How to Instantly Improve Your Employee Training Plans

Kyla Ball January 3, 2023

One of the most important steps to creating a successful business is taking the time to craft and execute an effective employee training plan. Whatever types of employee training you provide, a clear and effective plan will help optimize your business’s time and resources and ensure you reach your business goals.

To really engage your employees and ensure that the training is effective, long-lasting and realistic, why not consider introducing an interactive element? In this blog we look at the key steps you need to take to implement and develop an employee training plan. Plus we look at how you might incorporate interactive and immersive scenario-based learning into your employee development plan.

Why is a training plan important?

Having a well thought-out training plan will help ensure that all employees are up to speed on company policies, procedures, and expectations. It also improves employee engagement, staff retention levels and helps attract new hires keen on acquiring new skills as they work and progress their career. Here’s a guide on how to create an effective employee training plan from scratch.

How do you format a training plan?

Step 1: Identify Your Training Needs – What should your training plan include?

The first step in creating an effective employee training plan is to identify the needs of your organization. Start by evaluating current procedures and processes, as well as identifying any areas of improvement or new skills that are needed for employee development to be successful. Make a list of the skills and knowledge that your new employees will need to have; this can form the basis of an onboarding training plan. Once you have identified these areas, use this information to create specific objectives for your employee training program.

Step 2: Assess Your Employees’ Skill Levels

Once you have identified your training goals, it’s important to assess the skill levels and competencies of each individual employee (If the size of your organization allows) – so that you can tailor the training program and training methods accordingly. This will help make sure that all team members receive the necessary instruction they need while also allowing you to save time by not having to explain basic concepts more than once.

To do this effectively, consider implementing pre-training assessments such as surveys or interviews with each employee. Ask them if there are any skill gaps they identify or any specific training they would like to undertake. Perhaps some staff need refresher training which hasn’t been covered since their own onboarding process? Understanding your employee needs will help shape your training objectives.

Step 3: Develop Your Training Program

Now it’s time for the fun part: developing your training program! The great news is that it’s now easier than ever to do this in-house, with easy to use and edit platforms in the cloud (more detail in the next step!).

When crafting your program, be sure to consider factors like budget constraints, timeline expectations, and available resources before beginning design work on your program. Additionally, when setting up each session in your training course, make sure it includes activities that are both engaging and informative in order for employees to get the most out of their experience. Remember that your materials need to be accessible to all learners. Your training content should be inclusive of all learning styles and any additional needs.

Step 4: Upgrade Your Training Materials – Make them Interactive

The biggest shakeup in employee and corporate training in the last few years has been the growth of elearning in the workplace. In particular, elearning that incorporates scenario based learning (SBL). This could be described as a form of immersive and interactive online role-playing which allows learners to walk through a branched scenario in a self-paced way, making choices at various key points and experiencing the results of each choice. It is particularly effective when used for safety training or when job training involves high stakes or high value environments, materials or risk to life and limb. It allows trainees to test their decision-making and responses in a low-risk way before having to go through the process in person and in real-life. It also allows you to gauge employee performance in a safe environment.

ThingLink’s Scenario Builder is a leading platform for creating SBL training materials as it is incredibly easy to learn, use and implement. Stats and metrics allow you to easily follow the path that an individual learner took and the choices they made so you can see any areas which are unclear or need additional guidance.

Further reading:

This additional blog is a great example of how scenario builder is used to created virtual learning environments.

And in this blog we look at how to create virtual tours using ThingLink for workplace simulations.

Step 5: Test and adjust

Now that you have created an initial employee training plan template and put it into practice, is there anything that you need to adapt or change? Ensure that you request feedback from employees at each stage. Perhaps there are new initiatives that need to be covered or additional learning opportunities that have come to light?

Get ready for success

Creating an effective employee training plan requires careful consideration and strategy but can result in greater productivity and efficiency throughout your organization. By following these steps—identifying needs, assessing skill levels, designing a comprehensive program and assessing the success of the program —you can develop a successful employee training plan from scratch that will help ensure a smooth transition into new roles or processes for all employees involved. With this guidance in mind, you can rest assured knowing that you have crafted an effective plan for bettering your business’s growth!