What Is an Employee Training Program? (+ Definition, Types & Best Practices)

Training for new employees is a key part of being a manager or supervisor, and when done right, can allow employees to effortlessly assimilate into a new team. Alongside training new employees, providing ongoing training and development for current employees is key to performance improvements and company growth. Although it is so important for company success, did you know that in 2023, 59% of employees had no formal employee training? Making sure your company offers substantial employee training can ensure your new employees feel welcomed and confident, so we’re going to go over ways you can plan and implement employee training.

What Is an Employee Training and Development Program?

Employee training and development programs involve online or in-person training for both new and current employees to learn new skills needed in their role. These programs are made of two parts: 

a) Employee Training

Employee training programs involve learning new skills or information for the first time. Employee training is often for new hires, who are new to the company and need to become familiar with company policies, practices, software and day-to-day tasks. Employee training is often mandatory, and can take place over a few weeks to a few months, depending on the role. By passing a training period, an employee is now able to work with minimal supervision.

b) Employee Development

Employee development programs involve training for current staff to improve their hard or soft skills. Employee development can range from improving leadership skills to closing skill gaps, or learning in demand skills. Employee development is often implemented to provide opportunities for career development or career progression for employees, for the purpose of promoting internal mobility.

As we can see, employee training is for learning new skills and equipping employees with information they can use every day; whereas employee development programs aim to improve the skill set of current staff, by offering them opportunities to improve on their technical skills, and improve overall employee performance.

There are many different types of employee training and development. Some forms of employee training you might be familiar with include: 

Workshops

Workshops are a form of hands-on employee training of a specific skill, where employees learn a new skill by practicing it with an instructor. Workshops are often for developing employees’ soft skills such as inclusion training, diversity training, business strategy, human resource management and team training. A manager or guest speaker is brought in to teach employees during the workshop, and is run as a whole-day learning experience.

Seminar

A seminar is a form of instructor-led training, and is similar to a lecture. In seminars, employees can learn and ask questions to the expert leading the session. Seminars often teach one specific skill, and encourage discussion among attendees. Some topics for seminars are building communication skills, leadership development, safety training or business strategy. After a seminar, employees can immediately use what was learnt in the session, as seminars often teach soft skills. 

Online Courses

Online courses can be used to update employees on new practices, policies or be used as refreshers for mandatory skills needed for their role. Many online courses are hosted on a company’s online learning platform, but can also be run by an external training organization. Some topics for online training include compliance training and sales training, and are favored by many companies for employee training as employees can learn and complete the training materials or lessons at their own pace.

On-the-Job Training

This is a form of employee training which is very hands-on and encourages active participation from the employees. Usually for training hard skills, on-the-job training can involve technical training sessions, onboarding training or job shadowing, for employees to learn the specifics of their role. Workplace training which is on-the-job is usually for roles which are very hands-on or client focused, such as in manufacturing, sales and management. 

Simulations

A simulation is a type of employee training where employees practice their skills in a ‘fake’ environment. Simulations are a very effective training method for hard and soft skills training, as employees develop their understanding and confidence in their role. Simulations are an effective way of teaching employees skills in a low-stakes environment; some examples of simulations include training programs for recruiters, salespersons and consultants, as they are expected to adhere to rules, communicate according to guidelines, and follow company practices.

Peer Learning

This is a type of employee training and development which is led by employees, instead of managers or external organizations. Experienced and successful employees can be utilized as teachers for their new colleagues, or provide advice and insight for professional development. Some topics or skills which can be taught through peer learning include customer service training, leadership training or employee orientation for new hires. An effective employee training program should have some form of peer learning, as experienced staff will be able to effectively describe roles and responsibilities, and answer any questions related to the role.

Cross Training

This is a form of employee training which aims to improve and expand the skill set of current employees. Cross-training allows employees to learn skills which are not necessarily relevant to, or mandatory for a specific role, but by gaining new skills, they become more well-rounded. Cross-training can be related to hard or soft skills, and can improve employee performance and productivity. To encourage cross-training, any training and development opportunities should be available to all employees to try or attend, so that employees’ learning can be led by their own interests and goals. 

