Four Strategies to Strengthen Employee Training
Leslie Carver 
While helping my daughter with her sewing project for 4-H, I started thinking about learning in the workplace. Workplace training could be much more effective if we approached it in a way that is similar to how 4-H members tackle their project books.
If you’re not familiar with 4-H, let me give you some background information. 4-H is an organization that helps children and young adults become better leaders, help their communities and develop skills that will serve them throughout life. Members elect a project (or several) in an area they would like to learn more about. A few examples of these projects are clothing, arts, nutrition, natural resources and engineering. Many 4-H members also take projects that focus on animals and farming.
Every 4-H member has a project or record book to complete. The project books usually have 10-15 activities or topics that must be learned to complete the project. While some of this can be done independently, the experience is much richer when passionate adults are helping. Those subject matter experts make the pages of the project books come to life and paces the 4-H members so they don’t get overwhelmed with all there is to learn.
Do you see the similarities yet? We are often like young adults when we start a new job. There is so much to learn, but it is much easier when there is a plan in place to support us!
Here are four strategies you can add to your training programs that will help you create a culture of growth and learning in your organization:
- Break the training down into micro steps that are easier to process. If I had planned for my daughter to review her book, purchase her pattern and fabric and sew her project on the same day, it would have been very overwhelming for both of us. However, breaking her project down into micro steps allowed her to process the new information and gave her enough time to practice the new skills she was learning before adding another one. This same approach can be done in the workplace.
- You don’t have to be an expert in every subject. Know your limits and know when you need to ask for help or defer to another expert. For example, I’m comfortable with 4-H project books, but I am not a seamstress. I struggled to read a clothing pattern and knew my daughter would need training from someone else. My friends guided her and it was a wonderful experience. When you bring in other experts to train employees, you bring new excitement and energy into your organization. You have an opportunity to grow in your knowledge, too.
- Allow employees to make mistakes as they are learning. If learning something new was easy, we wouldn’t need each other. We would just do everything on our own. Thankfully, that isn’t the case. We should expect mistakes to happen and have a plan for how to fix them together. You also want to share some of your mistakes with your team. This is a great opportunity to strengthen your relationship and allows your team to see you as a person instead of just a leader.
- Make learning fun and interactive. Few people enjoy listening to a lecture or reading from an instruction manual. Being able to participate in the training is much more effective. Anything that allows students to write, create or interact with others will increase their ability to retain the new material. In the event something doesn’t go right (like sewing the legs of my daughter’s shorts together!), you can at least have a good belly laugh.
One more benefit to creating a culture of growth and learning is increasing your employee retention. When you invest time and money into teaching employees new skills, they know you appreciate them and value what they bring to the organization. Just make sure you’re talking with your employees and understand the areas they would like to grow in.