A commitment to employee training has always been a critical element in high-performance organizational culture. However, a commitment to training and continuous learning has never been more vital than in today’s rapidly changing workplace landscape.
More employees are working remotely, at least part-time. New technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), are transforming job descriptions and knowledge requirements. With high employee turnover expected to continue through 2024, it’s crucial for employers to have in place training programs to get new employees up to speed quickly, cross-train employees for other roles, and build “bench strength” for future management openings.
At the same time, changing employee expectations and life experiences are shaping some impactful employee training trends for 2024. Here’s a look at several key trends and how organizations can adjust their training and professional development practices.
Why is Employee Training So Important?
Beyond the obvious need for employees to know how to do their jobs and to understand basic safety rules and procedures, there are several reasons why investing in employee training is vital:
- As part of the new employee onboarding process, effective training helps workers become more productive, more quickly, and more likely to remain with the company beyond their first 6-12 months on the job.
- It also helps to retain more experienced employees. Workers are more likely to stay when they have opportunities to improve and expand their skills and see that the company is investing in them.
- Employee training improves business performance by making employees more effective and engaged.
- When employees at all levels receive some type of leadership training, it not only helps prepare the next generation of leaders but also makes employees more effective in their communications and in working cross-functionally with others.
- Workplace technology is evolving rapidly. Training is vital to help employees understand and get comfortable using the latest productivity-enhancing devices and software.
- It improves customer service. The more employees learn about how the company’s products and services are used in the real world, the most common issues and challenges customers face, and the internal resources for resolving specific issues, the better and more quickly they can help customers address questions and problems.
Exploring Top Employee Training Trends for 2024
Here’s a look at a few of the most impactful employee training trends across the work landscape, their implications for organizations, and how leaders can address them to build a strong performance culture and retain top talent.
Elevating Engagement with Gamified Training Experiences
While many managers wish employees would take their work more seriously, research suggests employees may work harder when leadership makes a game of it.
According to Harvard Business Review, gamification can have powerful, positive impacts on employee engagement. While often applied to compensation, integrating gamification into training can also make employees feel more motivated and engaged.
Friendly competition and scorekeeping are core elements in many team building and professional development programs, from corporate scavenger hunts to races to murder mysteries. At Best Corporate Events, we offer expertise in activities designed to foster collaboration and problem-solving based on games and even team building game shows.
Empowering Teams with Experiential Learning Models
The value of experiential learning is best summed up in the famous quote from Ben Franklin: “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.”
In other words, when people learn new knowledge or a skill by applying it in a real-world context, they understand it better and are more able to use it in other places or work situations. As with team building generally, experiential learning improves problem-solving and communication skills.
Our experiential team building events enhance people skills and teamwork by engaging participants in fun, immersive activities with purpose. For example, in our Virtual Escape the Office program, team members who are accidentally “locked into” an office space must inspect virtual objects, find clues, solve puzzles, and decipher codes to solve the mystery and unlock their virtual trap.
Participants improve their deductive reasoning and collaboration skills while engrossed in the simulation. Because it’s online, this activity works with groups of any size and remote teams anywhere.
In Igniting Team Performance®, one of our most-requested professional development programs, teams work through a series of progressively more complex challenges. Debrief conversations after each stage identify strengths and uncover areas for improvement. The learning is experiential as lessons learned are immediately applied to overcoming the next obstacle.
The challenges are aligned with your group’s unique needs and objectives. The opportunities for customization make this program ideal in various business scenarios, from adjusting to organizational changes like mergers or restructuring to improving cross-functional communication and trust, integrating remote teams, and enhancing problem-solving skills.
Maximizing Learning Outcomes with Personalized Training Initiatives
Organizations often invest in team building to help accomplish specific business objectives, such as bringing new team members together after a reorg or merger. Professional development workshops and team building programs deliver even more value when customized to meet the specific needs of the company and the employees involved.
At Best Corporate Events, we start each engagement by assessing the client’s needs and objectives. Based on understanding those goals, we then offer different levels of customization to meet the unique needs of the program or training session to maximize the impact of the learning experience.
Our trivia events can include customized, company-specific questions. A Bridge to the Future activity can reflect the specific future goals and aspirations your teams are working towards. A training workshop like Conducting Better Virtual Meetings can impart commonly needed skills in a personalized manner for your team and situation.
Leveraging Technology for Seamless Training Delivery
People of a certain age still remember when film strips and overhead transparency projectors were commonly used in corporate training and high schools and colleges. Film strips were replaced by VCRs, then DVDs, and then online video. Overhead projectors have given way to interactive whiteboards over the past two decades.
Advancements in technology continually change employee training. Today, corporate education is being made more engaging and engrossing by integrating technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Our facilitators and trainers leverage their expertise in in-person and virtual event technology to create immersive team-building and professional development experiences that enhance skills development and learning outcomes.
Our use of these capabilities ranges from video, photo, and GPS tracking in the proprietary app that powers our technology-driven corporate scavenger hunts like the Amazing Chase SmartHunt® to our Mavericks Murder Mystery, the first-ever virtual and augmented reality enabled team challenge.
Harnessing the Power of Data for Informed Training Decisions
Companies increasingly use data analytics to measure engagement, performance, and satisfaction. Applying analytics to training and professional development programs helps personalize content to optimize retention and measure learning effectiveness.
Our three-tiered needs assessment and data-driven approach to training design ensure that our workshops address each client’s specific goals and objectives while delivering successful learning outcomes.
Programs like our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Training don’t merely help participants recognize the unique personality traits and strengths in themselves and their coworkers, but also provide practical tools, guidance, and common language to practically apply this knowledge to improve team performance.
Aligning Training Initiatives with Organizational Goals
Planning a successful team building or professional development event starts with identifying goals and objectives. Are you trying to improve some aspect of operations, such as fostering creativity or cross-departmental trust and collaboration? Helping employees adjust to organizational changes such as a merger or acquisition? Or something completely different?
Beginning with the end goal enables:
- you to select the best type of program or workshop to accomplish that goal;
- the team building or training provider to customize the activity as needed; and
- the facilitator or trainer to manage the event to help achieve that goal.
By aligning training with organizational objectives, you can achieve measurable results and ensure your investment produces a positive return.
Transform Your Employee Training with Best Corporate Events
Maintaining a regular cadence of corporate training programs is vital for creating a culture of high performance, increasing employee engagement, and improving retention and productivity by investing in employee skills.
Understanding and integrating current employee training trends will improve results when planning and organizing team building and training events.
For example, gamification can increase motivation and engagement in training programs. Experiential learning increases knowledge retention and helps employees apply new information and skills in business situations. And utilizing the newest instructional technology makes learning more immersive and effective.
Best Corporate Events has been delivering team building and professional development activities tailored to our clients’ specific needs and objectives for more than two decades. We offer more than 120 different programs, many original and proprietary, which can be customized to accomplish distinct goals.
Visit BestCorporateEvents.com to learn more, and contact us for a free consultation on customized training programs and workshops.
