Training new employees is a critical part of the onboarding process. Whether you do your work in an office or outside on a construction site, teaching new staff how to do their jobs the right way is critical. In some instances, people’s lives may depend on it. While you may have hired an individual for their experience and skills, it doesn’t mean they still can’t use training.
Your company should have an onboarding process that includes training for safety, regulations, and policies that affect employees. Simply handing someone an employee handbook and telling them to read it is not enough. Here are the ways that you can use adult learning tools for employee training.
Gamification
Games are here to stay. Many people in the workforce love to play games. By gamifying your onboarding and training processes, you make it more engaging. If it’s more engaging, staff members are more likely to finish the course and remember the material. With levels to move up in, and scenarios to engage with, there are countless ways to use a gamification method to train staff effectively.
Give Time to Study
If you want your staff to learn new skills, you need to give them time to study and learn them. You can’t expect them to be willing to always learn on their own dime. By setting aside time for your staff to take seminars, master material at work, and even practice new skills. Employees who don’t have to take work or training materials home are more satisfied than those who constantly need to find time after work hours.
Online Learning
Online learning is one of the best adult learning tools available. It allows adults the ability to take classes and certifications from the comfort of home. If there are courses your staff need to learn outside of the work environment, remote learning is powerful. While you may not be able to give them time at work to learn, you can offer to reimburse your staff for the courses they take and complete. When your data analysts are looking for statistics help online, your teachers are looking for different ways to teach English classes, and your technicians want to learn how to make onsite repairs, you can help direct them to quality classes and training opportunities online.
VR/AR
Hands-on learning is often the best for adults. In some situations, however, offering this approach is not the safest route. By using AR/VR technology as an adult learning tool, you can give your new employees opportunities to practice critical skills without putting them in danger. This helps those team members learn effectively. By taking a partially virtual approach you can also see areas where they need improvement, steps they missed, and more. You can record the data to view later and help them see where they need to make adjustments.
Use Flexible Scoring
While you may be used to rigid scoring models in high school and university, these don’t work as well for adult learners. Flexible scoring acts to show employees where they are excelling and where they have room for improvement. Scoring an employee helps motivate some to do better. For instance, learning about a new process can be overwhelming. With multiple steps to go over, staff may need time to absorb and apply all the new content. As they go through the material, a flexible scoring model shows them what they need to continue working on. As opposed to a simple pass/fail or percentage, these flexible models can help pinpoint the exact areas they are deficient.
Apprenticeship Model
Adult learners can benefit from apprenticeship models when it comes to work. With proper training and the opportunity to do a new job under the observation of the master, they improve their skills more quickly. This hands-on model of learning is very high touch, but it works well especially in the trade industries. Apprentices are people who have learned the basics of a job but need additional training to fully master the skills necessary to do it on their own.
This training comes in the form of 1-on-1 opportunities where the apprentice watches the master work, then practices it themselves while the master is watching. When they have finally proven that they have learned and implemented the new skill, they can go work independently. When you use this model to train new employees, you offer them a safe space to learn and grow without fear of “doing it the wrong way”.
