What is an employee training program?

Training programs are very effective in many ways. They can be used to integrate employees, update processes, develop leaders and so on. In this article we will explain the designing a training program for employees.

Anyone who thinks that training is only valuable when hiring a professional is wrong. The focus on the continuous development of employees is important for the professional growth of everyone in the organization.

Training and qualifications, therefore, are an effective way to ensure that employee motivation and engagement levels rise. After all, everyone likes when the company invests in their training and development, right?

There are many benefits of this type of activity in the corporate world. Throughout this article, we will delve deeper into the types of training, in addition to highlighting the benefits of this tool for employee development. Come on?

Training programs are used by companies with the aim of training and qualifying their employees. As previously mentioned, training can have several objectives and take place at different times. In general, the trainings aim to qualify the organization’s workforce.

However, it is worth understanding that there is a difference between training and development, which are often taken as synonyms.

Training is under the responsibility of HR. When it is necessary for the professional to learn a skill , either for his current role or to assume a new position, it is necessary to train him. In addition, training also aims to improve employee performance so that they achieve better results in their tasks.

On the other hand, development is an initiative that aims to improve a professional in a broader way. The results, therefore, are analyzed in the long term.

“Developing an employee” means enhancing their skills. It is through development, for example, that a person is prepared for a future situation. In this case, we’re not just talking about training you for a specific task.

What are the benefits of creating training for employees?

The benefits of investing in training programs are many. Of course, you reap the benefits according to your goals, but then you can look at some of them more broadly.

1. Creates a competitive edge in the market

A company that invests in its employees is well regarded in the market. Therefore, in addition to the benefits within the company, which now has more motivated, engaged and prepared employees, the organization’s image is also strengthened.

At the end of the day, this becomes a competitive differentiator. Stop and think: if you have two job options at hand, with very similar companies, but one of them invests heavily in training. Which one would you choose? Perhaps this is an important differential at the end of the day and which, therefore, also ends up impacting the attraction and retention of talent.

2. Increases the quality of deliveries

Training helps to improve the skills of professionals, that is, in this way they are more prepared to perform their functions with higher levels of quality. And this has a great impact and ripple effect at other points in the company’s day to day, which we will talk about in the next benefits.

3. Increases productivity and engagement

Better prepared professionals produce more in less time. In addition, they are more engaged and motivated to do a good job on a daily basis. This is one of the positive impacts of training, after all, every company wants its employees to feel excited about their roles and, in this way, produce with quality and efficiency.

4. Improve engagement and collaboration

A well-executed training program also affects collaboration among the company’s professionals. That’s because during these moments, employees connect more, exchange ideas, references and information, that is, join efforts to go further.

5. Contributes to a positive organizational climate

The organizational climate concerns the perception of employees in relation to the work environment in which they are inserted. This, in turn, is impacted by several factors. Training is one of the points that influence the satisfaction and happiness of a company’s employees.

So when a company offers benefits like this to its employees, they feel valued and motivated to do an even better job. The company invests in its most valuable asset, human capital, and, in return, the people there work better and create a more favorable perception of the organization.

6. Helps to achieve company goals more efficiently

If the positive effect cascades, the company’s strategic objectives also benefit. When your employees are better prepared to perform their duties, therefore, goals are achieved more easily and in less time.

7. Decreases the company’s turnover

Last but not least, training programs are also important in terms of reducing the company’s turnover . This index is related to employee turnover and if it is too high, it ends up harming the day to day work and the organizational climate.

Training influences employee satisfaction, which makes them stay longer in the organization and, consequently, lower turnover.

What are the main types of training and development?

Now, let’s better understand what are the main training and development programs that exist and how your company can benefit from each of them. Check out:

1-Integration training

Onboarding trainings are essential for new company members. They are very necessary, after all, this is how newcomers are able to delve into the peculiarities of the company, its functions and the organizational culture.

In this type of training, it is important that the new employee understands the internal procedures, how the areas work and who is responsible for which function.

The better this integration process is, the faster the professional will adapt and, consequently, the faster he will reach his best level of performance.

