This post was originally published by Allyson Dobberteen on lessonly.com.
Encouraging employees to enthusiastically incorporate training into their regular routines is no easy feat. The distracted emailer, the guy mumbling through his role-plays, or the chatty Cathy in the corner—they all pose their own challenges and bring their own baggage into the training environment.
When employees are resistant to training programs, it’s like a boat bobbing along in a stormy sea. In other words, you’re getting nowhere fast.
Don’t worry. We’re here to help with tips for using software for training effectively. But before we dive into solutions, it’s important to get inside the hearts and minds of your employees. Here are a few reasons why they might be leery of training, particularly training programs without interactive training software.
Why are employees skeptical of training?
They don’t see how training applies to them.
One of the biggest mistakes a training program can make is a “one size fits all” approach. When training isn’t job specific, eyes start to glaze over and minds start to wander. So, if training isn’t relatable or applicable enough, it’s only natural for employees to be skeptical of the value of training as a whole.
The solution: Design relevant training paths.
It’s worth the extra effort to make training as job-specific and relevant as possible. Just remember that every bit of effort makes your training program exponentially more likely to be adopted by your employees. And if it sounds overwhelming to personalize training for each role in your organization, you probably don’t have the right training management software.
A tip for choosing the best employee training software for you? Make sure it’s simple enough for just about anyone to create a lesson. This will make it easier to share training creation responsibilities with other subject-matter experts who have done the job well and know the content best.
They’re afraid training will reveal their weaknesses.
Sometimes, it’s easier to be blissfully unaware than face the facts. Some employees may be skeptical of training because it has the potential to reveal areas that need improvement, attention, and good ol’ fashioned hard work.
The solution: Take a holistic approach to training.
So how can you encourage employees to face the music? Choose an employee training management software that considers the whole human. When coaching and training is holistic, employees naturally are more receptive to criticism. Why? This is because even your most at-risk employees are doing something right. By highlighting the good along with the not-so-good, they’ll be more primed to accept the criticism that they need to improve.
They find training boring.
If you’ve made it through 2020 and 2021 without sitting in on a snooze-worthy training session, you’re doing something right. Not everyone is as lucky, so there may be a few skeptics out there who have the wrong idea about your program, even if it’s in the best training management software out there. (Hint: We’re biased, but we think that’s Lessonly.) To overcome this, make sure to create challenging and engaging content that keeps your employees on their toes.
The solution: Prove the haters wrong—create interactive learning modules.
Most people have a ho-hum attitude towards training, even if it’s presented on an awesome online employee training platform. Keep interactivity and fun front-and-center while evaluating what the best online training software is for you. It should be easy to bring brightness to the metaphorical training room—whether that’s with embedded media like gifs and video, clickable content like flip cards and drop downs, or easy-to-find feedback opportunities.
P.S. If you’re wondering what that actually looks like, take Lessonly for a spin with this free lesson.
They can’t see the long-term benefits of training.
Some poor souls only see training as a time-intensive task that takes up precious time in their day. They go through the motions just to check it off their to-do list, without actually engaging in the content or soaking in the substantial information that’s available to them. Because they’ve never truly given training a fighting chance, they also haven’t reaped the rewards of training done well. It’s your job to change that—we believe in you, and we can help!
The solution: Make training meaningful and measurable.
You pour your heart and soul into producing great content and choosing the right training software for employees to use day-in and day-out. With so much at stake, be sure that you can measure the fruits of your labor. And in this case, fruit = metrics. CSAT scores for customer service teams, close-won rates for sales reps—you get the idea.
Make your training efforts measurable, so that you can objectively prove that practice makes perfect. When you do that, you’ll be sailing off into the sunset in no time.
We like our metrics here, too. Lessonly by Seismic is the training software for companies looking to onboard reps 2.3 faster, train teams 62% more effectively, and coach at scale. Get a demo to learn more.
