A positive perception of self-worth in the workplace is vital for employees to succeed in their position and advance on their career path. Understanding what motivates employees is key to increased productivity and self-worth in the workplace. Training can help employees understand how their position and efforts fit into the company’s mission and goals. Employees often become more motivated when they can see the bigger picture and how their work contributes to organizational goals. Training employees and showing them clear career paths forward will get them more excited about the prospect of success and help them to develop a higher sense of self-worth.
Barriers for engaging and completing training
When it comes to training, employees can become disengaged because of a lack of purpose or self-worth. This occurs when training is not embedded in culture and is not set up in a way to truly help the learner. Not all training is one-size-fits-all for employees, and understanding what barriers they have when it comes to learning can help you best meet their needs.
Here’s some ways to keep employees engaged and motivated for company training:
Bite-sized training
Bite-sized learning is a simple concept; take long courses and break them down into smaller chunks. This is a more effective way of learning in the modern age. Research suggests that bite-sized learning delivered by an LMS or other e-learning solution can increase information transfer by a whopping 17 percent and results in greater understanding, application, and retention than a day-long, equivalent training session. Cost wise, it can be up to 30 percent less expensive. Simply breaking up a 5-hour session into 1- or 2-hour sessions can help the employee retain more information. It also gives them time to process information and time to ask questions on the information they learned.
Make it mobile
Mobile phones – won’t be that distracting and tempting? If an employee isn’t engaged, they will continue to be disengaged whether they have their smartphone or not. An engaged employee will be ready to work and learn despite the temptation to wander off to another app. Mobile training allows employees to learn anywhere, any time, on the go. That’s what learners need in this technology-driven world. As technology grows and advances, so does the need to adopt other ways of training. Mobile learning aligns well with the ever-changing needs of the workforce. By utilizing mobile, there’s a more diverse opportunity for training; you can use gamification, videos, audio clips, external websites, and more! Mobile learning is no longer a nice feature, it’s a critical piece of career development.
Make training part of company culture
A company with a strong learning culture embraces training and developing employees. Building a strong culture around learning not only improves efficiency and productivity but increases self-worth, as mentioned previously. If employees are trained to work in a way that contributes to organizational goals and they can see that connection, their self-worth increases along with productivity. Putting training plans in place is essential to stay in business but also to boost your employee’s morale.
Create a clear path
Employees who have successfully learned new skills and abilities should be recognized and trained for bigger roles. Many studies suggest that investing in training creates clear paths for growth for employees. As mentioned in our post to reduce turnover, giving employees a clear path forward can boost morale. It doesn’t always have to be a job promotion or pay raise, instead, you can give them more development opportunities or a stretch assignment and offer incentives for completion.
Incorporate multifaceted ways to train
Not all learners are the same and providing them a variety of ways to access learning material can improve their engagement. To motivate your employees to complete training, find out their learning preferences. While some prefer reading with tests, others may desire gamification or interactive videos. The best part is that ALL of these preferences can be incorporated into learning material. Providing a wide variety of learning materials will allow employees to be more motivated and to retain more information.