Why Is Employee Training Important?

Employee training is a key part of ensuring organizational success. Employees should always be kept up-to-date on company policies and practices, and traditionally, this is what employee training is for. However by implementing and offering ongoing training for your employees, you can actually improve your company as a whole. Here are the benefits of employee training, in case you aren’t convinced: 

Benefits of Employee Training For Employees: 

Employee training can provide more than just information and understanding company policy for employees. Some benefits of employee training for individuals include: 

• Skill Development: By providing opportunities for skill development, your employees become more well-rounded, more productive and more satisfied. By encouraging skill development, you can increase creativity, flexibility and innovation in your teams.
• Career Advancement: By providing ongoing employee training and development, you can increase internal mobility and also encourage outstanding employees to move up within the company. This is very attractive to employees, and also benefits recruitment and HR, who can easily transition employees between roles within the company. As 39% of workers believe opportunities for growth are important to their overall job satisfaction, offering employee training can ensure employee satisfaction.
• Personal Growth: Professional development is an important part of job satisfaction, and training can be a great way to allow your employees to grow according to their own personal goals. Training and development opportunities such as leadership training, professional development courses and learning programs related to career advancement are very attractive to employees at all levels across the company. In fact, 93% of workers would stay at a company if they believe it invested in their careers, so providing opportunities for growth is essential.

Benefits of Employee Training For Organizations

Organizations also benefit from providing employee training and development programs, such as: 

• Increased Productivity: Employees who are highly skilled, ambitious and motivated to grow and develop professionally can increase productivity in your company. Offering training and development programs can increase employee engagement, improve output and lead to greater quality of work and customer satisfaction. For instance, if you were to train your sales team on cross-cultural communication, you could see increases in sales from overseas clients. Even small sessions on skill development can greatly benefit your business.
• Employee Retention: A company’s training and development efforts can benefit you in the long term, as employees feel incentivised to stay. A training process which is well organized and interesting retains new hires, and opportunities for professional development and growth keep current employees invested in their work. Did you know that 59% of workers believe opportunities for growth are an important consideration in their job hunt? By promoting and highlighting opportunities for growth, you can attract and retain talent for the long-term.
• Innovation and Adaptability: Employees who are given the opportunity to improve their skills, learn from experts and explore their professional growth become innovative and adaptable. By widening a team's skillset, you can encourage more collaboration and creativity, and utilize skills which are not commonly used in your industry. Over time, this becomes a huge advantage to your company, as you can become even more competitive and adapt to market changes. 

Examples of Effective Employee Training Programs

We’ve gone through some examples of employee training and development, but to turn these into a program requires planning. Employee training programs differ based on their goals and target employees. Some examples of employee training programs include: 

Onboarding Training

This is the training new employees will complete in the first weeks of their job. The purpose of employee onboarding training is to introduce a new employee to their roles and responsibilities, and train them on using company machinery or software. Usually onboarding involves a company introduction, team introduction, and going over the basics of their main role. Onboarding is often supervised and is mandatory. 

Team Training

Team training sessions aim to improve teamwork and collaboration between employees in a department. Team training can include seminars or workshops on learning a new skill, or improving communication and collaboration between team members. Some training which might be involved in a team training session includes communication, presentation skills and team building exercises.

Product Training

The purpose of product training is to introduce team members to a new product or service being offered by a company. This can include teaching staff about product features or updates, as well as ways to market and sell products to potential clients. By implementing product training for employees, you can educate all employees about your products, and drive innovation, especially in improving sales and marketing tactics.

Soft Skills Training

Soft skills are non-technical skills used at work, for instance communication, presentation and conflict resolution. Training soft skills often involves roleplay, simulation, workshops or seminars to provide hands-on practice for employees. Soft skills training greatly benefits any employee in a client-facing or managerial role, as it allows them to improve their overall interpersonal skills.

Technical Training

Technical training involves teaching employees about any hard skills required for success in their role. Technical training can involve learning company jargon, company software, or any tools used by the company, such as machinery or programs like photoshop. Technical training is necessary for employees to fulfill their job requirements, so implementing a high-quality training program is essential.

