What Makes Training Effective?

Training can have a great impact on the performance of an employee, and having an effective training program in place can mitigate employer liability for the employee’s performance. Onboarding training of an employee can make them ready to work sufficiently when first starting with a company, and more training can be done to an employee already working for the organization, to increase their performance.

Onboarding Training

Onboarding training can be effective in making the new employee comfortable working for the company from the start, as well as informing them of the values, norms, and required behavior that employees at the organization hold. In these trainings, it is effective to teach new hires about the organization, the objectives they are working toward, as well as the work process that the organization works in. Effective onboarding training will have the ability to make the new employee feel welcome to the team, gives them basic information needed to perform their job, helps the new employee understand the organization as well as their objectives, and will start the socialization process between the new employee and the rest of the employees in the organization.

Training for Current Employees

For training on employees who already work for the company, you can test the effectiveness of the training by analyzing the employee’s performance before they attend the training, and then accessing performance after they attend the training. To create effective training for current employees, it is highly important to focus the training on the current roles of the employee, as well as determine which employees are in need of the training; this can e important to not waste the employee’s or company’s time. It can also be smart to have the right person provide the training, possibly an employee who once exceeded at the position that the employee attending the training currently holds. In my experience, hands-on training can be most effective, as it ensures the employee is highly attentive to the training they are receiving. This can be more effective than a presentation/lecture, as employees may be less attentive to the information they are receiving.