Designing a corporate training course for your employees is the way to set the stage for a high-performing workforce — get it right, and you will have an engaged, motivated audience with high ROI. In today’s fast-paced world where time is money, and every minute counts, crafting an effective training program can make or break your company’s performance. But even with the best intentions, it is easy to make mistakes that can turn a well-meaning program into a missed opportunity. Here are the 6 common mistakes to avoid while designing training programs for your employees along with how to avoid them.
- Unclear Learning Objectives
This is a common mistake we see no matter if companies are designing their courses themselves or taking help from a corporate training provider. They neglect setting clear course goals and end up with a half-performing employee training.
It is not enough to have a broad or vague goal in mind. If your aim is to improve customer service, simply stating “better customer service” will not help it. Instead, you need to break it down into the specific skills you want in your employees by the end of the course. You might need a course that focuses specifically on conflict management or gaining in-depth product knowledge.
With clear learning objectives, your corporate training course will hit your specific goals, ensuring a high ROI on every penny invested.
- Not Performing a Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
Before designing your employee training program, it is important to know exactly what your employees need. This ensures you are not just guessing at what your team needs. We often get approached by companies to conduct management training based purely on a gut feeling. They often have no prior TNA. This might work if all your managers are at the same level. But what if some have 25 years of experience while others are new to the role? Their training needs will be different, right? Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, a TNA will bring you a higher ROI.
If you are in a retail business and getting customer complaints about service quality, a TNA could reveal that the real problem is not poor customer service but a lack of product knowledge. Without this insight, you might end up creating a general customer service course that misses out entirely on this point.
- Dumping Tons of Information
One of the biggest errors in training design is burning out employees with a ton of info. This is especially true if you are training new hires, for example. Cramming all features and functions into a single session can be counterproductive. They will likely forget crucial details or become frustrated by the sheer volume of content. And this is not their fault! Similar to the learning curve, there is also something called the forgetting curve. According to E-Learning Industry, 90% of content learned in a single training session will be forgotten within the first month!
Think about running a sales training course for employees trying to cover every possible sales tactic in one go. They are sure to forget a large chunk of what you spent your hard-earned money to teach them! Instead, try spaced repetition techniques or break the content into manageable chunks and teach over a longer period.
- All Work and No Fun
Let’s be honest now. No one likes cramming through pages of content. Not just like – it is also not a foolproof method of learning anything! Study shows gamification done right on training could boost team engagement by 48%. Imagine sitting through a training session with just a series of endless slides. If your training comes off more as an obligatory task, it can easily turn into a snooze fest.
Gamification is a great way of solving this problem! Incorporating interactive quizzes, games, and role-playing scenarios can make learning fun and retainable for your team. For example, a gamified customer service training program where employees earn rewards for completing tasks is way better for engagement purposes.
- No Incentive to Take Up Training
One of the biggest hurdles with online training is getting employees to actually sign up. Often, they see corporate training programs as just another task that takes up their time and effort.
To tackle this, incentivize your program and point out what they’ll gain from the course. Share how the training can benefit them – maybe their name on the leaderboard or a certificate to show off! If employees understand that the course could lead to a pay rise or a future promotion, they’ll be more likely to get involved.
Offering a certificate upon completion can be a great motivator. It’s a tangible reward that recognizes their effort and can enhance their resume.
- Ignoring Trainee Feedback
Once your training course wraps up, don’t just move on! This is the right time to gather some fresh feedback on your training to see how you can make it better! Take the time to gather feedback from your employees while they still have the course content fresh in their minds. A simple survey at the course end can tell you a lot about their experience. Ask them what they liked, what didn’t work, and what improvements they suggest for future sessions.
If you are designing your courses in-house, this becomes even more important. If you are just starting, you will likely make mistakes in designing the course. To make it better the next time, you will absolutely need help from your employees to point out where the material or delivery could have been better. If you are using an LMS from a top corporate training provider like EducationNest, you won’t have to worry about incorporating this step as they will take care of it.
Conclusion
Designing an effective training program is about filling the right gaps – the keyword here is “right”. Remember, the ultimate goal of any training initiative is to empower your employees, enhance their skills, and align their growth with the organization’s goals.
By avoiding these pitfalls and focusing on creating relevant, engaging, and practical training, you can foster a culture of continuous learning and drive meaningful results for your business. Implement these insights, and watch your training program transform from just another task into a strategic tool that fuels your team’s performance and company’s success.
While it is best to outsource this task to expert corporate training providers as they have the dedicated tools and LMS to design, edit, and track everything from one place, it is not uncommon to see companies developing their courses in-house. But if you are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of effort that course-building comes with, EducationNest is here to ease you off your worries. We provide corporate training courses for various skills, taught by industry experts at affordable price ranges.
