The difficulty with this is that there are no two learners alike. While some succeed in the classroom, others do better by exposure or e-learning. This is why L&D professionals should consider implementing a blend of training techniques that will accommodate different learning requirements.
In this blog, we are going to explore the top 10 influential training techniques that you can integrate in your L&D programs. All of the methods will be broken down into a detailed description, advantages, issues, and best practices so that you can develop a powerful and effective training strategy.
1. Classroom Training
One of the oldest and most successful forms of employee training is classroom training or instructor-led training (ILT). It is the process of trainers providing a set of lessons to a team of workers in a physical or virtual classroom.
Why It Works
- Promotes active involvement: Classroom training will provide employees with the possibility to participate in real-time dialogue, to formulate questions and explain their doubts in real-time.
- Enhances peer education: When learning with co-workers, employees share ideas and impressions, which make the session more comprehensive.
- Creates accountability: When students are in a classroom setting, they are more likely to pay attention and not be as distracted.
Challenges
- It is also time consuming and expensive, particularly when employees have to travel.
- Long sessions need trained trainers to keep the attention.
Best Practice
Interactive exercises, case study, role-plays: The sessions need to be made more relatable.
2. E-Learning Modules
Training has become accessible, scaled and self-paced thanks to e-learning. Online courses, videos, quizzes, and gamified materials help employees learn better and faster.
Why It Works
- Adjustable to different learners: Employees are able to study at a pace that meets their needs, take a break during lessons when needed, and revisit lessons when needed.
- Scalable by location: a course can be replicated in more than one place and department around the world.
- Cost-effective: Although the initial course development might involve investment, the cost is lower in the long term when compared to conducting repeated face-to face sessions.
Challenges
- Absence of human interaction can render it not so interesting to some employees.
- Requires high quality IT infrastructure and digital literacy.
Best Practice
Make the content interactive by adding videos and gamification along with progress-tracking dashboards to maintain the motivation.
3. On-the-Job Training (OJT)
Training on the job puts employees in actual working conditions as directed by supervisors or mentors.
Why It Works
- First-hand experience: The employees gain direct knowledge of what is required of them by doing the job on the spot.
- Enhances confidence: When combined with guided supervision, employees become increasingly proficient in their jobs and then able to work completely independently.
- Builds strong relationships between mentors and mentees: This approach helps to enhance partnership and knowledge sharing between experiences and new employees.
Challenges
- Errors made in this approach have the potential to affect operations or clients.
- Quality will be determined by how well the mentor can teach.
Best Practice
Develop certain learning objectives and engage teachers who are competent and patient.
4. Mentorship and Coaching
Individual development, skill development and career development are the objectives of personalized mentorship and coaching programs.
Why It Works
- Hyper-personalized format: Coaching focuses on areas of individual strengths and weaknesses, in contrast to a group session.
- Increases motivation and interest: The presence of a mentor is an indication that the company cares about its employees, which enhances loyalty.
- Supports leadership pipeline: Coaching can be particularly useful when it comes to preparing employees to become leaders.
Challenges
- Consumes special time and effort on the part of mentors.
- It may be hard to scale in large companies.
Best Practice
Institutionalize formalized mentorship programs with specific objectives, timeframes and measurement criteria.
5. Simulation-Based Training
Simulation training is the replication of real-world challenges in a virtual scenario, role-playing, or software environment.
Why It Works
- Practice space: Employees are able to practice without having to face any significant consequences in real life.
- Improves decision making capabilities: Simulations challenge employees to make critical decisions under duress or pressure.
- Very interactive: Active participation of the learners.
Challenges
- Simulations are expensive to develop.
- It calls for investment in high-tech tools and trainers.
Best Practice
High-stakes occupations like aviation, finance, and healthcare should use simulations because the impact of an error in the real world can be costly.
6. Microlearning
Microlearning provides knowledge in a small, bite-sized form, by delivering content in the form of the short videos, infographics, or quizzes that employees can absorb in a relatively short time.
Why It Works
- Fits well in busy schedules: Short modules can be completed within a 5-10 minute time frame so that employees can learn on the go.
- Enhances retention: Dividing attention by concept at once improves recollection and application.
- Facilitates learning on need basis: Employees get access to brief refreshers before they can put the knowledge into the actual context of work.
Challenges
- Narrow focus – microlearning might not go into depth of complex issues.
- It presents the danger of fragmented knowledge.
Best Practice
- Have microlearning modules support longer training programs.
