What common types of employee training programs do modern companies employ? Which of them is suitable for you to implement? Let’s answer these questions.
Organizations where employees receive continuous learning remain on the cutting edge of industrial development. Whether companies conduct full-fledged scheduled training sessions or one-on-one training, they must provide employees with refreshers and training so that employees perform their jobs well and contribute maximally to achieving business goals.
Top companies take online employee training and development as a business investment because they understand that this investment eventually pays off – both on an individual and organizational level.
From an organization’s perspective, employee training results in:
- Profit and growth
- Deeper skill succession pipelines
- Reduced turnover rate
From an employee’s point of view, training and development are crucial for:
- Career progression
- Financial growth
- Enhanced productivity and competency
As you refine the learning and development process for each role, you clarify your business goals, and you give your employees the right direction to learn, succeed, and grow in their future roles.
Modern Types of Employee Training
A training program is an opportunity for a business to polish its employees’ specific skills. Hence, your training program should also cover the areas where employees lack or want to improve specifically. Along with that, there are several training opportunities for a business, even outside the specific role of an employee, such as management training, sales training, instructor-led training, or training to improve communication/soft skills.
Regardless of whether you schedule the managerial training in-house, arrange it externally, or apply for online employee training programs, all of these training aspects will help in improving business productivity.
Now, let’s have a look at modern types of employee online training which successful organizations adopt as a part of their general training programs to help their employees develop a holistic skill set.
Managerial Training
Many organizations maintain an internal hiring policy for employees and help them move up to better positions. Similarly, if an employee spends a considerable amount of time in a position, he/she can be considered for a better management role. Therefore, if an organization has such practices, a well-structured employee training program becomes essential to ensure that employees are prepared for managerial responsibilities.
Companies offer management training to enhance the skills required for business management. This training can cover various aspects such as proper and timely delegation, ways to motivate team members, and how to provide appropriate feedback or coaching. It may also include technical skills required for the managerial position. For example, if an organization uses a specific software tool to track employee time, it must technically train the employee before starting.
Does Managerial Training work for your organization?
If your company prefers to fill management vacancies with current employees who want to grow professionally, an effective employee training type program will provide them with the skills and knowledge they need.
What is needed?
Managerial training takes time, so you need to know what positions you’ll need to cover by developing your employees for at least 1 year ahead.
Modern companies have a strategic plan of development for 5-10 years ahead and a tactical plan for at least 1 year ahead. This tactical plan almost always provides for new job-specific titles.
Top management should align such “job title demand” with the learning and development department. In its turn, the L&D department will look for internal staff that can be developed to fit the role and propose them to pass the appropriate course.
The managerial training program obviously needs to be aligned with job title preferences/requirements.
Orientation Training
The bigger the company, the harder the process of a new employee onboarding. To start working at the company’s pace as soon as possible, a new employee needs to quickly understand the following:
- Company’s Mission and Values
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Corporate culture
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Hierarchical structure of the organization
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Company’s processes
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Internal infrastructure (software, security, transport, etc.)
This information can be delivered to an employee through orientation training. The Human Resources department usually conducts the training. However, for more specific training, some other departments may also provide design training programs, such as the Compliance Department, which is more about awareness of rules and regulations and internal controls.
Does Orientation Training work for your organization?
Orientation training is needed when it takes too long for a new employee to start moving at a company’s pace. The stated standard orientation period in most countries is 90 days. If it takes longer in your organization, orientation training is worth the investment.
You can measure the orientation time in your organization by doing simple internal research.
What is needed?
You must develop a comprehensive employee training program that includes orientation. Please refer to the Employee Orientation Checklist developed by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.
An effective orientation program can cover the following areas:
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safety,
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the work environment,
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the new job description,
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benefits and benefits eligibility,
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the employee’s new manager and coworkers,
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company culture
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company history
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the organization chart
Technical Training
This type of employee training depends on the job role and responsibilities. While you may incorporate technical training solutions in your employee training program, this could be both in terms of the current job role or the job role that you are expected to take up after promotion. Technical training is aimed at educating the employee in more technical aspects of a position. For instance, you must be fully familiar with the use of different software that you may require to perform your day-to-day tasks. Similarly, you must get familiar with proper system usage so that you can work efficiently and error-free. All of this is required to fulfill your job role and the same goes for other job roles as well. This is indeed extensive training and needs more than one training session to complete.