2-leadership training

The CIA de Talents “ Career of Dreams 2020 ” survey, which is carried out annually, detected important points in relation to companies preparing their leaders to face current and future challenges involving the Digital Age:

• 42% of young people surveyed said their companies are doing this;
• 39% of middle management professionals said their companies are doing this;
• 49% of senior leaders said their companies are doing this.

It is very interesting to see data like this, which show us that a number of companies already seem to be aware of the need to promote training for their leaders .

This type of training is very important both for the leader and his team and for the growth of the company as a whole. After all, leaders have the power to impact the organizational culture and climate , in addition to directly affecting the motivation of their team members.

3-communication training

Did you know that many mistakes and redoing could be avoided through clearer and more assertive communication ? Communication failures are responsible for many of the day-to-day problems , so training like this is essential for professionals of all positions and functions.

In addition, a well-done communication training helps people to communicate better in different channels and situations: presentations, meetings, messages, emails. Oh, and of course they help with interpersonal relationships too.

4-motivational training

Poorly motivated people tend to perform work with less enthusiasm and more failures. Motivational training exists to avoid this problem, but for it to be effective it is important to understand the reasons that are lowering motivation levels . The more focused the training, the better the results.

It is worth mentioning that motivational training should be carried out for professionals of all hierarchical levels , after all, it is not because someone has a leadership position that they cannot feel unmotivated. These trainings can be carried out through lectures, group dynamics, among other formats.

5-Skills and Skills Training

By investing in skills and abilities training, everyone wins. It is necessary to understand what are the biggest difficulties and gaps of your employees to then invest in training aimed at increasing productivity , greater proactivity, routine organization etc.

6-behavioral training

Behavioral training aims to disseminate and strengthen organizational values ​​and culture among employees. Every company has a specific way of acting that is expected of its employees, but not everyone acts 100% as expected.

The expectation through these trainings is not to make everyone standardized, but to ensure that most of the behaviors of professionals in that environment are in accordance with the company’s values.

7-hard skills training

The training of hard skills , that is, the technical knowledge of each function is important for professionals to evolve and be able to perform their work with even more quality. In addition, it is worth emphasizing that behavioral and technical training must be aligned, that is, one cannot deprioritize the other.

How to create a training program for your employees?

Another interesting data that appeared in the survey in 2020”, mentioned above, is in relation to the perception that professionals have on the following point: “In their work, are people recognized for increasing their knowledge and skills?”

See what they replied:

• 50% of young people feel this in the companies they work for;
• 43% of middle management professionals feel this in the companies they work for;
• 55% of senior leaders feel this at the companies they work for.

Data like this is great, after all, in almost all groups of professionals interviewed, 50% or more feel that training is well regarded. Anyway, to end this article in the best way, how about understanding better how to put all this about what we talk about into practice?

The elaboration of a training program goes through the following phases, which we will detail below: objectives, planning, execution and evaluation.

1-Goals

Before creating thousands of training courses, the tip is to understand what the real needs of your employees are. That way, you will be much more assertive in your action plan.

Ask yourself: what is the purpose of this training? Do my collaborators need this?

If the answer is yes, make sure you also understand which portion of employees should participate in which training. After all, there are those focused on newcomers, others on leadership and so on.

For this diagnosis to be carried out in the best way, make a survey of training needs in order to map what your company’s employees need most. Thus, you organize in a priority scale what must be done first.

2-Planning

After the diagnosis, it is time to plan the training that will be performed. This is the time to understand several points, including:

• training format (online/face-to-face, dynamic/lecture etc);
• training duration;
• budget available for this activity;
• theme (priority and secondary issues).

3-Execution

Execution is nothing more than making training happen, that is, executing everything that was aligned in the planning stage and monitoring progress. If failures appear along the way, do not despair and try to solve the problems in the best possible way.

4-Evaluation

Finally, we cannot forget that the final evaluation serves to understand how the process was from the definition of objectives to the implementation.

Understanding what the mistakes and improvements were is important, but analyzing points of success is also important. Also, don’t forget to analyze your return on investment through satisfaction surveys, membership rates, satisfaction indicators and performance reviews.