Traditionally, training takes place during the first few weeks or even months in a new position and employees are expected to retain all of the information that is dished out during that short time frame. Then they’re released into the wild to fend for themselves against fickle consumers.
The problem with this strategy is the majority of that extensive training takes place in a controlled environment. This method doesn’t allow for employee’s to get a full grasp on all the external factors they will constantly be faced with while trying to fulfill their role. Some of these factors include raw human emotion, the ever-changing nature of interests and loyalty, and the overwhelming amount of information we all have at our fingertips. When these external factors come flying in it can be really tough to recall the training and knowledge that was received 3 or more months ago.
This is where the timing and context of training makes a world of difference. Imagine your employees are receiving the right training at the right time to be applied in a real scenario. That type of hands-on experience with context leads to much higher comprehension and retention. Think of it as “on-demand training”. But this isn’t to say that an initial intensive training course should be thrown out the window. Instead, that initial training should be enhanced with a library of resources that can be easily accessed in a time of need.
Confidence - A well-trained employee with a wealth of knowledge at their disposal is a confident employee. They can become an expert in their field and develop a feeling of ownership and control over their success.
Motivation - I think we can all agree, we’re generally much more motivated to do something when we truly believe we can achieve it. On-demand training lifts any excuses of “I’m not prepared” or “I didn’t get enough training”.
Relevance - On-demand training allows for learning to be applied immediately. No memorizing necessary.
Productivity - Not only for employee’s but managers as well. Managers can shift their focus from putting out fires to motivating and developing their employees’ performance even further.
When you have to dedicate so much time revisiting the same information for an entire team, you slow down productivity and growth. Remember being in school and spending the beginning of each new year reviewing what you learned the year prior? What if you had that prior knowledge sitting in a bank to be accessed at any time when you needed it and jumped right into furthering your knowledge instead of backtracking? It’s very well possible that we all could have developed our knowledge deeper over time. The same outcome is possible in the workplace with the utilization of on-demand training.