7 Tried-and-tested Ways to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Digital Training and Development Program

Digital training and development programs aren’t very new to the corporate world. They help companies retain and upskill talent in a sustainable, scalable manner while meeting employees’ need for meaningful work experiences and growth opportunities.  

The need of the hour, then, is not to just design a digital training & development program but to ensure its impact on employee performance. When you’re running a training & development company, the need to showcase ROI is front and center. 

Let’s look at 7 tried-and-tested ways to increase the effectiveness of your digital training & development programs for client organizations: 

1. Conduct competitor analysis 

Let’s put it this way – follow the competition to beat the competition. When planning a digital training and development program, find out what your client’s market competitors are doing to better leverage their human resources — what training do their employees receive from which you could learn? 

As a training company, some of the ways you can keep a close watch on your client’s competitors are: 

• Good old networking 
• Getting in touch with organizations like Society of Human Resource Management 
• Check out reviews about your client’s organization and others in the market by studying different social media sites 

2. Identify individual employee needs 

For training effectiveness, efforts should be made to understand the overall goals and needs of the team as well as each of the participants. Different employees may have different personal goals, ethics, values, work experience, learning styles and capabilities and may belong to a different generation all together. You should take all these aspects into account to design a relevant and effective training and development program. 

The best way to gauge employee needs and goals is by talking to them. A series of question-and-answer sessions in a relaxed environment could be quite effective in getting constructive feedback. You may opt for one-on-one conversations to help employees feel at ease. These sessions should give a fair idea about where they stand professionally at present, challenges they face, what they are working on, interests, goals, career aspirations, professional likes and dislikes, etc. This also helps identify the gaps that need attention. Some of the questions you can start off with are: 

• What’s your latest professional accomplishment? 
• What’s your professional motivation? 
• What career opportunity would you like to explore? 
• What new skills would you want to acquire? 
• Do you want to share anything about your career aspirations, interests, likes and dislikes, etc.? 

The current employees can also offer valuable feedback on past training endeavors — what worked and what did not. All such interviews should be conducted right after a kick-off meeting with the client. 

3. Take organizational goals into account 

Every organization has a set of operational goals such as enhanced productivity, superior performance, better quality products, better customer satisfaction, etc.  Once you figure out the organizational goals and the barriers to achieve them, the training and development program becomes that much more likely to have impact. The main strategy is to seamlessly align the company’s goals with those of the employees. 

You can also seek support from different internal departments to conduct training sessions. For instance, the legal department can conduct compliance training and development sessions for the sales team. The sales and marketing department, in the meanwhile, can support training on brand consistency. 

4. Draft a training strategy 

The first thing you’re going to have to present to your clients is a training & development strategy. While setting your objectives and proposed deliverables is critical, taking care of other practical aspects like budget, ROI, and trial runs if any is equally important. Make sure to incorporate a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to identify the perfect training program. All of these will help you stay on track and maximize outcomes for your client.  

5. Offer constructive feedback at regular intervals 

Your job doesn’t end with organizing and conducting the program. For the training graph to have an upward journey, the participants should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and this can be done by providing constructive feedback at regular intervals. 

Using 360º feedback is a powerful way to leverage their own valued network to provide feedback and constructive criticism at the start and throughout the program. This consists of feedback from superiors, managers, colleagues, subordinates, clients and even a self-assessment from the participant himself/ herself. With online training management software like Simply.Coach, you even get a readymade 360º feedback template for your program. This brings us to the next point… 

6. Take help from training management software 

The use of automated online training management software is a great way to bring in efficiency and accountability, while reducing your administrative work. An automated system streamlines processes efficiently and reduces time and costs while maintaining multiple training programs. That apart, a digital solution like Simply.Coach helps in identifying participants, maintaining records, and capturing feedback from employees for a better journey ahead. 

Looking for training management software that helps you deliver effective and efficient blended program? 

Then check out the wide range of features that Simply.Coach has to offer you here!  

7. Acknowledge genuine efforts  

Ensure that your training program acknowledges the contribution and successes of your employees so that they stay motivated. Celebrating an employee’s completion of a program and spreading the word internally, leveraging training participation and completion as a factor during promotions, and so on are a few ways to increase employee engagement. 

As a training & development company, designing an effective training and development program is a different experience with each client — and more so with the changing landscape of the present business world. What doesn’t change, however, are the clients’ expectations with regards to what constitutes success. What we’ve outlined here are a few failsafe ways to steer you in the right direction each time.  

If you have any other tips and tricks that we have missed here, please feel free to put it down in the comment section below. 

Sources: Medium, The Training World, Airswift, SHRM, Startup HR toolkit 

FAQs 

1. How will you improve the effectiveness of training programs? 

To improve the effectiveness of a training and development program you may incorporate a few steps in program designing process like conducting a competitor analysis, drafting a strategy, evaluating both employee and company goals, using online training management software, offering 360-degree feedback, etc. 

2. How can I improve my online training program? 

To improve an online training program, it’s recommended to leverage an online training management software that offers 360-degree support to your digital programs. With online training management platforms like Simply.Coach, you can go the extra mile to offer your trainees an experience to write home about. 

3. What are the five recommendations to help improve your training program? 

There are a number of steps that you can adopt to improve your training programs. Five of the top recommendations are: 

• Identify employee needs and goals 
• Identify company goals and objectives 
• Draft a training strategy 
• Think out-of-the-box with training approaches 
• Take help from online training management software 

About the author

Jayashree Mukherjee

Content Specialist  @Simply.Coach

Jayashree Mukherjee is a content specialist by day and a content junkie (on OTT) by night. Passionate about traveling, street food and overturning the underuse of em dashes — she would have been a globe-trotter if she hadn’t been so lazy.