8 Tips to Improve Training Engagement

Sub-par training wastes resources and kills your employees' innate potential. If you present outdated content and a series of uninspiring slides to your employees, they likely won't learn anything valuable. 

The answer to this problem is training engagement. Training is most effective when employees are engaged and enjoy their learning sessions. Instead of becoming passive consumers of information, they become active participants who trade ideas and brainstorm to produce something valuable. 

Let us discuss how you can create training sessions that employees are excited about. 

Tip #1: A Strong Introduction 

A strong introduction to training is indispensable for capturing the attention of your employees and keeping them hooked. The introduction should be thoughtful and authentic to make employees feel at home. 

Instead of starting with the course content, focus on creating a comfortable environment for the learners and ensure that they are involved in the learning process. You can ask questions to learners about their expectations from the training and encourage them to share insights:

• What do you expect to learn from this training? 
• How do you expect this training to help you in your current role? 

Asking these questions makes employees stakeholders in the learning process. Once you have understood their needs, you can explain what the course intends to teach. 

The introduction isn't about learning any course content, but about creating an enthusiastic environment that excites learners about what's to come. Trainees also feel motivated to learn when the instructor shows passion for a subject and pairs it with deep expertise.

Tip #2: Use the 5C Method  

The 5C Framework provides a solid base for training engagement. Here is what it involves:

• Care: Ask learners open-ended questions and actively listen to their responses. This simple task goes a long way toward making them feel valued. 
• Connect: Create open communication channels with trainees where they can contact you anytime without hesitation. When you appear approachable, trainees feel more confident and comfortable. 
• Coach: Don't be another instructor; be a mentor who guides them throughout the learning process. Ask questions and engage with regular feedback from trainees. 
• Contribute: Make learners more than passive consumers of information. Allow them to share innovative ideas and insights. It helps them explore their strengths and passions. 
• Congratulate: Even the smallest of acknowledgements can go a long way in boosting morale and motivation. Whether a small achievement or a major one, sincere praise can create a positive environment for learners. 

Tip #3: Create Inclusive Training 

Quality training doesn't mean creating the ideal training modules that fulfill everyone's needs. In fact, it is the opposite: Trainees learn differently, and respecting these differences will yield much better results. Some people are visual learners, while others want a more auditory or hands-on experience. It is estimated that companies with comprehensive training programs earn 218% more than their peers that don't offer formalized training. 

A mixed delivery method is usually ideal for a diverse audience. It involves videos, infographics, group discussions, live demonstrations, and interactive tools. Using these tools means learners with different learning styles can easily absorb the course content. 

Don't Forget Accessibility, Especially When You Have AI 

While creating engaging training programs with AI, don't overlook accessibility. AI provides a lot of flexibility in course creation that you can leverage to form inclusive course modules:

• People with Hearing Impairments: Create accurate transcripts and captions for all audio and video content. 

• People With Color Blindness: Instead of relying solely on color, create interesting shapes, patterns, and text labels to enrich the content. 

• People With Cognitive Diversity: Instead of creating a one big block of content, break the course into smaller parts to help trainees absorb it easily. It will help them understand everything and result in far better learning outcomes. 

Tip #4: Make Training Interactive 

Monotonous training sessions are no fun and do not produce the intended results. Going interactive can considerably improve learners’ engagement with the course content and make the learning environment more dynamic. Simulating realistic environments is the most engaging form of training for employees, followed by training videos. 

The 10-20 rule is pretty helpful here: Allow 20 minutes of interactive learning and brainstorming for every 10 minutes of instructor-based training. 

This rule lets employees practice what they have learned in smaller chunks. With various problem-solving activities, they can understand how to practically apply their knowledge.

Gamification in LMS is another powerful way of ensuring training engagement. You can create teams and give them specific tasks. The completion of which earns them rewards and appreciation. Gamification creates a healthy competitive environment amongst employees, where everyone tries to do their best and outperform others. Once the games are completed, ask the trainees to self-reflect on what they have learned. 

Tip #5: Continuous Improvement is Key 

Continuous improvement is key to creating training engagement. It requires absorbing the feedback, analyzing it, and making changes to the training content and outcomes. 

To capture valuable feedback, you need to move beyond the traditional end-of-session evaluation forms, which only capture a small fraction of the picture and never tell you the actual impact of the training sessions.

Measuring Outcomes Beyond Training Sessions 

Your goal should be to measure training outcomes using the following elements and provide feedback to employees:

• Behavioral Changes: Notice the behavioral changes in employees after training. Did they adopt or abandon any habits? 

• Performance Metrics: You need to track tangible numbers that actually tell you about the scale of progress. Some examples are sales numbers, customer satisfaction reports, error reduction, etc. For instance, sales numbers can increase by a certain percentage point, which you can record and report to senior management. 

• ROI for the Organization: The training outcomes should be aligned with organizational goals. That is how you can show the actual value of any training. 

Tip #6: Follow-Up and Debrief

Employee training engagement isn't just about completing sessions. You must reach out to employees afterward to get genuine insights:

• Authentic Conversations: Create inquisitive follow-ups. For instance, “The review for our next training session is underway. Please tell us about what you liked in the previous sessions and how we can improve.”

