There are several employee training methods in the workplace today. Which employee training methods end up working for you will depend on your own personal style, the structure of your workplace, how many employees you need to onboard, what you’re teaching, what your employees need to learn, their individual learning styles, whether you’re teaching brand-new employees or helping older ones brush up on material or add to their preexisting knowledge base, and more. Although it can sound confusing to take all these factors into account, all you really need to do is consider the current types of training methods in human resource management available to you and choose the one that seems to fit your needs the best. Although there are many types of training available, let’s go over a few of the most common.
Classroom-style training is still one of the most effective training methods for new employees. However, you have to be careful to approach it correctly, as many employees won’t respond well to being handed a book and expected to learn. You have to interact and engage learners and make the knowledge stick by using real-world examples and drawing clear applications to your organization. If you can do all this, your training program will likely be very successful. Often it helps to use software, which responds readily to the needs of various learners, can go at different paces, and adapts to a variety of training situations.
Other effective business training methods include 1:1 training, which matches one learner with one instructor to show them the ropes. If you can spare the resources, this can be an excellent way to quickly familiarize a new employee with their job-to-be. Methods for employee training in the workplace also include job shadowing, which is similar to 1:1 training in that the trainee will follow an experienced worker around to learn their job. However, they are supposed to play the role of a “shadow,” meaning that there is less interaction between the experienced worker and the new employee, as the latter just watches and learns and sometimes asks questions. This is a better way to get a feel for what an actual day, or week, or more, will look like for that new employee.
Self-training, which relies on the new employee conducting research to learn what they need to know for the job, is also an employee training method learning style.
Automated training can help you reach large numbers of employees all at once, or it can allow you to train individual employees as they come on board quickly and easily, so that you don’t have to waste time waiting for a large enough batch of employees to justify a classroom series or other group training approach.