Most companies look at training all wrong. It’s not that they aren’t teaching people how to do their jobs; it’s that they aren’t looking at what training really is: building an employee up to becoming a more valuable asset for your company. However, assessing how and what an employee is learning can be a difficult task.
Teaching new hires primarily comes down to 3 things: accountability, transparency and efficiency. We need to ask ourselves the following questions: Is tech making it easier or harder to achieve these benchmarks? And when should we just do things in the tried-and-true traditional fashion? To answer these questions, let’s first dig down to the core of training: accountability.
A Sense Of Accountability
One of the keys to employee training is having a system in place that holds them accountable for performing their jobs correctly, and also ensures that they went through the training. This can be tough, depending on how your employees are trained, as they’ll sometimes try to skirt around it. That’s why eLearning, while an efficient means of educating employees, isn’t always the most accurate for training.
It’s no secret that employees have a tendency to lie. While there are no hard statistics proving exactly how mendacious they are, if employees are willing to lie on surveys about lying, then it’s safe to say they’re going to lie at other times as well. So when it comes to training, who’s to say they aren’t going to lie about it too?
Many of us have had jobs that involved eLearning training modules, and quite frankly, most of us probably skipped over as much as we could in them. And when you factor in trainers who might themselves be disengaged or apathetic, you’re faced with an employee who potentially didn’t learn anything at all. However, this shows that the problem’s not really the medium, but how it’s used.
The Case For eLearning
Even if some of us would rather skip over training videos and quiz questions, you have to bear in mind that this technology is in its infancy. In fact, eLearning has been proven to be getting better and better every year, becoming an industry to keep an eye on regarding innovation. Because it’s so much cheaper than bringing on a consulting team or task force, a lot of companies have started to make it their focus. However, the question still remains: What’s been done to improve accuracy, transparency and efficiency?
Some companies have started rewarding their employees for showing and proving. This isn’t just giving them a Starbucks gift card or an extra sick day, but includes significant bonuses and raises. For example, companies like SmartUp are utilizing a knowledge-based platform to not only train employees, but improve accuracy in onboarding new ones as well. Why is this model working? Because the more knowledgeable and skilled candidates are, the more they’re valued, meaning the more money they should be paid. It’s simple economics, but something that could potentially keep job-hopping to a minimum.v
Considering the amount of innovation on the rise with eLearning and training, this industry could change how we look at job training forever. However, a lot of people still prefer the old-fashioned way.
Why Hands-On Learning Is Still Working
When it comes to learning, a hands-on approach still reigns supreme. There are a few reasons for this. First, there are some things you just can’t learn online, such as cooking specific dishes at a restaurant.
Not only that, but learning something with someone else gives you a chance to do team-building, as well as gain a sense of accountability that you actually were shown how to do something. And finally, we have a certain sense of pride in learning something hands-on: it gives us the feeling we’ve gained knowledge we couldn’t have picked up anywhere else.
The optimal solution is to mix both eLearning and hands-on activities in a meaningful way. Take the time to ensure that your employees are learning the right stuff, while simultaneously engaging with them on a personal level. Most important, reward them for their knowledge base and skill set. After all, you’ve helped develop them into a valuable asset, one that’s arguably the most crucial to the success of your business. By bringing your knowledge together, you’re forming a business whose power could stand the test of time.
