If you've examined your current training methods and determined that they're not as effective as you'd like, it's time to make some changes. You're investing a lot of time and money in training, and you should be getting a solid ROI from it. That's why you should consider these three simple options to H make your current training methods more effective. 

Schedule Training Around Employees' Schedules 

If you offer on-demand training solutions, employees can take training on their own schedule. But if you must schedule training that requires attendance at a specific time, make sure you're mindful of your employees' schedules. For example, don't schedule mandatory training for your accounting department the first week of the month. If you do, you'll likely find that the training is ineffective. Why? Because those employees aren't able to focus on the training because they are worried about missing their deadlines for monthly reporting - or outright mad that they will have to work late to catch up on all the work they missed for the training if they want to meet the deadlines. 

Choose a time that's convenient for most people, and if you can't find a time that doesn't conflict with major projects, consider offering more than one round of training. 

Focus on Context

The Harvard Business Review made this point in an article in 2017. Companies have become so obsessed with training as a concept that they fail to test it's effectiveness - resulting in training that's essentially useless. Instead, companies should focus on "learning that is deeply contextual, social, and embedded into real work". In other words, you should make sure your employees are learning applicable skills in a way that they can truly apply them. They should learn how to work with their peers in a hierarchal structure, and be able to provide valuable feedback to leadership. 

Allowing employees to learn in an environment they're familiar with, training with the people they will be working with, and offering live feedback, is a proven way to increase training effectiveness.   

Listen to Employees

Always ask for feedback from employees after training sessions - and then listen to it. Most training programs build in surveys and opportunities for companies to obtain data from attendees, but too often companies don't pay enough attention to the data. Ask better questions on the surveys and then analyze the data. Focus on what employees are telling you. Is the training actually helping them do their jobs? Is there a better alternative to learning the same skills? Did they feel the training was a waste of time and resources? 

Once you've analyzed the data, act on it. If there's a consensus that the current training offerings aren't effective, explore alternatives. Training isn't cheap, so if your current methods aren't working it's time to invest in something better.