6 tell-tale signs of successful employee training and development programs

Successful employee training can take a lot of time and effort. And there is no setting stone on how to achieve perfect employee training and development programs.

However, there are some elements that indicate you’re on the right track.

In this article, we’ll discuss what makes your training and development programs successful so you can train your teams without falling into pitfalls—or wasting time in programs that don’t work.

Employee training and development challenges

Employee training is necessary for any organization that wants to grow and achieve its goals. But to make sure your training program is effective, you need to ask yourself whether your employees are happy with the way training is being delivered.

They might be facing certain challenges, or they might feel unhappy with what they’re getting. For example, employees might have very busy schedules or find training not relevant to their jobs or tasks. Even if stats are quite optimistic, with 75% of employees being satisfied with the training they receive from their company, there are still struggles that need to be addressed, as well as room for improvement.

Some of the most common issues around employee training and development programs are:

• Zero to little time for training
• Inability to grasp the content
• Irrelevant training
• Feelings of boredom during training
• Lack of bandwidth
• Incompetent SMEs
• Tight budget

However, there’s no reason to worry. Tick the following signs to see if you’re on the right track or if you should consider further developing your training strategy.

What makes employee training and development programs a big hit?

You already know that employee training can be challenging. You are also aware of the issues that may rise while creating your training strategy. And you’ve tried your best not to build training programs that your employees will just mark as “done” in their to-do lists.

In order to be sure that your employee training and development strategy is effective, let’s explore the points that prove it.

1. High completion rates

Employee schedules are usually full, so your people are quite busy. This can make it hard for them to make room in their schedule for employee training. And even if they find some time, they might struggle to remain completely focused while doing it. As a result, completion rates are low, and you need to constantly remind them they must complete their courses.

But if your employee training and development programs are successful, your employees will complete their courses on time, without you having to nudge them every now and then. Microlearning and mobile-friendly solutions can eliminate training time as they deliver training content in smaller chunks, anytime, anywhere. Your employees are able to complete training sessions in a few minutes, even on the go, and retain knowledge as it’s being offered in smaller portions.

2. Sharing success

According to the LinkedIn 2022 Learning Report, employees are expecting development opportunities that bring long-term value to their careers. In simple words, they want to receive relevant training and development that will help them upskill if needed in the future.

So, when you observe that your employees are happy to share their certificates and progress online, on their personal social media accounts, it means that they find the employee training and development program you’ve offered extremely valuable. They view certificate sharing as a popular way to connect with other experts in the industry, and they are enthusiastic about spreading the word. By providing certification, your training becomes an amazing opportunity for your employees to link learning experiences to career benefits.

3. Impressive assessment scores

In order to track the effectiveness of your employee training and development program, you should create assessments to find out whether your employees have understood the information shared. In case the assessment scores are low, there must be something wrong with your training material and content delivery.

If the assessment scores are high, on the contrary, your employees have managed to retain the knowledge shared during the training, and are more likely to put it into practice later on. Effective training content must be accessible, easy to grasp, with simple language, and delivered in various formats to address all learning needs. If you’ve managed to avoid abstract concepts and technical jargon, then you should expect to see high scores during assessments.

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4. Knowledge is put into practice

Sometimes, training content might come off as irrelevant to your employees. They might fail to understand how concepts like cybersecurity or sexual harassment are connected to their jobs. But maybe your training is outdated, vague, or just generic.

Uninterested employees simply won’t bother taking the time to complete training with content that isn’t actionable. And this is where you know your employee training and development is failing.

On the other hand, when you see your people successfully using cybersecurity practices daily, for instance, you can rest assured that your training content is effective. Short animated videos, hands-on quizzes, real-life scenarios, and clear outcomes make your training content relevant, and your employees will be more than happy to complete it and use it in their day-to-day.

5. Effortless creation of training modules

There are many things that can make the creation of training modules hard. Lack of proper bandwidth, the absence of specific SMEs, and limited time. When training and development progress seamlessly, and training modules are being created effortlessly, then you know you’re on the right path.

Successful employee training and development programs can sometimes require you to leverage ready-made courses that save up a lot of time, don’t require the presence of specialists and SMEs to make sure the knowledge shared is right, or don’t demand high-end bandwidth. You can get access to a library of ready-made courses that cover everything from soft skills to sales & marketing training essentials to project management and HR essentials.

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6. Budget is not an issue

Employee training and development programs cost money. But the good news is that with online training, you can cut training costs (no need for venue hire, travel expenses, etc.)

“Expensive” doesn’t always mean “successful.” A great training program can be cost-effective without compromising on quality. This is why you should invest in a platform that fits your specific needs and doesn’t include costly features you’ll never use. L&D experts that create successful training programs make sure to choose the right LMS for their training strategy by checking if it’s the right fit through free or demo versions first.

Hitting the bullseye of employee training and development programs

Training focuses on employee improvement. Thus it is essential that it is successful but also easy for L&D teams to create and monitor. Overcoming training challenges will lead to impressive results that will reassure you that you’re not doing it all wrong.

Take these signs of successful training programs, do some reverse-engineering, and set them as your L&D objectives.