Every organization strives to maintain a uniform standard in its services and work. Given the dynamic nature of the processes and demands in an industry, there’s a constant need of upgrading the existing knowledge of the employees and modify the working methodology accordingly. To make this possible, companies need to implement comprehensive training and development programs.
Now, in an ideal world, simply coming up with such a program would solve all the issues related to staying up to date with the latest trends. But, in reality, ensuring a seamless learning process through relevant training is an uphill task — the challenges are multifaceted. Let’s take a look at some common roadblocks in the process of training and development:
1. The Content of Training
The primary challenge in training and development is in the form of deciding the content of the program. HR managers face the problem of choosing from an outdated, extremely cumbersome, useless, and repetitive set of pre-existing courses. The solution to this issue lies in careful consideration of an organization’s requirements as a whole in tandem with the usefulness of a given course for individual learners in the employees. The need of the hour is designing learner-specific courses which take care of the needs and gaps in knowledge of each set of learners differently. For example, the course content of a newly onboarded employee will be drastically different from one for a task manager.
2. Standardization of Training
Another challenge in front of HRs is to produce consistent and similar learning outcomes from a fixed set of learning materials. As it is, maintaining the same style of teaching and the level of expertise of external trainers is a task in itself.
The solution to this problem is developing a distinct and unambiguous syllabus for each level of training needs, with a scope of updating according to changing industry trends. To ensure a standardized learning environment, all training modules should have well-defined learning objectives, identical time constraints, and a similar delivery method.
3. Poor Engagement with Training
Even after having standardized training modules and user-specific training, the outcome of any program will depend on the engagement of the same with the target audience. There have been several industry observations that point towards a lack of proper engagement from some employees in every company — which significantly decreases the overall effectiveness of training.
The solution is to invest in more visual, easy to use and easier to understand training methodology. Learning modules can be created on platforms such as Bridge LMS — which provide a wide variety of options from creating to tracking these modules. The bridge app makes it even more accessible for both the HRs — by helping them track learning progress — and the employees — by helping them continue with their training anytime, anywhere.
4. Varying Learning Habits
Considering that any company’s workforce comprises different generations of employees, it’s only natural that their learning habits and preferences will vary from each other. It will hurt the overall success of training programs.
The solution is to carefully analyze these preferences and integrate this analysis into the design of training modules. Not just that, also ensure the use of software with an easy UI(user interface). Use different content types in the training programs, like graphics, written notes, videos, images, etc. But most importantly, have open communication channels so that employees can voice their problems with the training modules — make necessary modifications accordingly.
5. Lack of Feedback
Any learning program cannot be successful without taking regular feedback from the learners. Feedback helps in identifying various problems faced by the learners while they are undergoing training. But because of time constraints, organizations often don’t take feedback seriously.
The solution is implementing systems such as Bridge LMS that allow for real-time feedback. It empowers users to provide their point of view on the learning modules and enables the HRs to monitor and act on this feedback handily. When organizations take feedback seriously and work towards improving the areas of concern, the employees feel like stakeholders, and their productivity increases.
Conclusion
Companies need to mitigate the challenges faced during the implementation of training programs. Without a continuous and consistent effort to identify these challenges, the road to becoming a successful business will be replete with potholes.