7. Blended Learning
Blended learning is a mixture of the conventional classroom approach and online learning with a balanced training process.
Why It Works
- Best of the both worlds: Employees have the advantage of face-to-face guidance and the freedom of digital modules.
- Promotes learning that is diverse: Blended learning incorporates various forms of learning, including videos, discussions, assignments, and such, so it can attract everyone.
- Promotes ongoing interaction: The alternation of offline and online helps to make the learning process exciting.
Challenges
- Demands a good level of interaction between trainers and digital spaces.
- Requires planning in order to prevent overlap of content.
Best Practice
Blended programs can be designed in a way that classroom-based time is devoted to discussion and practice, and e-learning to theory.
8. Workshops and Seminars
Employees are united in workshops and seminars where experts are brought to impart knowledge to them in an organized manner.
Why It Works
- Tapping into industry knowledge: External trainers or guest speakers offer new knowledge and best practices.
- Practical: Workshops focus on the implementation of concepts during the workshop.
- Fosters networking: Employees have an opportunity to network with colleagues and cross-industrial peers.
Challenges
- It is expensive when external speakers are needed.
- The effectiveness is determined by the level of interactiveness in the session.
Best Practice
Provide projects or team activities as a way of encouraging employees to apply learnings as soon as workshops are done.
9. Social Learning
Social learning uses peer to peer interaction, cooperation and non-formal communication.
Why It Works
- Promotes natural knowledge transfer: Employees are motivated to learn via conversations and discussions, as well as, through mutual experiences.
- Develops a culture of teamwork: Yammer, Slack, or MS Teams social platforms encourage community-based learning.
- Informal and continuous: Learning is more flexible since it takes place outside a formal training.
Challenges
- It can be more difficult to monitor and assess because it is informal.
Best Practice
Foster formal peer learning using internal forums, question-and-answer sites and communities of practice.
10. Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is more about learning through doing where most of the time it is done in the form of projects, simulations or job rotations.
Why It Works
- Cultivates leadership and teamwork: Group work promotes team work and problem solving.
- Develops flexibility: Employees get to be innovative and able to think critically by confronting actual challenges.
Challenges
- Consumes resources and a lot of planning.
- May be time consuming to both employees and organizations.
Best Practice
Combine learning experience with reflection sessions during which employees would discuss what they have learned and discuss ways to become better.
Conclusion
A well-considered combination of a flexible, engaging and practical training approach should be used in an effective L&D strategy. Basic knowledge is developed during classroom training and e-learning, and advanced skills are developed through such techniques as mentorship, simulations, and experiential learning. Microlearning and social learning, however, ensure that learning remains a continuous process that becomes flexible enough to fit a working environment in the present times.
When these 10 training techniques are integrated, organizations are able to develop a growth culture, provide their employees with skills that are future proof and ultimately lead the business to success.
Frequently asked questions
Adoption of various styles of training can enable organizations to address various learning objectives and styles. It guarantees increased interaction, enhanced retention and flexibility.
- Accommodates the multiple learning styles: There are employees who learn through visuals, others through practice and yet others through discussions. The combination of methods benefits everyone equally.
- Scales and personalizes: e-learning can be used to train very large groups of people simultaneously, but mentoring and coaching offers personal training. They jointly form a balanced style.
- Improves long-term effectiveness: An array of techniques will help avoid staleness, keep learners engaged, and make concepts reinforced at different angles.
Organizations have a tendency to seek strategies that have a balance between quality learning deliverables and budget. There are ways that are very cost effective.
- e-learning modules: Once developed, these modules can be reused many times over in other teams, eliminating the need to repeat instructor-led sessions.
- Microlearning: Brief and attention-grabbing learning is cost-effective and is best used as an on-going training module.
- Social learning sites: Forums or chat programs through peer-to-peer sharing eliminates the need to undertake formal training.
Measures of effectiveness can be done both qualitatively and quantitatively. Most of the organizations adopt models such as the Four Levels of Evaluation by Kirkpatrick, which are used to examine reaction, learning, behavior, and results.
An example of this is the post-training survey to determine the satisfaction of the learner and the use of assessments and quizzes to determine the level of knowledge retention. The actual impact is seen over time through performance measures in terms of productivity or fewer mistakes.
Absolutely. Although small businesses might not have the resources to create expensive VR simulations, they can implement cost-effective solutions, such as role-playing games or scenario-based e-learning. Affordable Learning Management Systems (LMS) and in-house workshops also can be applied to implement blended learning.
