Personalize Your Employee Training and Development Programs

Personalized training is the key to employee success in the workplace. There should be no “one size fits all” when it comes to training, simply because there is no “one size fits all” approach to learning. There is an urgent need to improve learning and development in the workplace due to highly competitive industries, changing workforce demographics, and the need to constantly re-skill. 

In fact, in a survey of learning and development professionals conducted by the eLearning Industry, over 70% of professionals consider personalized training a vital contributor to employee engagement levels. More than that, over 90% also believe that personalization is a critical aspect to their success as an organization. 

When we think about personalization we tend to think about it in terms of advertising. In that same survey, 74% of consumers get upset when they receive content that is not personalized or that has nothing to do with their interests. On the other hand, 61% of consumers feel more positively about a brand when their marketing messages are personalized. 

So, if personalization is such a crucial part of an organization’s success, why not extend it to your employees? After all, not everyone learns in the same way or at the same pace. Each employee will have their own learning style and way that they receive and retain key information. 

The Benefits of Customized Training

While personalization is a great way to tailor your training to your team’s learning styles, there are other benefits associated with varying your training methods.

Reduce employee turnover and retain your top talent.

An employee might leave your organization for many different reasons, but one of the major reasons is a lack of training and career direction. If you did give your employees every opportunity to further their training, most of it will be useless if it isn’t presented in a way that they can understand or in a way that is meaningful to them. 

In these situations, employees will only become frustrated because they will not be receiving the resources they need to adequately do their job, or they might view their position as stagnant. This causes them to look for new opportunities and eventually leave your organization. But, if you implement training that is tailored to their individual learning styles, you will be able to keep your valuable staff. 

Promote skill progression. 

It takes some employees longer to learn certain skills than others. Personalized learning gives you the opportunity to train individual employees at a pace that they are comfortable learning. Not only that, but you will be able to offer additional training to those who are excelling at a faster rate. As the end result, each and every one of your employees will be able to get the training that they need while you are able to upskill and create more experienced employees during the process.

Minimize the skill gap in your organization.

Using the right employee training and development platform connects leaders to their teams, opening up more accessible lines of communication between peers, colleagues, managers and company leaders. Thus, creating a more productive and trusting workplace that helps empower your team by giving them more opportunities to express what and how they want to learn. 

As companies grapple with an ever-growing skills gap, providing personalized training programs and initiatives will become more and more important. Many factors go into widening this gap, including older workers putting off their retirement, younger hiring managers, younger jobseekers, and automation. But regardless, the end result remains the same. Organizations continue to struggle to find employees who possess the skills that they are looking for. 

How to Develop a Personalized Learning and Development Plan

As a leader, you might be wondering where to start. You should aim your focus on the individual needs of your team. The Society for Human Resource Management outlines a few key questions you can ask to personalize your training program:

• How does your employee learn? Do they pick up things quickly through audio or visual means? Would they rather be hands-on or talk it out?
• What is their learning speed? In general, learning in short bursts is the best for comprehension, but how quickly each employee moves through the training modules is up to the individual.
• What do they want to learn? While everyone must go through the required training, anything else added on like a Photoshop workshop or a training session about giving speeches should depend on what interests the employee and aligns with their career trajectory.
• What have others responded to? Just like Netflix, you can make training recommendations based on what individuals have liked in the past, or what those in similar roles responded well to.

Let 1Huddle Help You Personalize Your Training

At 1Huddle, we offer cloud-based employee training software where you can easily upload and customize your training content for a seamless training experience. All of your employees will have the ability to access their training anywhere, anytime and at the push of a button. This helps make training engaging and kept up-to-date. You can use our game platform to measure their performance and make key decisions on where you should take your training next. 

Do you want to learn more about how 1Huddle can help you level up your own workforce? Request a demo today..