Training Managers: Don’t Make These 4 Employee Training Mistakes

Not properly training your employees is like throwing someone who can’t swim into a pool, and hoping they’ll just figure out what to do. While the stakes in these scenarios aren’t equal, not giving your employees the education, resources, and support they need to succeed is like saying you don’t care if they fail.

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But even training managers with the best of intentions make employee training mistakes that threaten to derail the entire training plan. Knowing which mistakes trip up training the most is the first step to preventing them.

The cost of poor employee training

All employees go through training, whether they are onboarded to the company, learning new software, or beginning a new process. Employee training mistakes contribute to frustration, disengagement, and employee churn. According to a report by EBN, it costs 33% of a worker’s annual salary to hire a replacement. Then there are the additional costs of providing employee training all over again.

Employee Training Mistakes to Avoid

HR leaders, employers, and managers must establish an effective employee training approach that avoids this costly cycle. Start by avoiding these four employee training mistakes.

1. Unpreparedness

Being unprepared for employee training will hurt efficiency and drive up costs later on. Prepare for the employee training process by outlining goals and identifying what tools and resources you need to achieve them. You must also be able to answer these questions:

• How do you plan to fit the training into the daily workflow?
• Who will lead and maintain the training as you go?
• How will you reinforce the material employees learn?

Get clear on your goals early on and determine what steps will get you there. Otherwise, you are sure to find a loss of direction and morale in the workplace.

2. Outdated training modes

Sitting in a classroom and listening to hours of instruction is an inefficient use of time and money. For most people, it’s difficult to retain information through traditional methods such as textbook learning and lectures. In today’s digital market, there are smarter ways to approach employee training. Employee training programs that enable contextual learning expedite the process by providing learning prompts in real time. This allows users to perform unfamiliar tasks correctly the first time, without having to stop and consult a training manual or another resource. The outcome is increased efficiency, higher competence, and greater knowledge retention.

3. Applying a blanket approach

Deploying one method of training for all employees is one of the most common employee training mistakes. But one size does not fit all. Training managers must account for different types of learners across the board, especially depending on what kind of process (digital or otherwise) must be learned. Employers should be cognizant of this and respond with different learning options when necessary.

4. Closing feedback and follow-up channels

One of the biggest mistakes training managers make is thinking that only employees learn something during the training process. The most effective training managers ask employees to provide feedback on the training. They ask what works and what doesn’t, and how to improve. Importantly, they ask for feedback throughout the process, not just once it ends. Not taking advantage of this opportunity to improve training is a mistake. Employees know firsthand what is working versus what needs improvement and clarification. By showing you value their input, employees will approach training with higher motivation and engagement.

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