Training is an essential part of any company’s success in the 21st century. That’s a fact. But instead of simply settling by training your employees and hoping for the best, you should aim higher. A well-planned training program will lead to higher retention rates among employees and faster results for your company. 

But what makes a successful training program in 2022 and beyond?

Some companies are still a decade in past — relying only on long eLearning courses or even worse, depending on instructor-led courses to bring their employees up to speed. This is an ineffective, and time-consuming way to train your workforce.

Besides, it's expected that by 2030, millennials will make up around 75% of the workforce, and according to an SHRM study, Gen-Zers will hold up to 36% of the share in the workforce by the end of 2022. Not That means companies can’t afford to laugh off or dismiss their preferred way of learning: interactive lessons (including video and gamification) that they can access on computers and mobile devices alike.

Is your training department still stuck in the past? It’s time to go digital! Here are the four main reasons why you should consider modernizing your training programs immediately – right now – like, yesterday! :

Reason #1: Millennials and Gen-Z Hate Your Current Training

It should be a surprise to no one that Millennials and Gen Z are tech-savvy and they don't believe in being shackled to tradition or location. When they’re not working, they are consuming information across from a variety of devices and platforms — changing between media types over 25 times per hour.

How could anyone then honestly expect them to sit through a passive, boring, long drawn-out, 1-hour course? When they are forced to attend this type of training, employees aren’t able to retain the content. In fact, four out of every five employees will forget what they learned in the classroom within 30 days. 

New generations of workers expect technology and mobile devices to play a significant role in the learning process, so instead of just relying on traditional lecture-style training, integrate both traditional and digital content to meet their demanding needs. Try implementing eLearning and mLearning courses that include short videos and interactive components, as they also expect for training to incorporate multimedia resources and even aspects of entertainment. 

For example, UL, a global independent safety science company, recently implemented a blended learning program to support modern learning needs better. Their program encouraged active participation by offering short spurts of learning in bite-sized modules; employees can learn at their pace and across a variety of devices including their mobile phones. 

This doesn’t mean you need to eliminate classroom training altogether. But keep in mind that employees want to learn on the device of choice and access content at their ideal time and location. Try including eLearning and mobile learning into your training mix to engage those modern learners. 

Also read: The #1 Reason Your Employees Are Complaining About Your eLearning Courses (And How To Fix It)

Reason #2: Tracking Your Employees’ Performance is Key

Once you roll out a training program, you need to know if it’s successful. Right?

In the traditional classroom model, trainers often had to manually track students’ performance. This practice is both time-consuming and prone to errors; it doesn’t quickly and accurately show if your training is succeeding.

On the contrary, using digital technologies as an integral component of the training strategy, allows your company to see instantly how your employees are performing; many training platforms come with built-in analytics and data reporting so your business can easily see areas of success and failure.

For example, using new technology, like an LRS, you can answer these questions:

• Did the employees complete the training program?
• How long did they engage with the training material?
• Where did they struggle the most? Were there specific sections where they abandoned their training or didn’t seem to grasp the material?

With an LRS, companies will be able to track more closely what an employee is learning and how they are learning it (their behavior), as well as their performance in understanding the learning material through assessments and requests on the job. In other words, this allows one to report on every action a learner takes, whether it's completing an eLearning unit, attending a training conference, or having a one-on-one meeting with a manager. Ultimately, you get a much clearer picture of the student's progress. The Learning Record Store (LRS) can capture almost any type of data; therefore giving businesses the power to extract data from multiple sources. 

This will give you confidence that learners are understanding your training material — while also letting you quickly see challenging areas where training could be improved.

Also read: 4 Signs That Your Company Needs to Implement a Learning Record Store (LRS)

Reason #3: Personalization and Flexibility Is Now the Norm

Traditional training programs are designed one-size-fits-all; there is no flexibility to adjust based on individual employee needs and preferences.

But employees have come to expect personalization in their life (e.g. the online shopping recommendations they receive based on their browsing history) and training is no different. Modern training programs need to consider each employee as an individual who learns and consumes information in a unique way. There is nothing learners hate as much as having to undertake content that is not right for them. Employees want to receive content that is aligned to their actual role in the company, their previous knowledge, and their interests.  

Personalized learning goes a step beyond teaching in a digital setting. It allows for employees to learn a curriculum that is meaningful and relatable — and at a pace and location that is suited to each one of them. 

A recent poll shared by Brightwave: 77% of L&D specialists feel that personalized learning experience has an important role in staff engagement. 

One of the benefits of online training is that it is much more flexible than the traditional ILT approach. For instance, with asynchronous eLearning, employees can choose courses that help them meet their goals and take them at their ideal learning pace. The training program can also offer recommendations to the employees about subjects of potential interest or show topics that their colleagues have highlighted as important. Mobile devices and other online learning techniques have made it possible to teach anytime and anywhere.

So the takeaway: Forget the linear way of delivering content! Instead of designing the typical point A to point B experiences, offer learners a clickable, flexible, and easy-to-navigate experience that features diverse activities. Remember, your learners are looking for just-in-time solutions. You need to give workers bite-sized modules frequently, to fit into the different needs of your diverse audience.

Additional Reads:

• A Comprehensive Guide to Mobile Learning Design
• What Are The Key eLearning Trends For Workplace Learning in 2022?

Reason #4: Content Creation Needs to Be Agile 

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s no longer enough just creating eLearning courses. The speed at which you make content available and deliver it to your different audiences needs to be fast in order to keep up with the workplace evolving needs. That’s where adopting rapid e-learning development can make a huge difference.

Rapid eLearning, in other words - the process of developing e-learning content quickly,  allowing for accelerated production of courses and smoother incorporation of changes. You can edit small portions of the content, replace one video with another, or adjust specific activities within the curriculum.

Being more agile in your eLearning development process translates into more productivity. As you make training content available faster, you are making knowledge reach learners at a faster pace. This increases the possibilities that your courses will benefit learners just at the moment of need. Thus, saving your company time and money, too. They’ll be receiving the most up-to-date training possible, and you’ll be able to focus your time instead on ensuring that the content is effective.