Hence, regardless of the technical level of your employees, the room for improvement is always there. Technical training is difficult as it involves different aspects, such as content writing or data analysis. It’s a technical way to make your employees perform their job in a more efficient and effective manner. As technology advances with time, this employee training type is inevitable. Every time technical tools change, or if the organization adopts new software tools, companies should provide this training to maintain a flow of operations.
Does your organization need to employ Technical Training?
If your employees’ day-to-day job involves the usage of complicated software products, your organization will benefit from technical training.
What is needed?
To employ technical training in your organization, you need mentors and content.
World-leading providers of software understand the need for technical training for their customers, so they create the infrastructure for such a process. For example, Microsoft has created the network of Microsoft Learning Partners to distribute knowledge related to their products. Ask your software provider for technical training assistance. If there is no such service, you will need to use your internal expertise to create your own courses, potentially utilizing an LMS for customer onboarding to deliver and manage these training programs effectively.
Product Specific Training – PST
This type of employee training incorporates information about the organization’s offered products or services. New and existing employees can complete this training. For new employees, the training is usually conducted after the orientation session. The training allows new employees to fully understand the product or service specification so that they can further offer to customers and perform their jobs the right way.
However, companies might offer existing employees training to refresh their knowledge of products or services. Another reason for existing employees to attend this training is to get on board with any new service, product, or feature introduced by your organization.
Does your organization need to employ Product Specific Training?
If your company sells any kind of product/service – product-specific training is a must.
What is needed?
You will need to develop a lot of content. The most common types of content for such training are:
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Interactive sales demos
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2D/ 3D product simulations, guided demos, and walkthroughs
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Product manuals/how-to guides
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Animated product banners, collaterals, how-to guides, and manuals (Print/Web/Multimedia)
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Product pre-launch and post-launch training
What content would work for you depends on what learning strategy you are going to choose for your specific case. It can be fully offline learning, blended learning, and fully online learning. For the latter two, you’ll need to develop an online course.
Health, Safety and Security Training – HSSE
While not many organizations train their employees in health, safety, and security, this is one of the most essential training to keep your human assets safe, just like you take measures to keep the data/information secured. This employee training type can include both theory and practical exercises to train them. Such kind of training is necessary for people at all levels regardless of their position or job roles. Moreover, this training addresses the health aspect through ergonomics, helping employees to stay healthy and prevent workplace injuries. While companies can conduct these training sessions in-house, the vast majority of organizations take the help of external practitioners to provide adequate training to employees.
Does your organization need to employ HSSE?
HSSE training helps employees to keep themselves safe from workplace injuries or work-related accidents. All organizations must create awareness among their employees, but organizations that produce hazardous substances especially need this training. However, for other organizations, the training may include fire drills, evacuation plans in case of fire or earthquake, measures to take during workplace violence, etc.
What is needed?
To deliver HSSE training, try the following three-step approach:
STEP 1. Decide what training your organization needs. Identify the skills and knowledge needed for people to do their job in a safe and healthy way.
STEP 2. Decide your training priorities.
STEP 3. Choose your training methods and resources:
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giving information or instruction;
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coaching or on-the-job training;
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training in the ‘classroom’;
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open and distance learning;
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computer-based or interactive learning.
The bottom line
Employee training is an inevitable aspect of a growing organization. It not only develops the individuals’ skills but also increases the business’s worth and growth rate. An organization that offers a strategic employee training program keeping every aspect of the organization and employees’ training needs into consideration, is the one that establishes the best customer portfolio.
Moreover, it helps employees as well as the business to develop itself with time and to stand out from the rest. It brings satisfaction, happiness, and confidence to employees and helps them to perform better. Similarly, corporations that take employee training and development as a crucial and important business practice are always advancing in the diverse working environment and never fail to bring new ideas for the organization’s improvement.
