Employee training is a mission-critical business process, but it can also be a polarizing experience for employees. Depending on what it entails, employees may find training to be one of their most — or least — favorite work experiences.
Learning and development (L&D) processes have a big impact on the direction of these results. When done well, training initiatives help employees master their work and better understand their company’s priorities. They work more safely, more efficiently, and with higher overall job satisfaction. Moreover, they gain knowledge that can help the organization thrive in every respect, from productivity and product quality to inclusion and risk reduction.
With employee turnover at all-time highs, it’s vital to design training programs and processes that help employees reach their full potential and improve talent retention. Companies that regularly train their workers with well-planned and executed efforts experience higher retention — and ultimately higher profits — than companies that rely on inconsistent training processes or forgo it altogether.
5 Steps to Success
Training that makes a real difference for employees is no accident. It requires careful planning, as well as alignment with the organization’s overarching goals. It must also be coordinated with the company’s budget, schedule and physical resources. Let’s look at the five critical steps that lead to training programs that deliver the most impact for employees and businesses.
1. Evaluate and document your specific needs.
Why is the training effort necessary? Take the time to answer this question in detail, and in writing.
For group training, the precipitating need may be underperformance in a particular department, a change in corporate vision, a new product introduction, a negative workplace incident, or the introduction of new technology. For one-on-one training, the purpose may be skills development, conflict resolution, employee onboarding or other personal and/or developmental requirements. Regardless, taking the time to analyze and state the need will help ensure a positive result.
2. Set goals and outcomes for the training.
Data-driven outcomes help trainers focus their efforts and document successful knowledge transfer. A series of classes for telemarketing teams, for example, might use a 20% increase in product knowledge as a benchmark for success.
3. Design an employee training action plan.
Action plans have a huge impact on training return on investment (ROI). Building on the needs, goals and outcomes established in the first two steps, the program’s action plan can be developed beginning with the format: in-person versus digital, group versus individual, lecture or workshop, passive or active, voluntary or mandatory, using internal or external trainers.
After selecting the format, create a general outline for the content. Department managers and L&D specialists can be a great help in making sure learnings are up-to-date and well-organized. This is also the time to decide how to promote the training session(s) to relevant parties, set the training schedule and line up registrants.
4. Execute the training.
Make sure information technology (IT) specialists are on call during the sessions to solve technical issues as they arise. If training is online or virtual, it’s smart to review performance metrics daily to catch day-to-day variations in attendance, questions asked by attendees and measurements of knowledge transfer. Monitor the progress of each session and adjust as needed.
5. Evaluate the program.
The success of any training effort rarely ends with the last class. Continue to monitor and evaluate trainee performance wherever possible. Collect feedback not only upon conclusion of the program, but also at future points to see how workers have benefitted from the training. Be sure to carefully analyze any suggestions on ways to improve future sessions.
How BPA Makes a Difference
Low-code business process automation (BPA) helps businesses deliver training that improves employee experiences and builds stronger employer brands. The reason why low-code BPA can do this is that it empowers L&D teams with the tools they need to customize and manage their training processes, all without coding experience.
Low-code BPA helps L&D build effective training programs in three primary ways: by standardizing, automating, and orchestrating training processes.
Standardization. BPA allows planners to standardize their L&D processes, a feature that creates more consistent outcomes and leads to better employee experiences. Standardized processes are also easier to monitor and evaluate.
In addition to structuring the training workflows, planners can use BPA to standardize forms and docs, which can then be organized into self-service portals. Standardization helps those responsible for the training collect all necessary information such as department, type of training, needs, goals and outcomes. This prevents delays or errors due to missing or incomplete information.
Automation. Automating training workflows saves time and money; it also ensures that data is accurate and that all stakeholders have visibility. Notifications, status updates, emails and signature capture are some of the manual, repetitive tasks that can be eliminated with automation. Teams that use automation also have fewer errors to correct and can move past an overreliance on spreadsheets or never-ending email threads.
Orchestration. BPA makes it easy to coordinate and connect all L&D processes and workflows, such as hiring, employee training, onboarding, performance evaluation and offboarding. As a result, data is consolidated, visibility improves, and cross-team collaboration becomes much easier. This level of coordination produces unified training programs that lead to better experiences for both the training managers and the trainees.
Impact of Training Programs on Employee Performance
Employee training is more than a formality or an obligation. Study after study has established a correlation between training and job satisfaction, performance and retention. Moreover, with the cost of replacing an employee averaging 20% of the associated annual salary, there’s significant organizational incentive to develop well prepared and executed training programs.
Delivering exceptional employee experiences — starting on day one — is more important today than ever. In order for L&D teams to craft these experiences, they need the right tools and technology. Low-code business process automation is one of the most important tools they can use.
Low-code BPA empowers L&D teams with the tools they need to customize and manage their training programs. It helps them eliminate manual work, streamline and connect all training workflows, and enables cross-team collaboration. As a result, employees have the benefit of unified and standardized training programs that help them reach their full potential.
