The Secret to Successful Training: How to keep your team engaged

Today’s business leaders are focused on the future, and to get there, they need the training they offer their teams to stick. A vital component of the growth and development of any organization, training equips employees with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to be effective and efficient in their roles. However, simply conducting training sessions does not guarantee employees will be fully engaged and receptive to the information being presented. It is essential to keep your team engaged in training to ensure they are actively learning, retaining information, and applying it to their work.

To invest in training but never monitor or encourage progress comes at a cost: Not only can disengaged employees create a negative work environment, but they can also cause a company to lose money. According to a Gallup poll, actively disengaged employees cause U.S. companies between $450 – $550 billion in lost productivity per year. Employers need to recognize the benefits of investing in employee engagement. Increasing a company’s engagement by just 10 percent can increase profits by $2,400 per employee per year.

In this blog, we’ll explore the value of training, the opportunity cost of not engaging your team in their training and we’ll offer ways to ensure that training is effective. Training should never be lonely. It should ignite passion, connect people, and solve problems.

Training - why bother?

One of the primary reasons for keeping your team engaged in training is to enhance their motivation and drive to learn. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to take an active interest in the subject matter being presented. They are also more likely to ask questions, seek clarification, and participate in discussions. This leads to a deeper understanding of the material and an increased likelihood that employees will apply what they have learned to their work.

Accountability

Another reason to keep your team engaged in training is to foster a sense of ownership and accountability. When employees are engaged, they take ownership of their learning experience and feel a sense of responsibility to apply what they have learned to their work. This can lead to increased productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness in their roles.

Positive culture

Engagement in training also helps to create a positive learning culture within your organization. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to view training as a valuable and necessary component of their professional development. This can lead to a positive feedback loop where employees actively seek out training opportunities to further their skills and knowledge.

Retention

Finally, keeping your team engaged in training is crucial to retaining top talent within your organization. Employees who are engaged and invested in their roles are more likely to stay with their employer long-term. This reduces turnover and the associated costs of hiring and training new employees. One report found that nearly 80 percent of employees mentioned being sufficiently trained in a set of skills, would lead to these workers to remain at their current roles for longer stretches of time. These data skills are vital to all workers, as 70 percent are expected to use data on a daily basis within the next three years.

Making connections

Good training is never a lonely experience. It ignites passion, connecting learners to a network of colleagues and support. It enhances motivation, fosters a sense of ownership and accountability, creates a positive learning culture, and helps retain top talent. By investing in engagement strategies, organizations can ensure that their employees are actively learning, growing, and contributing to their overall success.

Here are a few ideas of how leaders can engage teams in training:

• Lunch and Learns: Do the training together! You provide the snacks; we provide the entertainment.
• Gamification: Offer incentives and rewards for completing a course.
• Company Time: Allow time during work hours schedule for each member to complete their training and then follow up using our manager dashboard.
• Team Competition: Friendly competition is healthy so why not have a race.
• Bonus: Offer a bonus structure for completing the course and obtaining the certification.

ACI Learning is your training partner

ACI Learning delivers the right training when and how you and your team needs it. Our on-demand self-paced video libraries are designed with the learner in mind. Our engaging short episodes are offered via an entertaining two-person format providing the learner access to training with results. And now, we proudly offer Insights, a skills gap analysis tool that will revolutionize the way companies train and employees learn.