Are you an employer that offers the bare minimum when it comes to training? It takes more than the mandatory induction training when a new hire sets foot in their new role, and in this day and age, basic training doesn’t cut it for employees.
Providing training for your employees shouldn’t stop after the hiring process or initial training period. While we know that the first 90-days are absolutely critical for onboarding, it’s important to provide your employees with continuous training (enhanced by an employee training LMS) throughout their career to make sure they can grow alongside your company.
Learning never stops
Learning is a lifelong journey and this means that people want to pursue knowledge throughout their careers.
In particular, the younger generations are looking for more than just a good salary when they’re searching for a job – they are looking for a career that will help them develop their skills and help them in their pursuit for knowledge and experience. In addition, they want their employer to offer resources and training that makes them feel valued.
Employers have a lot of responsibilities, and one is offering the training that employees need to evolve their skills and further their abilities in the field. This means that HR, L&D and even the CEO should be supporting employees in every way.
So, what are the benefits of providing training throughout the employee’s career?
Well, training is going to provide your employees with the support they need to build new skills and the knowledge they need to do a good job.
By receiving introductory training, employees can get used to what they’ll be doing in their role so they can perform their duties correctly. In addition, providing training throughout their career is going to ensure that they have the skills to keep performing their job to the best of their ability.
Additionally, upskilling or reskilling in various areas can help them pursue their passion, or help them pivot to a new position that will help your company succeed. In turn, this makes employees more engaged with their jobs and increases productivity in the office.
In addition, when you provide employees with training, they feel more confident and more valued in their roles. This all leads to success for your company and a happy employee is a productive employee!
What’s more, when you have happy and skilled employees, you can retain them for longer.
The better you support your employees with training, the more likely they are to want to stay with your organisation for years to come. Recruiting is an expensive business, and retaining great employees means you can avoid the cost of hiring new people and benefit from a better-skilled, more experienced workforce.
Hook them in in the first 90 days of onboarding – and don’t stop
The onboarding phase is designed to help new employees learn about your organisation and what’s expected of them in their roles, as well as gaining any new knowledge and skills they will need to thrive.
Not every employee will join your organisation with the exact skill set they need for their roles, so it’s important to get everyone up to speed as quickly as possible.
Of course, it’s important to remember that the onboarding process is the first real experience that an employee will have with your company, so make it count.
If you provide great training, employees will get a positive first impression of what it’s like to work at your organisation, and they will appreciate the investment you have made in getting them up to speed.
But that’s just the start – you are still responsible for providing training throughout their career.
You should develop a learning and development programme that will make sure that employees keep learning new skills and keep up-to-date with all the information they need in their role.
In addition, you can create a life cycle of learning by making sure there are performance management and ongoing courses. You can provide assessments and continuous training opportunities, as well as support employees.
Using e-learning courses for employee training
Throughout every stage of your employee’s career, you can make sure they receive the resources and support they need through online e-learning courses.
E-learning courses are a great way to provide training to your employee. Many organisations choose off-the-shelf e-learning courses for a cost-effective solution, especially for broadly universal content such as health and safety training or industry-wide compliance.
There are hundreds of off-the-shelf courses you can choose from for both onboarding and continuous training. From how to listen to your customers, to anti-money laundering compliance courses, there’s something everyone can learn from.
What’s more, you can set up assessments and tests for your employees to complete. Whether this is for the onboarding process or continuous training, you can see how well employees are performing and provide them with the support they need.
There are special monitoring settings you can use to view the completion of e-learning courses too so you can monitor everyone’s progress and set new tasks.
So, what are you waiting for?
Now is the time to get your training programme in gear and let your employees grow and progress with your organisation.
It’s never been easier than with online e-learning courses. Totara has recently partnered with e-learning marketplace platform, GO1, to create a single, comprehensive training solution for organisations worldwide.
As part of this partnership, GO1’s content marketplace of over 150,000 e-learning courses will be accessible via Totara’s open source learning management system, Totara Learn.
Take advantage of the opportunity to meet the GO1 team at the Totara Island #1027 at the ATD 2018 on 6th-9th May in San Diego to learn more about their e-learning marketplace and see how the integration with Totara works for you.
