5 Creative Ways to Energize Employee Training

In the old world, new employees would sit in the break room and watch a video. That was considered the cutting edge of corporate training technology. Today, increased global competition and a slow economic recovery means that there’s no time to waste. The modern mobile workforce needs comprehensive learning that is information-dense enough for new hires to hit the ground running, but not so dense that they can’t absorb it all.

Mobile training delivered over the cloud has solved this employee-training puzzle by making itself available wherever employees are, day or night, as well as allowing professional development managers to change the lesson plans at the speed of an upload. The cloud allows the whole world to be the training room and lessons to adapt to individual learning speeds. However, both benefits only come into play as long as the employee is motivated to keep learning.

To keep everyone engaged in these cloud-based employee-training and development programs, here are five creative techniques that break up massive data dumps with energizing ways to test understanding.

1. Video Quizzes

Incorporate quizzes with the video to make sure they are paying attention. For an added twist, ask recently trained employees to remake new versions of these videos while the material is fresh in their minds. It helps them consolidate the lessons in their memories, and they might even improve on the original.

2. Current Events

For the most part, information is not memorable unless people can see how to apply that knowledge in the real world. One of the greatest advantages of training over the cloud is that it can incorporate case studies from current news stories or interviews with the people involved, using YouTube, Vimeo or TED talks.

3. Blended Learning

Self-directed online classes are the most flexible way to learn. Sometimes, the focus and bi-directional communications that come with on-the-job training are more effective. There’s no reason you have to choose. You can combine both types of learning depending on what you are trying to teach.

4. Gamification

A quiz can be considered a type of learning game in that it has a challenge (questions) and a prize (a passing grade), but gamification involves much more. It involves the rules of storytelling with achievement badges, credits and certificates. Gamification uses instinctive competitive drives and the motivational factor of having fun to create a more effective learning environment.

5. Social Integration

Everyone loves showing off when they’re good at something. Integration with enterprise social networks like Yammer encourages employees to discuss and share where they are in the training process. They can invite friends and colleagues to take classes with them. After they have completed the courses, certificates or badges allow them to brag about how well they did in the class.

Employee training and development are judged not by what you teach but what they remember. Reporting and analytics can tell you which parts of the training have been the most effective at keeping them engaged. Then you can adjust the training to meet individual achievement goals. Let us know if you have tried any of the above strategies and what you have found to be your best learning-engagement techniques.