July 8, 2019 In-House Training Programs

How to develop an effective in-house training program.

July 3, 2019

In-house training is a very effective and cost-saving way of improving the skills of employees. This strategy particularly works for organizations that frequently recruit new employees. Companies seeking seasonal help or others that have unique training requirements also benefit tremendously from in-house training. Such a program can be customized to suit the specific situation, hiring schedules, and processes of a company. A good in-house training program can be developed with the following steps:

• Assessment of needs.
• Designing of suitable materials.
• Establishment of training sessions.
• Evaluation of results.

How to Assess the Training Needs of Your Company

The first step in the process of designing a good program for in-house training is an assessment of needs. Conduct research to find out which areas, if improved, will benefit the company the most and what are the right circumstances and time for that. Also, you should assess if the needed improvement can be achieved with the help of training. For example, if the sales office of your company is not achieving its targets, extra sales training might help drive the sales up.

Along with the evaluation of needs, you also have to manage the work schedule of your employees who need to be trained. A worker who is already overloaded with duties will fall farther behind the schedule if included in a training course. Training consumes time, so keep your emphasis on the areas that can be improved the most with the help of training.

What Materials to Design for an Effective In-House Training Program

There are many online courses available that can suit the requirements of your company. You can use them to design your program materials. Sources that can be used to develop the material include but are not limited to:

• Youtube videos.
• Online articles and books.
• Reflections on your own experiences.

The existing materials can also be supplemented or modified as required. There are plenty of videos and articles over the Internet on topics like customer service, marketing, and tutorials of the latest software. You might have to compose the training material yourself if your company works in a manner that’s not a common practice among companies generally. As you develop the training material yourself, distort each task into steps and arrange them in the order of their occurrence in the usual work routine.

Things to Consider While Organizing the Training Sessions

It’s important to establish the goals first. A suitable goal for a training course about customer service can be ‘increasing the volume of successfully resolved complaints by 10% within three months after the course’. Having a measurable goal right from the beginning makes it convenient for the trainers to find out how effective the program is. Having clear goals also helps in the identification of obstacles in the way of achievement of goals. You can get the goals of your training program written from professional services like ewriters.pro.

It’s important to understand that the need for training is not limited to the newly recruited workers – even the established staff members may require upgradation of skills. For example, on the one hand, you can include a course about the best sales practices in the training program of new employees. On the other hand, the same can be offered to the experienced salespersons to refresh their concepts.

As you carry out the training, review the steps involved in the material in a structured way. For example, as you impart the workers training on the best sales practices, first introduce them to the techniques used for the preliminary sales contract. Then mentor them on how to overcome resistance and objections, and finally, teach them how to close out the sales. It is very important to have the experts do the tasks in front of the novice employees.

How to Evaluate the Results of Training for Improvement

A very important aspect of an in-house training program is the assessment of results. You need to find out whether the study material you have chosen is effective in inculcating the required skills in the trainees. This can be achieved by keeping the goals of your training measurable, unambiguous, and clear.

Review the performance of your team at the end of the period for which you had set the goal. Take comments, reviews, and feedback from the concerned employees and supervisory staff as well. They are the best source of information about the challenges and obstacles in the way of target achievement. A good in-house training program also has an element of constant review of the changing needs of the company. If required, redesign your goal and redevelop your training material in light of their suggestions.

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