Nowadays, efficiency is the name of the game, and productivity is almost always one of a business’s top priorities. For these goals to be met, your team needs to know what they are doing. This is precisely why it is so important for them to have the proper training tactics.
For this week’s tip, we’ll review a few training approaches for you to consider adopting as you educate your team. These methods vary wildly but can be split into a few overarching categories: instruction-based, active training, experience-based, and technological.
Instruction-Based Training Tactics
This is the approach to learning that most are familiar with, as modern education systems largely rely on it. With the help of visual aids, an instructor presents a lesson to a large group in a classroom setting. Think of conferences, seminars, lectures, or presentations, and you’ll have the right idea.
This form of training is very efficient to deliver but can be ineffective for the same reasons that make it so efficient. Due to the group size, many people can absorb the lesson at once. Still, there is the chance that the impersonal nature of such a lesson won’t allow the information to be retained… which means that the person delivering the message has to work to keep the group’s attention.
Maintaining the right energy level in proportion to the group size can be an effective way to teach fundamentals.
Active Training
Active training is very similar to instruction-based, with one key difference: active training relies quite a lot more on the participation of the person being trained. As a result, active training sessions may have a loose outline of materials to cover, but the lesson relies on the active (hence the name) participation of the person being trained. Harvard University has conducted studies that have shown that active learning techniques result in greater outcomes despite participants feeling as though more traditional teaching methods worked better.
Examples of active training scenarios are workshops, where a relative expert guides the class through a topic, and brainstorming sessions, where participants must contribute thoughts and ideas to overcome a challenge.
This version of training can present quite a few benefits, like increased engagement and collaboration between coworkers. However, some people may be reluctant to work in a group. This could potentially limit how effective the lesson really is. Therefore, an instructor’s job also involves monitoring these groups to ensure everyone is on task and participating.
Experience-Based Training Tactics
This approach is basically the practical application of “practice makes perfect,”. The training exposes learners to the situation it applies to during the training itself. Because they observe and participate in the process to learn it, this is a very effective way to teach employees a process they need to follow and develop the skills in context. This approach can often involve a fast-paced and high-pressure environment. Therefore, it often helps to give trainees additional resources to prepare themselves beforehand.
This kind of training can happen through simulated scenarios and role-playing. However, someone usually shadows an assigned mentor in this situation.
Mentorship has often been perceived as more effective amongst existing employees who will soon be elevated to a leadership positions. At the same time, on-the-job training is most effective with new hires. As a result, your organization could – and perhaps should – employ different kinds of experiential training at different levels.
Technological Training
Of course, we must discuss how technology provides opportunities to train your employees. As well as how its benefits (like accessibility, efficiency, and progress tracking) can make the entire process simpler for you to manage. The key ingredient that technological training offers is the empowerment it provides to the person being trained. You don’t force your employees to learn at a particular pace or during a certain time. The self-regulation that eLearning, gamification, recorded webinars, and other similar solutions allow for puts a level of responsibility on the employee that helps them get the most out of a lesson.
You can also use technology to train your employees in a more time-bound manner. Managers can create small groups of employees to enable them to connect and learn alongside each other. In this way, many technological training tactics simply combine all the major benefits of the other approaches and heighten their accessibility.
So, which approach is right for you?
Why pick? With help from WheelHouse IT, it is simple to utilize any and all of these training methods. Thus, improving your employees’ capabilities. For more information about the solutions we offer to help elevate your educational efforts, contact us at (877) 771-2384.
