Learning and Development (L&D) sessions are deemed incredibly crucial to ensure the optimal functioning of a business. We explain the five main roadblocks and how to overcome them.
A structured L&D program within a company allows the employee to polish their pre-existing skills and also aids them in learning new ones.
However, employee training, despite the significance, struggles with several issues. According to a report published by Mettl, the unwillingness of the employees to attend the aforementioned L&D sessions stands as one of the major challenges to overcome.
Analysing the Problem
Before seeking the solution to the same, we need to analyse the core of the problem. There could be several causes for the issue – lack of employee engagement, budget constraints, or even ineffective session content.
Usually, businesses are primarily focused on managing the budget for the training sessions when instead they should be dedicated to improving the technology or the engagement factor of the same.
To understand where your training sessions are lacking, you need to generate a detailed report about the status of all the involved factors that make the session a success. The following enlists the vital elements within the ideal training session to aid you in the same.
Issues and Solutions
Lack of interest
The primary factor that drives employees from attending the training sessions is the content that is utilised for the same. You have to make sure that the training resources that you’re using for the session are crisp, informative, and detailed. If the resources are brimming with unnecessary and irrelevant information, it’ll eventually lead to exhausting the involved employees.
Employee engagement is also a major factor that contributes to generating the required interest within employees. Even the interested employee will acknowledge their fading interest if they are not interacted with regularly during the training session.
Therefore, the following are the suggested steps that you should take to eliminate this issue.
- Appoint the appropriate instructor who interacts with the employees and provides them with additional examples to help them understand.
- Use reliable training resources with informative, crisp, and detailed content.
- Assess the employees regularly to gauge the knowledge they’ve absorbed.
- Take surveys after every session and implement the preferences of the employees for the next session.
- Include group and individual practical activities for the employees.
Inconsistent training sessions.
Consistency is vital for the ideal training session. If you’ve planned multiple training sessions over a specific duration of time then you need to make sure that all of the sessions follow a consistent flow. Usually, if there is inconsistency, there will be an immense amount of information in one session and barely anything useful in the next.
Employees aren’t generally able to absorb all the concepts in the single session. Too much information will eventually create an unbearable pressure on the employee which will repel them from the training sessions. To ensure that doesn’t happen, you should implement the following steps within your L&D program.
- Distribute the information equally throughout multiple training sessions.
- Dedicate a part of the training duration for questions from the employees.
- Prioritise Audio/Visual-based learning.
The absence of relevant technology
Employing the appropriate training programs and/or hardware is essential for an effective training session. You need to ensure that your training sessions don’t lack in technologies that can assist you in making the session engaging. If your training program isn’t integrated with interactive features, it’ll be recommended that you seek the relevant program before commencing your training sessions.
The right technology can aid you in making your training session a success even with an average training instructor. For effective training programs, you should employ the following tips.
- Choose a training software that allows you to track the performance of your employees in real-time.
- Ensure that your training program enables you to make use of GIFs, Images, and Videos.
- The ideal training program would permit you to customise the theme, colours, and the layout entirely.
- The employed tool should enable the employees to keep track of their progress through the various modules of the session.
Image: Stock Snap
Lack of unique content
The uniqueness of the content for the training session is arguably the most significant element of a training session. Owing to the widely available internet-enabled devices, training content can be accessed from any time and from anywhere. This creates a sense of unwillingness within employees, given the fact that they can easily view the training content later.
Therefore, to ensure that the same doesn’t happen, you have to create training content that is unique and is unavailable on the internet. The same can be achieved by following the listed steps.
- Pick the relevant bits of training content from various resources and tweak it according to your needs and preferences.
- Include real-life and relatable examples with each concept to better engage with the employees.
- Alter the training content to include relatable and intriguing topics while promoting practical activities.
Constraining nature of the sessions
Employees usually don’t appreciate if the training sessions are built around restricting them with the concepts that are being taught.
Employees will demonstrate an increased interest in the training session if they are allowed to freely experiment with the concepts that are being taught. If there are too many restrictions in your training program, employees will end up feeling that they are being controlled in a sense.
To make certain that the same doesn’t happen with your training program, you should implement the following steps
- Allow the employees to freely test the concepts on their own.
- Include activities that encourage the employees to get creative with the taught concepts.
- Permit them to set their milestones according to their own preferences.
In Summary
The above-mentioned are the solutions that you can implement within your L&D program to promote employee participation. Added to the same, it is also worth noting that proper planning is also a crucial part of creating an effective L&D program.
If you want to know more about optimal training session management or wish to employ the ideal training platform within your session, you can visit Mettl.
About the Author
Prabhash Bachhuwan is a content marketer who is an active contributor to Mettl’s blog. A writer by day and a reader by night, the one who believes there is no sharper sword than the pen. Mettl is an HR company and leading talent measurement firm that enables businesses to make precise people decisions in talent recruitment, management and training across industry verticals.
