What goes without saying? The importance of employee training.

Equipping your team with the knowledge and skills to improve their craft and get stuff done on their own is a force multiplier. Effective training isn’t only a great way to build autonomy—it’s also a surefire way to increase productivity, minimize mistakes, and improve employee engagement.

So what’s the catch? Sharing knowledge is a lot easier said than done. Even the best training programs struggle because everyone learns differently, and tools and processes constantly change: new hires forget steps, teammates ping each other for help, and documentation goes stale.

If you check in with your team, you may find your current training program:

• Isn’t interactive or engaging enough
• Takes too long and feels intimidating
• Feels surface-level and disconnected from your team’s actual work
• Still leaves people asking ‘How do I…?’ when they sit down to actually do the task

Instead of making more tweaks to an old training, maybe it’s time to deliver it differently. A new training method could be the change you need for key information to stick—and to get your team excited to learn something new. ⭐

The good news is, you’ve got options. Here are four employee training methods to switch things up:

1. Training documentation
2. Just-in-time training
3. Books, podcast episodes, and other educational materials
4. E-learning

Let’s start with our favorite.

1. Training documentation

Wouldn't it be nice to create a training guide that:

1️⃣ Actually gets used?

2️⃣ Doesn't take forever to make?

3️⃣ Helps people get unstuck, in their moment of need?

4️⃣ Minimizes repetitive questions, shoulder taps, Slack notifications, impromptu screen shares, emails, meeting invitations, and other disruptions?

5️⃣ Frees *everyone* up to do more interesting and impactful work?

Survey says there's a tool to do all that (👋👋, Tango!)—and new research to explain why all how-to guides aren't created equal.

When done well, training documentation can:

✅ Serve as a single source of truth for all other trainings

✅ Provide the right answers, in the right place, at the right time

✅ Combine procedural knowledge and peer insights

✅ Minimize blockers with step-by-step guidance in the flow of work

✅ Maximize people’s time spent improving their craft

A good how-to guide or SOP can go a long way. Documenting your team’s best practices helps more knowledge get captured, shared, and discovered across your entire organization. And it just got easier than ever to do. 💃

2. Just-in-time (JIT) training

This employee training method teaches people what they need to know now—rather than what they might need to know in the future.

JIT training can include short work instructions or a quick online course with a quiz at the end. This type of training typically focuses on one skill or topic (think: how to use the new feature in your applicant tracking system). Keeping training short and sweet can make it easier to understand and complete.

True to its name, “just in time” means knowledge gets delivered at the moment of need, in the flow of work (we call this Real-Time Enablement at Tango!). Ideally, everyone can access JIT training on demand. This minimizes the need for formal training sessions and trainers.

Targeted training topics? Check. Concise training materials? Check. Accessible (nearly) anywhere and anytime? Check. Sounds amazing, right?

What you’ll need to weigh: Just In Time Training can often be expensive and complex to implement. Or it can be simple with Tango's Nugget feature. Tango Nuggets allows you to "pin" knowledge like videos, process guides, or other media in the tools your team is using. They are the just-in-time solution for just-in-time training.

3. Books, podcast episodes, and other educational materials

Whether it's your team’s latest podcast episode or books from your favorite authors—there’s lots to learn from thought leaders everywhere. 🌍

There are also lots of ways to weave your team’s favorite resources into your training. If you have Brené Brown fans (and leaders-in-training) on the team, then you could ask them to start a book club. You could also share an article that has stuck with you over the years (like this one) with the wider team.

Some publishers or authors may have already done the legwork for you, by including worksheets and guided materials to help with discussion and reflection.

Either way, you can start small and start somewhere by creating a thread to share your favorite resources or recommending a few newsletters to subscribe to. You could also go big by creating more formal programs. Some examples include:

• Starting a manager or team-specific book club
• Assigning teammates a podcast episode to listen to before your next meeting
• Including an insightful article as required reading during your new hire onboarding training

What’s the caveat? As awesome as these resources and conversations can be, they take time, may not be immediately relevant, and can’t replace hands-on experience. The costs can also quickly stack up if you’re purchasing materials for each team member.

4. E-learning

Not all topics need face-to-face time with a manager or trainer. With e-learning, your individual contributors can learn key skills on their own time and bring follow-up questions to peers or their manager.

An added bonus? Learners can go at their own pace and prioritize topics they need the most help with. This helps managers empower teams to understand and address their own knowledge gaps.

An e-learning setup is also easily accessible and scalable. Any teammate with an internet connection can log on from anywhere in the world—which eliminates costs for physical materials, trainers, and/or physical locations. When combined with other types of training methods, e-learning can be extremely engaging. Try adding gamification and quick simulations to spice up long slideshows or videos.

But the best part of any digital learning system? Data. 📈

You can instantly see metrics like your team’s completion rate and time training. These indicators can highlight sections that need updates or topics that could benefit from documentation and other resources.

One of e-learning’s biggest benefits is also a drawback—minimal contact with team members and trainers. This can feel isolating and make it tougher to stay accountable. You may also get less direct feedback from e-learning than from other, face-to-face employee training methods.

E-learning platforms costs can add up fast as well. That includes the extensive time needed from your team (and the platform’s support team) to set up and maintain it.