One of the best ways to prepare employees for long-term success at your company is to provide adequate training. A recent survey indicates that 40 percent of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. You can avoid this by starting to build more successful training programs today.

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Of course, there’s no one right way to build a training program, but there are steps you can take to ensure it is engaging, sustainable, and highly effective. Here are the first 5 steps you should take:

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1. Define your goals.

What do you want to accomplish in your training? That’s the first question you must answer. Every great program has definable goals that will essentially add value to the company. When considering your list of goals, think about the current stage of your business, the demands of your employee positions, what it takes to be competitive in the industry and the values of your company culture. Keeping your goals at the forefront of your decision-making will create a program that yields the results you desire. Even further, you can develop benchmarks to evaluate your progress toward reaching your goals along the way.

2. Create a consistent schedule.

Consistency is key. This lightens the burden on your company and raises a team of employees who are committed to ongoing learning. As you plan ahead, figure out how long your employee trainings will be and consider compartmentalizing topic categories. You can dedicate a few hours at the end of each week or spread it out throughout the month. It’s better to train gradually than to overwhelm your employees with information. Unloading too much on them at once can quickly backfire and make them less motivated to participate.

3. Find a trainer.

Great training creates great employees. Recruiting a credible trainer whose expertise aligns with your objectives is important for many reasons. This person will create and coordinate engaging programs, guide team members, observe employees’ success, and bring specialized experience, must-have resources, and timeliness to the table. Their skillful ability to lead, lecture, mentor, answer difficult questions and give quality feedback is needed to effectively educate employees over time.

4. Communicate to your employees.

Hold a brief meeting or send an email ahead of time explaining what you have planned. Informing your employees of scheduled trainings and what is expected of them will help them prepare both mentally and physically before they arrive. This clear communication also shows employees that it should be taken seriously.

5. Get feedback.

In order to determine how successful your employee training program has developed, you must get feedback, whether that’s through an electronic survey or just asking during an open discussion. Ask specific questions about the engagement, information provided, if objectives were met, and what could be done better. After a few months, follow up to see if the training was helpful for their work and if they’d like training in other areas.

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If you’re ready to make effective training a part of your company’s culture, our team at Chief of Minds is here to help. We offer an extensive list of training programs that focus on areas such as sexual harassment, teamwork, leadership development, customer service, change management, conflict management, HR 101, performance management, and more. Contact us here to learn more and get started.Was this article useful? Chief of Minds provides innovative human resources and payroll services that position your business for growth and increase productivity and profitability. Our full-service human resources strategy firm focuses on helping small to medium businesses decrease workload, improve HR functions and reduce costs. We’re here for you to win!‍

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