
Workplace efficiency is important because it helps businesses maximise profits while ensuring employees are happy and productive.
How to organise a time management course in the workplace
Much of your approach to time management training depends on the structure of your business. But, generally, your planning process should look like this:
Design your training modules and course material (theoretical and practical tools)
List the time management techniques you will cover in your course. Time management training has a wide scope, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t narrow it down to a few things.
How do you choose the time management strategies to focus on? Simple — ask your employees. Conduct a training needs assessment survey to find out employees’ top three time management challenges. Say you get an answer like “I have too many things to do”; you’ll know to include task prioritisation and smart goals in your training course.
Ensure that each module covers both theoretical and practical knowledge. Back to our earlier example — your task prioritisation module might look like this:
- What is task prioritisation?
- Why is task prioritisation important?
- Task prioritisation techniques
- Practical task 1: Create a to-do list
- Practical task 2: Delete tasks from an overcrowded to-do list
Choose the right training methods
Your learning method is how you will deliver the training to participants. It must match learners’ needs — else your training wouldn’t be effective.
You have one of three options here:
- Self-paced training where the trainees learn at their own pace. It typically happens online.
- Instructor-led (face-to-face) training where the facilitator dictates the training pace. It usually happens in a traditional classroom.
- Blended learning combines both in-person and online instruction. Instructors lead some aspects of the training, while students handle the rest independently. This is fast becoming the most popular means of delivering training as it combines the best of both methods previously mentioned.
The right training method depends on the participants’ knowledge level, training complexity and the structure of your organisation. For example, in-person training might be impractical and too expensive for a globally distributed team. And self-paced training might not be effective for teaching advanced time management techniques.
Choose an employee training software
Employee training software makes it easy for you to manage, scale and measure the effectiveness of your time management training courses. This is especially important when you have too many participants that monitoring learner progress manually becomes impractical.
It’s also a great way to identify skill gaps, for example, whether or not employees are lacking the necessary time management skills. This can easily be combined with a skills matrix to take your company’s skills organisation to the next level.
There’s no shortage of employee training software in the market, so how do you make the right choice? Some things to look out for:
- 100% Compliance: The training and assessment software must meet your industry’s compliance standards.
- Flexibility: You should be able to tweak its settings and features to match your specific course needs.
- Easy to use: Facilitators and course participants shouldn’t require any complex technical skills to use the software.
Cloud Assess is an excellent time management training software. With its drag-and-drop builder, plus other features, you can set up compliant training and assessments in just a few clicks.
Select an assessment method.
Time management training courses are a two-way street. You need a full-proof means of assessing how well participants understand what they’ve learnt. If they perform poorly in the assessment, then the training isn’t effective enough.
The assessment can be summative or formative. Formative assessment measures participants’ performance throughout the learning process. For example, the facilitator might ask participants to have a group discussion about a particular topic during the class.
Summative assessment happens at the end of the training — like the end-of-term examination we’re all too familiar with. It measures whether or not participants achieved the training objectives.
The type of assessment you choose depends on your course goal. But, it’s best to incorporate some sort of formative assessment into your program, so you can identify learners who need ongoing support and track their progress through different training stages.
Related: Assessment methods in vocational training and education
Wrapping Up: Time management skills training isn’t a one-time thing
A Time management course shouldn’t be a once-off event in your organisation. It requires ongoing commitment and dedication from both employers and employees to be successful.
Other Cloud Assess Training Courses
If you’re interested in leveling up your workplace, consider some of our other training courses:
