Companies spend a significant amount of money training workers, whether they are new hires or experienced employees. These organizations’ initiatives are driven by the hope that whatever learning that is occurring sticks, and that the newly gained skills will translate into increased productivity and an improved bottom line. Retaining the knowledge imparted through training, however, is not so easy. Research has shown that six months after training, the average employee has forgotten 90 percent of what was taught.
Better retention not only yields immediate results, but also delivers better engagement and productivity in the long term. Unfortunately, companies continue to struggle finding this success, especially with the training methods they have relied on for years. The solution these organizations are discovering is employee training software, including platforms adapted to tablet technology. Workers love it, and companies are loving the results. Here are some reasons why employee training software improves knowledge retention:
The Boredom Factor
Many employees view training as drudgery. And it’s no wonder—plenty of companies still use printed materials as the primary method to teach and refresh worker skills. For new hires, this is a terrible initial impression: They spend their first day studying when they would rather be working. For veteran employees, used to being productive, a binder of reading material might as well be a punishment; they would rather be taught directly and continue their productivity rather than devote hours to what amounts to schoolwork. Workers bore quickly with this content, which often fails to make an impact they can apply on the floor or in the field. Employee training software on a tablet such as an iPad or Surface takes manuals and binders out of the equation. Retention is better because the average worker isn’t so mind-numbingly bored.
Video Is More Impactful than Words
Written training content can be moved to tablets, which will assist greatly in knowledge retention, but nothing carries more of an impact than video. Employees can watch a 15-minute video to learn a process that might take hours to read about and perhaps not even absorbed after all that time. Studies have shown people retain more information—by a large margin—when viewing it rather than reading it. If an employee doesn’t quite understand something on a video, he or she could take a few minutes to watch it again. If the same employee doesn’t understand something read, likely, rereading the paragraph many times won’t help. Tablets containing employee training software are great for distributing, watching, and even shooting video. The time necessary for training is reduced, and the overall quality of the learning improving, thus saving companies money as well.
Resonating Technology
Boredom and impact aren’t the only issues with traditional training methods; younger employees simply aren’t impressed with printed content. After all, this is the generation that gets all of its news online and doesn’t feel the need to own landline telephones. For millennials, training manuals seem so last century. This is why employee training software on tablets is such an innovation. Not only are millennials more likely to want to learn on today’s technology, but they also will be impressed with employers that adopt such a forward-thinking strategy and, therefore, be more apt to take the training seriously.
Is knowledge retention a struggle when training your organization’s employees?
