Let’s face it. It’s a busy world out there. Staff training, while important, often gets pushed to the side as deadlines, hectic work schedules, and job stress take over. Over-worked employees haven’t got the time or energy for professional development. They’re too busy trying to tick off everything on their to-do list. Heavy workloads leave staff unable to focus on training courses. Long training seminars are unrealistic, adding to stress levels as employees have to spend time away from their desks. It’s important to develop training that is accessible and manageable for employees. Give your staff the power to better themselves without causing a mental breakdown.
Online training courses must be both engaging and manageable. If the thought of powering through a huge training manual causes stress and anxiety, your staff aren’t going to learn a thing. Rather, create achievable training that’s easy to deliver. Online training, compiled into bite-size manuals, allows staff to fit it into their busy schedules. We’ve got some tips to help you put together and distribute training for busy employees using OnRamp:
Forget about long training manuals or seminars. Busy employees don’t have the time to spend half their day sitting in training. They’re also unlikely to retain as much information if they’re too busy thinking about their workload. Specified training resources, which are convenient and easy to access quickly, are more beneficial. Creating a library of microlearning manuals allows employees to access the information they need when they need it. A short, two-minute instructional video is more useful than a long-winded handbook. OnRamp’s training platform gives you the tools to do this. Create short, engaging training manuals for staff to access as they need it.
A heavy workload can be overwhelming, leaving employees feeling stressed and helpless. Online training gives them the power over their own learning path. With OnRamp, your staff can log in to the portal and access training manuals as they wish. The platform can be accessed when convenient. Giving your employees the power to develop their skills and knowledge. By creating online course maps, your staff can map their progress and focus on relevant skills. Training can even be viewed more than once if employees need a refresher.
It’s important to create a positive learning experience for your staff. A busy schedule can lead to frustration and discouragement. A positive training experience helps counteract negativity and build morale. Develop an optimistic learning culture with your online training courses. Think about the tone of your training. A conversational tone and relatable graphics are welcoming and inviting. Make use of calming colours to put your employees at ease. Positive feedback and recognising achievements will help give employees a sense of accomplishment. Users receive certificates upon completing training manuals when using the OnRamp platform. These certificates are an immediate acknowledgement of a job well done.
Pressuring your team to complete training within tight deadlines only adds to their stress. Stress impacts negatively on learning ability and job performance. Rather, offer them flexible training. Online training that can be accessed at any time. Make sure your employees have plenty of time to complete modules at their own pace. Give your employees the opportunity to set their own goals and manage their training. Promote the use of online project management tools and apps. These tools can help your team stay organized and on top of their training.
Busy employees with hectic work schedules can often feel isolated and overwhelmed. Create online support systems for your staff in the form of forums and social media groups. This gives your staff the chance to connect with their peers. Forums allow staff to bounce ideas, ask questions, and voice any concerns they may have. Interacting with fellow employees also builds a sense of community. Employees will feel less overwhelmed if they have the space to share their thoughts. This is beneficial for online training as it gives staff a place where they can discuss the training if they are having difficulties.
Lengthy training courses filled with irrelevant information are not beneficial for busy employees. They don’t have the time to sift through the training to find the relevant information. Online training courses must be short and to the point. Focus on one topic at a time. Deliver the information with accessible, engaging content. The use of graphics, multimedia, and videos all add to your content. Use infographics to simplify complex information, making it easier to comprehend. Topic-specific training gives employees the tools to build their skills where needed. Shorter manuals are also easier to fit into a chaotic schedule.
Staff training should build and empower your employees, not add stress to their lives. With OnRamp, you can use these tips to create short, content-rich training manuals for your staff to access as they need. Employees can manage their training on the portal and stay up-to-date with the latest information. Do you want a skilled team of employees? Get started with OnRamp today. Contact us for more information.
In this day and age, businesses are increasingly moving away from the traditional methods of training and leaning more towards using online training and skills development. Online training is the teaching of skills and knowledge through an electronic-based medium using modern technology such as computers and the internet rather than face-to-face-in-a-classroom structures.
Online training and skills development are highly versatile and greatly beneficial to both your business and your employees. The online training process is continuous and is advantageous to all your staff regardless of their level of experience. Take a look at a few benefits of online training and why you should incorporate these in your day-to-day business practices:
Convenience and flexibility: Employees can learn from any location with a computer or mobile device that has an internet connection, enabling them to go at their own pace to ensure they absorb the information sufficiently. Refresher online courses are also a great way to increase the probability of your employees remembering the skills they have learned. In addition, training online allows for more self-directed learning which has proved to empower employees. This leads to increased engagement and confidence, which goes a long way to improving performance and productivity. A definite plus for your business.
Ease of accessibility and scalable nature: New ideas and training modules can easily be shared with a large number of employees without having to arrange a time for everyone to get together. This makes it highly accessible to your employees and keeps the whole business up to date when new procedures and processes are introduced.
Retain information: It eliminates the messy process of note-taking, instead, providing all the information in an easily accessible online format and the use of videos in the learning process has shown to help improve retention of information.
Personalise the learning experience: Online training allows employees to complete it in a manner which is conducive for their learning styles. They also benefit from receiving feedback straight away, without the lengthy process of manual evaluation of work.
Easily Measurable: The added bonus of online training is that it is quantifiable, and your business can keep track of the progress of your staff as well as the training itself, allowing for adjustments to be made continuously.
The importance of online training and skills development in your business is endless and ultimately benefits both you as the employer and your employees. It helps your business create a better quality and effectiveness of training at an affordable cost that is easily accessible and learnable while promoting confidence in your employees. A knowledgeable employee is a great asset to any business. Get your business set up with online training today!
Acquiring a specific skill in this day and age is not only important for helping a person choose a career path, but it is critical in helping to set them apart from the crowd, with so many unemployed people in South Africa and so few jobs to go around. It is imperative that individuals are skilled enough for employers to need them more than say Joe Soap down the road.
The Skills Development Act in South Africa was created to help develop the skills of the South African people in the workplace, enabling them to better their chances of finding work and keeping a job. Its purpose is to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers and to promote self-employment.
The Skills Development legislation basically provides a platform for increasing the volume of education and training for individuals, but at the same time ensuring that their is quality education and training available.
This is a much needed legislation in South Africa and one that should be well utilised by companies.
Well, it is beneficial for both you as an employer and for your employees. It benefits you and the company as you would have better skilled staff who are able to work more productively – this means faster turnaround times with fewer mistakes, resulting in more profitability for the company.
Employees that are well trained will feel more confident in their roles and take greater pride in how they do their work, because they will feel valued by you having taken the time to invest in them. These employees will have a greater level of job satisfaction and really enjoy being at work knowing they are valued.
It’s basically great overall for everyone in the company.
If your organisation has a payroll of more than R500k per year, you are required to pay a Skills Development Levy of 1% of that payroll to the legislation. Alas, there is hope – you are able to claim back up to 50% of that amount, there are just a few easy steps you need to follow.
Every year your organisation will be required to submit one of these Workplace Skills Plans with a detailed outline of training for the following year as well as an annual training report detailing the training completed in the past year.
As long as you are diligent about doing all of the above, you will have no problem with claiming back on the Skills Development Levy.
Remember that developing and uplifting your staff is as crucial as paying their salaries at the end of the day. If your staff do not feel like they are valued or growing, they may move onto something better, where they will not be taken advantage of and will be encouraged to grow. Staff are the lifeblood of your company, so should be treated with respect – if you have good staff, there is even more reason to look after them and value them as best you can.