Effective employee training is important—more important than you might think.
A recent survey discovered that 25 percent of workers leave their jobs because opportunities for training and eLearning are inadequate. On the other hand, companies that offer such programs generate about 26 percent more revenue per employee. The message from these results is clear: Impressive corporate training materials are good for business; eLearning initiatives that are lacking won’t do anything to improve a company’s bottom line.
Into this reality come digital options that are changing the training landscape. The use of tablets and the bring-your-own-device trend are revolutionizing the ways companies educate employees. Here are some ways digital corporate training materials are changing the game:
Training Is Implemented Faster
If your company is introducing a new product or procedure, any accompanying training content will take time to develop and, subsequently, deliver to the managers and employees to learn. With digital corporate training materials, organizations can skip the printing and shipping of this content, thus saving days or even weeks until the eLearning is implemented. Once the materials are ready, they are simply (and, with the right solution, automatically) uploaded to tablets at stores around the country, almost instantly. Workers will get up to speed faster, thereby increasing the chance the new product or procedure will be a success.
Use of Video Is Easier
Corporate training materials that employ video can produce noticeably better results—watching how a process works is usually more effective than reading about it. Yet, this approach has always been a challenge because of compatibility issues and large file sizes. Today’s tablet-based solutions overcome these problems by compressing video so that clips don’t use as many resources to upload and/or stream. Furthermore, because such videos can be watched on an iPad or similar device, they aren’t anchored to a DVD player or a desktop in a back office, but rather can be viewed on the floor or in the field—where the action is.
Changes Can Be Made More Efficiently
No company is perfect: Occasionally, corporate training materials must be tweaked, updated, revamped, or improved. Luckily, today’s digital content can be amended easily and reach the employees affected by the changes. With printed materials, you might have needed to email errata or ship replacement content. With tablet-based content, simply make the change, and with a couple clicks, the update is sent to every iPad in the company that held the original content, without any effort from front-line employees, who just turn on their devices and find the new material already there.
Collaboration Is More Effective
When training is a collaborative effort, the benefits can be immense. Employees can offer feedback and ask questions on the processes they are learning. Execs and managers can provide guidance and offer praise. Corporate training materials cease to be rigid guidelines but rather become living, breathing processes that can be adjusted and refined over time. Collaborative eLearning improves productivity and better invests employees in their jobs—when their opinions are valued, they in turn feel more valued.
How have digital corporate training materials changed your company’s eLearning initiatives?
