Organizations spend millions on training employees online, and, frankly, much of that is wasted. The reason is that too many administrators wrongly assume that by simply rolling out a program, it will be successful. These are some of the most valuable online training tips you’ll need to make your computer-based staff training more effective.
5 Online Training Tips For A Successful Professional Development Program
Focus on fundamentals.
One bad habit in online training programs is offering a too-advance curriculum. A small challenge can motivate participants, but material that is too advanced will make employees disengage.
To prevent employees from tuning out, focus first on fundamental skills before moving on. Make sure your whole team follows the same basics — even if it seems elementary to some — and establish a baseline. Then build from there depending on job function.
Keep teaching.
One of the most crucial tips for online training is to make learning a regular part of your staff’s activities. Learning doesn’t stop when you put down your reading material, so why should teaching? Rather than making employee training a one-time event or something that happens only once a year, keep teaching. Reinforce skills training outside of the classroom and on the job.
Furthermore, for healthcare or social services agencies, ongoing learning is an essential step to obtaining and keeping certifications. This is a good opportunity for blended learning, in which you can employ a coach to help reinforce skills picked up in the online course on the job. One of the benefits of an online training subscription is that it can make ongoing education easy for your staff and managers.
Focus on goals.
An online training program that doesn’t meet your organizational goals is surely going to fail. Your employees won’t understand why they’re taking it, and it won’t support your overall mission. So the money invested in it will go nowhere to prove a return.
Yet, many companies simply subscribe to online courses because they’re easy. Instead, you want to link your organizational goals directly to the course content and find or adapt a curriculum that directly applies to your unique needs.
CHW Core Competencies
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Make it relevant.
One of the last online training tips is making your program relevant to real-life situations. If learners can’t see themselves and the people they work with in a course, they’ll lose interest quickly, and the course won’t succeed. You’ve likely heard about how important representation is — and this includes education. Customize your training to situations your team is likely to face in real life as well as your employee demographic to help them relate to the information and thus, perform better.
Be fun.
So often online training is so frightfully boring that employees will do anything to avoid it — including checking email while logged in, making calls, or whatever they can do to just get through a requirement. If you’ve made your training relevant, that helps with engagement. However, it may be worth considering additional means of encouraging participation. Think about offering certificates, prizes, or contests as a way to reward engaged learners and keep things lighthearted when possible.
Online Training Is A Substantial Investment Of Resources.
To make the best of your time and money, work with an expert partner that can guide you in navigating the challenges of online learning. Book a consultation with CHWTraining to get started.