How an Employee Training App Can Make Your Training Programs Stick

According to one business study, U.S. businesses invested more than $90 billion on employee training software in 2017, a year-on-year growth of 32.5%. Although several analysts highlight the value and advantages of workplace development — a more productive workforce, improved job productivity, and increased employee engagement — cynics point to a disappointing lack of outcomes from these investments. At the end of the day, there is truth in both perspectives. Employee training software is valuable at times but sometimes fails, especially when it is used to resolve issues that it can’t actually solve.

Many well-intending executives view employee training apps as a magic bullet for obvious learning gaps or behavioral issues. For example, if you need your staff to be less bureaucratic and more entrepreneurial – if your employees are currently waiting around for their manager’s approval, and you need them to take the initiative by themselves, this would not be something that a training initiative could solve. Though you may be eager to invest – an employee training app is not the right way to introduce this type of new behavior you’d want your employees to learn.

Training is a powerful tool when there is evidence that the underlying cause of the learning requirement is an undeveloped ability or an information deficit – this is why performing an in-depth organizational assessment before investing in an employee engagement app is so important. For these cases, a well-designed curriculum of personalized materials, appropriate case material, knowledge building exercises, and a final assessment of skills development fits well.

Learning is a result of thinking, not instruction, and it is effective when it has successfully helped an individual to change their behavior. Yet if the work climate does not endorse this action, a well-trained workforce won’t make a difference.

Here are three criteria that will help to ensure the effectiveness of your employee training software:

1. Internal operations enforce the newly-desired behavior

Identifying unwanted conduct is a sign that something has to be changed. But the root of this conduct might not be a lack of ability – individual actions in a company can be affected by several variables, such as:

• How well supervisors define, convey, and adhere to goals.

• What the culture supports and promotes.

• How success is evaluated and compensated.

• The number of hierarchy layers in the organization.

These all play a part in influencing the actions of employees.

2. There’s a desire to improve.

An in-depth organizational assessment will not only define the skills that employees need to develop but will also reveal the conditions required to strengthen and maintain those skills once a training solution has been implemented. Just because an organization recognizes factors that drive unwanted behavior, it doesn’t mean that they’re open to changing them – if there is no willingness or openness to doing things in a new or a different way, or even to challenge our thinking, investing in employee training software is not going to be effective for your organization.

3. The learning material is not easily accessible or on-demand

In today’s world, learning is taking place in a different way than happened in the past – people are learning as they go, and on the job. One of the most valuable ways of making sure your training programs stick is to ensure that it’s easy for your staff to access the content while they’re working, or whenever it’s convenient for them to learn. If it’s more challenging for your staff to access the content they need for the specific task than it is figuring out how to do the task on the fly, you can guess which option they’re going to go for – especially if they’re working against tight deadlines.

Last note:

Is your organization ready to invest in some behavior-changing training initiatives?

The Ezzely employee training software has a Training feature with lots of easy-to-access online courses. Just click here to see how it works or sign up for a free trial here.