With the job market still recovering from the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009, companies and organizations are investing more money into training current team members in place of hiring new employees. Training employees can include one on one coaching, behavioral assessments, or simply helping them become proficient in their job duties. Why is training so important? What are some of the reasons you would want to invest money and time into training your employees?
Employees will enjoy their work
A well-trained employee who is great, not just good, at their job will excel at what they do and actually enjoy their work. When someone loves the work that they do, in more cases than not, it is because they are great at it!
When employees are poorly trained they tend to make mistakes, feel less confident about their work, and are easily frustrated. You can imagine an employee who feels this way for any extended amount of time will not last.
Take a minute and think about a position you held in the past. Maybe it was in customer service, food service or perhaps a supervisor position. How much training did you receive? If you had more training would you have felt more prepared and able to handle situations differently? Perhaps the frustration and anxiety you felt that caused you to quit and look elsewhere was due to a lack of proper training.
Look at former UCLA Coach John Wooden, who was one of the most all-time winning basketball coaches. Coach Wooden so accurately put it by saying,
“You can’t have confidence
unless you are prepared.
Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”
Preparation is practice and training. Is your team prepared? Are they properly trained and excellent at what they do? If not, take a close look at your training curriculum. There may be some adjustments to be made.
Builds a sense of team
Training and growing together builds camaraderie and a sense of team. John Maxwell, legendary Pastor and arguably one of the most famous authors on leadership says,
“The team who grows together
stays together.”
When practice and training become part of the culture in an organization, it helps to solidify the member’s relationships with one another. In a real sense, they are embarking on a journey together. They can watch each other grow and achieve greater success. Being part of a winning, growing team breeds passion towards a common goal. As each individual grows, the team grows, and a new level of performance can be obtained.
More prepared more profit
Last, but certainly not least, properly trained employees create more opportunities and more profit for the company they work for. They are more productive and generate more activity then those who are not well trained and lack confidence in what they do. It seems obvious that if a team member is well prepared when a potential customer calls they will be better prepared to help them.
Extraordinary athlete and World Champion boxer Muhammad Ali said,
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, Don’t quit.
Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a Champion.”
Companies who fail to invest money or time in training often experience high turnover, low company loyalty, and struggling performance. Their bottom line and longevity are true testaments to this. Training isn’t always the most enjoyable thing to do and it can be repetitious. Companies that find a way to beat this monotony and dedicate time and energy to training go on to become great while the competition looks on from the sidelines wondering why!
Microlearning: The New Trend in Training
The new online training buzzword is “microlearning.” Although the term may be new to you, this particular learning theory has been around for hundreds of years.
Experts agree that learners only have about a 10-15 minute attention span. In order to keep your participants’ attention, effective training programs “chunk” information into bite-sized pieces with frequent, brief breaks.
Microlearning takes this learning theory a step further by implementing “micro-courses.” These online courses are only about 10-20 minutes in length focused on one particular topic. Learners will learn the most relevant, important information in the shortest amount of time. Maximize training; minimize time. Microlearning also packs a punch by utilizing multiple training methods within one course. A topical micro-course will have lecture, case studies, video and possibly some simulation.
Businesses looking to capitalize on this new trend are making these courses readily available to employees, at the drop of a hat. Employees can access these courses anytime they need to – especially right before they NEED to use the information. Using your company Intranet or a LMS, courses are hosted and available to your staff, 24/7.
Neat, huh?
So what are the benefits of implementing on-demand microlearning in your organization?
Keeps Training Costs Down
Although setting up courses on your company Intranet or LMS platform may take some initial funding, businesses will save money in the long run. Companies implementing a microlearning strategy will save money on facilitator costs, travel expenses, training materials and time spent preparing and implementing such training programs. Which brings us to the next benefit.
Saves Time
Since these courses are short and readily available, a lot of time is saved by both the training department and trainees. Your training department will save time negotiating with facilitators, working out schedules and handling travel arrangements and your employees will be able to learn what they want, when they want to just by the click of a mouse.
More Memorable
Another important benefit of microlearning is the fact that employees can access the material at any time. And, because the courses are short, employee can access the material right before they need it. This means that the learner will be interested in the material they are learning – any trainer knows this is half the battle when trying to get a team invested in a training program. Because the employees need to know the information that moment, they are more likely to pay attention and retain the information. If Steven is about to conduct an interview, he’ll likely tune in quickly to the “Effective Interviewing Techniques” micro-course, taking notes as he goes along.
Continuous Learning
Employees will find this method of learning helpful and effective. They will also appreciate that they can learn information when they need to. Because microlearning is very easy for employees, they will be more likely to use the courses more frequently. Not only will employees retain information, they will be excited about training and grow interested about other training microlearning topics they can find.
Moving Forward
Corexcel is proud to be a part of this innovating new method of training by offering two microlearning courses, The Manager’s Edge and The Leader’s Edge. These online courses can be broken up into brief, 25-minute sessions or taken together in a self-paced course. They offer brief, focused scenarios, expert video commentary and industry best practices.
The Manager’s Edge accelerates the development of supervisors and managers by having participants work through 21 industry-related scenarios on important topics such as:
The Leader’s Edge helps sharpen leadership skills through its unique narrative learning approach. Our 15 scenarios engage leaders by asking them to think through common leadership challenges in the workplace, including:
For more information on these or any other courses, contact us at learn@corexcel.com or call us today at 1-888-658-6641 (M-F, 9am – 5:30pm ET).