• Quality Feedback: Since employees are the ones who learn directly from the training session, they can provide insightful suggestions regarding improvements. 

Debrief and Improvise 

Debriefing should be a standard practice after each training session. 

• Refinement, not Overhauling: Continuous improvement means modifications to the existing content, not completely overhauling it or creating everything from scratch. Focus on improving the existing content to make each training session better than before. 

• Improve Activities: Try to improve activities in a way that helps trainees learn better. If something isn't working, modify it or replace it completely. 

• Correct Mistakes: Whenever you find errors in the previous sessions, fix them immediately. Even the smallest of adjustments can significantly improve the next sessions. 

Tip #7: Make Training Social 

The best kind of learning happens when learners are connected and share ideas. It is reported that 80% of corporate learning happens through on-the-job interactions with peers and managers. 

Social learning not only helps one understand the knowledge gaps but also creates learning interdependence. As a result, learners want to ensure that the whole team succeeds, which in turn creates an environment of accountability. 

Harvard deems the lack of honest conversations one of the reasons why training fails. You can avoid it by making learners the center of the whole training, with their interactions being an integral part of the workflow. 

This integration with tools like discussion forums is easy. All a trainee has to do is log in, ask questions, and get answers in real time from their peers. Employees can also ask experts to weigh in and clarify a subject. When a question is answered, others with the same query can simply read the existing responses and clear their confusion. 

Tip #8: Improve Training Engagement With Assessments 

Why do basic, traditional quizzes when you can turn them into transformative learning tools that drive retention? Strategic assessments are powerful tools to reinforce learning and help employees build critical thinking capabilities. 

You can start creating quality assessments by focusing on learning objectives:

• Create scenarios out of training content that test the problem-solving skills of participants 
• Design assessments that are tied to tangible metrics, so you can measure the scale of progress 
• Analyze assessment results and develop bespoke resources 

If you're doing compliance training, think beyond the simple yes/no questions. Create interactive scenarios that:

• Give immediate feedback 
• Track understanding over a long period 
• Challenge trainees to use regulations in various situations 
• Test decision-making in various real-world scenarios 

Why Should You Prioritize Training Engagement? 

While you know the top tips to improve learning engagement for employees, it is also crucial to know why it matters. Here are the upsides when employees are fully engaged with their training:

1. Information Retention 

Active engagement means the employees are actually interested in what they're learning. Research suggests that when learners are engaged, they are more likely to retain the content they know and later put that information to practical use. As a result, your organization gets better returns for each dollar it invests. 

2. Improved Employee Experience 

Almost all employees have attended a training session where they weren't really present. They are there only to tick a few boxes because the training is mandatory. It doesn't have to be this way.

By promoting training engagement, you can ensure that employees are actually learning something and not wasting their time. It creates a positive learning environment, which is immensely beneficial for organizations in the long run. 

3. When Employees Feel Valued, They Stay

Providing quality training shows employees that the organization actually cares about them. When you create upskilling opportunities for employees, they can tell that you are invested in their career progression.

As a result, they are more likely to stay, work hard, and even put in extra hours. According to Gallup, investing in employee development results in 11% higher profitability and makes them twice as likely to stay. 

4. Growth 

The growth of a business is directly related to the quality of its employees. No business can grow if its employees aren't generating new ideas or working without passion. That happens only when you are ensuring training engagement with course content that they are interested in.

Create Engaging Training Sessions With Coursebox 

When it comes to creating training engagement, knowledge and the right intentions aren't enough. You need a set of tools that can help organize the content in a way that is exciting to learn and is practically adoptable in the workplace. This is where Coursebox becomes an essential tool for all of your organization's training needs.

It is not just a training tool, but an AI-powered, comprehensive platform that helps you create engaging courses. With features like AI Video Generator, AI Quiz Generator, AI Chatbot Trainer, and the like, you can easily produce high-quality training.

It automates tasks like grading, saves time and money, and allows you to focus on even more valuable aspects of training. In addition, Coursebox creates personalized content for trainees to boost engagement and produce better learning outcomes. Visit our website today and start your free trial by signing up. 

FAQs 

How to measure training engagement? 

One can measure training effectiveness in the following ways:

• Conducting trainee surveys 
• Checking course completion rates 
• Monitoring behavioral changes 
• Observing performance improvements 

What are the four Rs of training engagement? 

The four Rs of employee engagement are:

1. Respect: Creating a mutually respectable training environment and workplace. 
2. Recognition: Recognizing the efforts and achievements of employees. 
3. Reward: Rewarding positive and productive behavior of employees. 
4. Reciprocity: Using the three R’s above to create a reciprocal environment where employees contribute even more to the organization. 

What is the golden rule of training engagement? 

The golden rule of engagement is that trainees will absorb the course content better if they know how it is relevant to their work. It helps them see the bigger picture of their role within the organization. 

What is a training strategy? 

Training strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to improve the skills and knowledge of employees. Its purpose is to ensure that the training is aligned with the overall organizational objectives and priorities.