We’re back with four more training methods (here’s part one in case you missed it!) to try with your team—and make learning on the job easier, engaging, and more impactful for everyone.

1. Gamification
2. Video training
3. Instructor-led training
4. Simulation training

Gamification

Cue the confetti—someone completed the latest lesson in record time! 🎉

Gamification gives you the opportunity to incorporate game elements into your training. Those might take the form of badges, challenges, and point systems.

Gamification helps training feel a little more fun by instantly celebrating your team’s milestones. It also makes objectives and progress clear for teammates.

Depending on the platform, your teammates can compare their progress on leaderboards or work together to complete specific trainings. Some setups even provide real-time hints or feedback when teammates get stuck.

However, this workplace training method can be expensive to integrate. It can also feel distracting and may put too much emphasis on competition. As a result, your team may not be able to reach proficiency if they’re too focused on hitting the next lesson.

‍

Video training

Videos can save your top trainers time from delivering live trainings and save time for your most important topics. You can also use video alongside other workplace training methods, like studying roleplaying scenarios.

Trainers can send these videos and let learners watch them on their own time. That’s much easier than coordinating schedules and breaking flow for training. 

Videos may feel more engaging depending on the production quality and other elements like music or visuals. 

However, engaging videos (especially ones with interactive elements) take up a lot of time and budget to create. It also requires your team to have specialized skills in areas like editing and lighting. Think that’s a lot? Imagine repeating all of that for each video once anything is out of date.

You can mitigate this by leveraging other training methods that are easier to update. Automatically generated how-to guides, for example, can be much easier to edit without requiring special skills or lots of time. (Think: tweaking a screenshot annotation  vs. re-recording an entire video).

On a larger scale, videos can encourage passive learning. This is when learners watch and absorb information without actively engaging with it or practicing the skills they were taught—so less emphasis on competency and more on memorization is one thing to watch out for.

‍

Instructor-led learning

For some topics, nothing beats learning directly from an expert in real-time. 🤓

Traditional teacher-led sessions are great for complex or core topics that need extra attention. Instructor-led training:

• Lets trainers personalize sessions and answer questions
• Gives teammates a chance to interact and get clarity on tough topics
• Allows everyone to engage in more active learning 

This employee training method can work well with new hire cohorts since they’ll have similar learning needs. Training sessions can align with their onboarding timeline to help them reach their milestones faster, and with less friction.

Instructor-led training can also reinforce knowledge shared in your team’s documentation. It’s a great way to make sure best practices stick and give your team a chance to share their feedback. Note: Your instructors can help capture any learnings and tips to help improve your team’s processes as well.

Even with all those benefits, people-led trainings aren’t always a walk in the park.  Some trainers may be more engaging than others. Some may deviate from your team’s best practices. It can also be tough (read: expensive!) to scale instructor-led training as your team grows. Especially since engagement and other metrics can be difficult to measure.

‍

Simulation training

Simulation training is a hands-on experience that lets your team practice close-to-real-life scenarios.

Simulations are more commonly associated with hands-on practice.  For example, security teams can take what they’ve learned from your playbooks and runbooks and apply it to a hypothetical situation. 

These practices are especially helpful for risky industries or roles, like those in healthcare or teammates who manage customer privacy. It’s also helpful for manual jobs, like construction, that need hands-on practice. Bite-sized simulations can also support other trainings, like adding questions on a hypothetical situation in an e-learning quiz.

With these workplace training techniques, your team can practice problem-solving and learn from mistakes in a safe environment. These simulations can also reinforce learnings from other trainings (and highlight where some people need more support). 

Big simulations can cost a lot of time and money to deliver, maintain, and update. That said, simulations can’t cover every scenario. This can lead to trouble if teammates get a false sense of security after nailing their last few simulations.

‍

Still searching for more options?

You’re in luck! Check out part three of this series, where we’ll cover role-playing, spaced learning, job shadowing, and coaching and mentoring.