Are you the founder of a booming SaaS startup? Perhaps you’re the L&D manager or the Department Head, with several team members relying on your expertise. What these three roles have in common (despite their distinct duties) is the serious responsibility of employee training.
No company wants to lose even a single member of their talent pool. Not to mention the costs associated with losing one, including cultural impact, recruitment expenses, etc., are detrimental to success.
Study upon study has found that the more trained employees are, the happier and more productive they will be. So, how can you treat your team members like the valuable assets that they are through workplace training?
This article discusses three fun (unconventional) ways to make your next workplace training event a roaring success.
Make It Exciting with Gamification
One of the most effective ways to train employees is to get them excited about the process. While many may dread back-to-back lectures and ongoing interactions, few cower from fun games. The first strategy to make your upcoming workplace training event successful includes gamified elements.
Now, how can you introduce gamification into corporate learning? Let’s look at some of the effective ways –
- Badges can be issued when an employee completes a certain task. Badges are an extrinsic motivation to put one’s best foot forward.
- Leaderboards help promote healthy team competition. Employees get to compare themselves to each other and this motivates them to improve their performance each time.
- Different task levels can be assigned when an employee reaches a learning milestone. They can then have access to extra learning materials. This is an intrinsic motivation to make content progression easier.
- Points are markers of training progression that are measurable. They may be assigned upon task completion or as employees contribute to interactions and activities.
- Rapid feedback motivates employees to take up quizzes and learn out of curiosity. For instance – they may select an answer, and if it is right, the system can instantaneously notify them.
- Progress bars show the portion of a task that has already been completed, along with what’s left. With a touch of eye-pleasing animation, they become good motivators for training completion.
- Collaborative tasks for in-person sessions. Get your employees divided into groups and assign them collaborative tasks. This will improve the team bond and allow each member to contribute their unique ideas.
Bring in Some Good Food
The simple thought of nourishing one’s body via food can be a sacred one. This is because food is not just about optimal physiological functioning; it is communal by its very nature. The fact that food brings people together may be cliché, but it never becomes obsolete.
When no family gathering or party is ever complete without conjointly breaking bread, why should your workplace training events be any different? A study found that employees were more likely to experience inclusiveness and well-being when they shared meals.
This also strengthened their bond and camaraderie upon which any team’s morale depended. In general, training events last for several hours a day (ongoing for a week to 10 days at a stretch). They cover important topics extensively, and employees might lose their concentration. Food becomes your surefire incentive and event optimizer.
As the event organizer, you can allow employees to choose individual meals or go full-blown buffet style. Select a good online catering marketplace that has tie-ups with awesome restaurants in the area. This way, you can place an online group order for every team member and keep track of progress with a meal calendar.
If any employee has certain dietary restrictions, ensure the catering partner allows such modifications. According to CaterCow, you can choose a particular restaurant for each day and let your team members browse the menu for their meals. In most cases, the dietary details for every dish will be given to make room for special requests.
There’s also the option to create curated menus for the entire team (instead of the restaurant’s complete list). This way, you have more control over the food choices, and there’s no chaos resulting from 40 people ordering 40 different items!
In any case, declare, “Lunch is served” and watch your employees flash their widest smiles.
Introduce Blended Learning
In a group of even 20 employees, everyone’s learning style will be different. While some prefer to learn in a traditional classroom setting with a face-to-face instructor, others prefer a self-paced eLearning mode.
A third way you can cater to each of your employee’s training needs is through a blended learning environment. This concept thrives on introducing the right mix of traditional and semi-autonomous eLearning methods.
There are many ways to allow this concept into your workplace training event. These include –
- The Flipped Model – inverts traditional classroom learning by allowing employees first to use online lectures. Then, the in-class time is utilized for group discussions, practical learning exercises, etc.
- The Face-to-Face Driver Model – is closest to traditional learning as most of the session involves a face-to-face instructor. However, the aim is to introduce new concepts and offer personalized support.
- The Rotational Model – in which employees rotate between learning modes. So, it would be instructor guidance one day, group discussion the next, online activities the day after, and so on.
- The Flex Model – is conducted through an adaptive learning platform with the most autonomy. Employees learn at their own pace and unanimously ask for an in-person session as needed.
- The Enriched Virtual Model – is a modality that is primarily based on virtual learning. However, there are pre-scheduled periodic in-person sessions for hands-on activities and collaborative projects.
By providing employees the freedom to learn at a pace most conducive to their growth, blended learning promises higher training program success rates.
The Bottom Line
Every business is unique and as such, its training program must first cater to its primary goals. The corporate training market boasts a noteworthy CAGR of 4.8%.
As you apply the tips mentioned in this article, make sure you also avoid some common pitfalls. These include staff disengagement, failure to gather employee feedback, not adapting to employee needs, and a slow learning curve.