Many training professionals have gotten the feedback that there wasn’t enough time or that the training content was shallow. There is so much to cover and too little time! Our instinct in preparing a training curriculum for when you have limited time and resources is to give them a bit of information on many things, but I would argue that this leaves your team feeling overwhelmed and ill-prepared for the hard work they will face post-training. These types of training can be frustrating for employees and can contribute to burnout and turnover. So how do we fix this mile-wide and inch-deep training problem? Here are five things to consider when planning to preempt shallow training.
5 Things to Fix Shallow Training
- Prioritize application of knowledge in instruction over covering generalized topics at intermittent times. When you only have an hour, spend 10 minutes on new information and 50 minutes applying this new content.
- Help participants make connections to other training. For example, if you are training someone to use a new piece of equipment, help them understand similarities and differences between this equipment and previous equipment or tools they have used.
- Provide follow-up mentorship/coaching post-training. That doesn’t mean the peer or coach needs to be there every time an employee is applying what they learned post-training, but it does mean that a one-on-one check-in soon after implementation needs to happen for the team member/staff to reflect and share what went well and what didn’t with the coach or expert peer.
- Know what training your team needs by asking them! It seems simple, right? Don’t make assumptions solely on what you think they need or what you might have wanted training on when you were in a similar position. Once you have heard from team members, identify patterns across responses to determine how you will budget out your training time.
- Match up peers that have complimentary needs. There are two ways to do this; the first is to pair team members that require additional training support in specific areas, and the second is to pair up team members with complementary skills and weaknesses.
If you would like help ensuring that you use limited training resources well, please schedule a FREE consultation call with me.
Want to know more about Empowered Development Consulting? Reach out to me, Meghan Scheidel, and find out how Empowered Development Consulting can help you.