Make Employee Training More Than A Checkbox
Over the past few years, one of the key messages I’ve shared with my fellow training, L&D, and HR people has been to shift the mindset around employee training. In the past, training has been deemed “mandatory” only when talking about compliance training or other “essential” learning such as onboarding.
My message is that training is much more than that. Corporate learning is not just a checkbox—a boring, mandatory requirement. It’s an empowering essential to your people, one that helps them develop as both professionals and people!
I’m not saying that compliance isn’t important or that onboarding courses on corporate processes aren’t critical to your business’ success. However, what’s often overlooked are courses on personal and professional development, leadership, communication, collaboration, etc. These skills are just as essential as the “required” stuff.
Many of these capabilities fall into the category of “soft skills,” which are in increasingly high demand.
…in today’s world of software engineering and ever-more technology, it’s soft skills that employers want. 91% of companies cited this as an issue and 80% of companies are struggling to find better soft skills in the market.”
The LinkedIn research also revealed that the five most in-demand soft skills are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and time management.
You may be wondering: can these skills be taught? The short answer is yes.
Transform Training from “Need to” to “Want to”
Not only do companies seek people with soft skills training, your people want more of it! In fact, training on soft skills is a powerful way to transform training from a “need to do” to a “want to do!” Employees are seeing that these are among the most marketable skills to develop and promote, as they progress in their careers.
The LinkedIn research showed that while hiring managers do of course look for technical skills and job experience, it’s soft skills that drive success:
92% of respondents say soft skills are more important than technical skill and 89% told us that bad hires typically lack soft skills.”
So while most companies focus on compliance training, there’s much more out there that can have a huge impact on the business. By weaving soft skills training into the mix, you can make positive changes in both customer and employee experience – because you’ll have people who are more creative, persuasive, collaborative, adaptable, and efficient. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Meet Me for More at the Webinar
If you like where I’m heading in this article, please join me next week for a webinar on Make Employee Training More Than A Checkbox: Unleash The 3 Cs Of Training Beyond Compliance, hosted by eLearning Industry, April 21, 2020, 8:00 AM / 11:00 AM EDT.
In addition to going deeper on the subjects above, I’ll discuss how to talk to leadership and get them on board by connecting training to business goals. As you can see from the LinkedIn stats I shared, it’s easier than ever to prove that training needs to go beyond compliance and include courses that make people better not just at business but at the skills that power business success. These skills will get you to your goals faster and with much less friction and a little more fun.
I’ll also talk about:
- How to create exciting and engaging onboarding training
- Ways to integrate personal and professional development into the learning culture
- Tips to develop self-assured, satisfied employees who see the value of training
- How to increase learner skillsets for greater efficiency and overall job performance
- How to inspire long-term loyalty and turn employees into brand ambassadors
Hope to see you at the webinar! Be sure to register here in advance.
