Whether you have a staff of 5 or 5,000, training your team is crucial. You want your employees to know what they’re doing and to do it well. You also want them to be satisfied and engaged, and to represent your organization with pride and poise.
While super important, training can be…. complicated.
How do you keep training interesting and engaging while delivering all the most important information?
How do you make sure that your team is retaining that important information?
How do you deliver consistent info and messaging to your staff, especially if they work in different locations and even speak different languages?
We’ve helped out dozens of organizations optimize their training by incorporating animation. Here are some of our top recommendations for training in the digital age:
Make Your Presentation Interactive
Presentations are probably an integral part of your training plan. How else are you supposed to deliver information directly to your team? While useful, presentations run the risk of being hazardously boring.
In planning your next presentation, consider ways to make it more engaging and interactive.
- In addition to text, incorporate video, music, images, and other media elements. Remember that not all media is created equal. Aim to use only high-quality media – IE: no blurry photos or confusing diagrams.
- Plan interactive activities to keep your audience engaged: these might include discussion breakout groups, pop quizzes, and Q + A sessions.
Rep Your Brand
Training is an important touch point in your team’s relationship with your company. Make the most of this by flexing your brand: from your aesthetic to your history and values. Incorporating brand colors and design standards will set an example of excellence for your team, and educating your staff about your organization’s background will give them more understanding and pride in the company.
Translate Your Message
While not necessary for many organizations, this is becoming more and more relevant in our globalized world. Many companies have staff all over the world. You want to deliver consistent messages to your world-wide team, which means you need to speak their language. Creating stand-alone training tools like animations enables you to have control over the message and delivery, even when you’re half-way around the world.
Assess and Reflect
It’s always exciting to roll out a new initiative, but how do you know if it’s working? Building assessments into your training can provide insights about their impact. Develop a short quiz for your team to respond to after the training, as well as 30 days later, to measure retention. The results to this quiz will give you great insights about wins and areas of improvement. Additionally, ask your audience for feedback. What did they like about the training? What suggestions do they have? Creating these avenues for feedback will help you improve, and will develop trust between you and your team.
Successful training is all about keeping it fun, engaging, and relevant. How will you step up your training game?
