Here’s a statistic that underscores the importance of employee training and development: According to Indeed.com research, 86 percent of job seekers already have a job and are looking for work outside their current employment. That means almost 7 of 8 workers are thinking of bolting. Numbers such as this are sobering for companies that are realizing that the best-trained, most developed employees are likely to stay engaged with their jobs and, subsequently, might be less prone to leave for something perceived as better.
With this realization comes another: the difference between training and development. Training employees teaches them skills they need to do their jobs effectively. Development emphasizes something more: Learning the necessary skills and applying them to increase a worker’s productivity and standing in the company, as well as the trajectory of his or her career. The difference between training and development may seem semantic—and both are incredibly important—but the former has an eye to the present while the latter is geared toward the long term. Achieving both offers a way to retain employees that help your company grow.
Into this equation comes video, which is expanding its impact in the workplace, especially with tablet-based training solutions that many companies are using. The role video plays when looking at the difference between training and development is important in determining a strategy that best suits your employees and your organization.
A More Direct Experience
Many companies still rely on printed content to train workers. Even if this was the most effective method (it’s not—more on that later), it is still impersonal in a way that doesn’t foster employee development. The process can take too long, requires more concentration that average workers don’t want to devote, and places too much focus on the “you-learn-this-or-else” workplace mentality that drives many employees to look for another job. Video can reduce an hour of study into a 15-minute clip that includes a human element and a direct demonstration of the processes that are to be learned. Employees feel they are being assisted rather than talked down to; in turn, they become more engaged in their jobs.
Better Knowledge Retention
Studies have shown that people retain more by watching a video than by reading written material. Think about it: How often did you study for a test in high school, get a good score, but then forgot everything you studied the next day (and would need to restudy the material for the final exam)? Yet, you may have remembered an episode of your favorite TV show months later, even though the studying and the viewing occurred on the same day. The workplace is the same way: Video training carries much more impact for the long term and, thus, promotes development.
Best Practices, in Progress
Employees in training are learning skills to do their jobs today. Employees under development are learning skills to do their jobs today, tomorrow, next week, four months from now, and, hopefully, for years to come. The latter workers must be active participants in the processes of their jobs. The video capabilities of tablets open up new possibilities for employee collaboration that weren’t even possible even five years ago. A worker could watch a training video, apply it to a process, discover a better way of making the process work, highlight the improvement by shooting video from the iPad or Surface, and then share that second video with coworkers throughout the company. In this way, employees are creating and refining their own best practices. They feel more involved in their development, which can reap productivity gains for companies that benefit from this level of participation.
How would you define the difference between training and development?