Quality Assurance Training

Quality assurance (QA) allows companies to monitor internal company processes to identify any issues. QA training involves educating your staff on your company’s QA metrics and ways to address any issues. QA can be taught via an online training program, or in small group sessions such as seminars. QA training is essential to ensure consistency and quality in your products, as well as to optimize processes regarding production, development or sales.

Compliance Training

Educating employees on the correct practices, behavior, and processes expected by a company is called compliance training. Compliance is taken very seriously by companies, and is often implemented by a yearly online course for employees to be reminded of compliance standards. Compliance training is necessary to ensure your employees are familiar with company standards, and for providing a safe working environment.

Customer Service Training

Any employee in a client-facing or customer-facing role will need customer service training. Customer service training is to educate staff on a company’s expectations for customer service, such as handling complaints, answering enquiries, sales and product introductions. Usually, customer service training will involve roleplay and small simulations, so employees can practice and learn from a manager or supervisor. Customer service is incredibly important to keeping customers and clients satisfied, so it should be taken seriously by all staff. 

Sales Training

Sales training involves improving sales skills in order to improve sales numbers. Sales training ranges from product information, making offers, building rapport with clients and understanding customer behavior. Sales skills need to be learnt, so implementing sales training can ensure all of your staff possess strong sales skills. Sales training is often a combination of roleplay, seminars, workshops and online learning.

Leadership Training

Leadership is something which can come with experience, but it can also be taught. Companies often have their own rules and standards regarding leadership positions, so company-specific training is necessary. Leadership training can involve conflict resolution, management, motivating teams and problem solving, along with bureaucratic information regarding processes and policies. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Training

DEI is becoming an integral part of many workplaces, and training relating to diversity, equity and inclusion can allow your employees to build relationships and reduce conflicts. DEI training courses can include cultural awareness, addressing bias, avoiding discrimination and how to address issues relating to DEI. DEI training can be done as an online course, seminar or workshop, and can promote a positive working environment and improve rapport between staff. 

How to Build a Successful Employee Training Program?

If you want to build a training program for your employees, a thorough plan is needed. Whether its for sales, leadership, product or DEI, you can use our steps for building and implementing an employee training program: 

Assess Company Needs

First, assess the needs of your company, and reflect on what areas could require improvement. To help you identify needs, you can get feedback from managers and leaders, or look at quantitative reports for sales and QA. This will help you define your leadership programs’ objectives, which you can discuss with managers and leaders to see if everyone agrees.

Goal Setting

After you have identified needs and defined all objectives of your employee training program, you can transform them into a list of goals. Establish clear, precise goals relating to specific issues you identified, as well as a success metric you can use to measure progress. For example, a sales team goal could be “Improve customer awareness of our new product, resulting in a 15% increase of sales”.

Content Development

To train your teams and employees, you must provide some form of materials or content for them to learn from. Decide on the topics, organization and length of the content and materials you want to use, as well as delegate people to produce them. Make sure it is organized in a way that is easy to follow, and keep topics relevant and engaging.

Delivery Methods

After you have decided on the topics for your employee training, you need to then decide what way it will be delivered. You can consider an in-person seminar or workshop, an online course or a team activity. Also consider who will be instructing or leading the training – will it be an internal staff member? Or, does the company need to hire someone to instruct the training?

Evaluate & Get Feedback 

Design criteria for evaluating the success of your employee training program, utilizing a mix of qualitative and numerical data. Numerical data can include sales numbers, QA statistics, incident reporting or new clients acquisition, and qualitative data could be collected by surveys, and include written feedback or reflections from employees. After you acquire and analyze data, you can make it into a written report or presentation, and evaluate your training program’s success. 

Best Practices for Training Employees

Successful global companies boast effective training programs across a range of topics, and these training programs are a key part of their success. Take a look at these successful training programs for some ideas for your own: 

Google’s ‘Googler to Googler’ (g2g) Program

One of the largest companies in the world, Google, utilizes peer-to-peer training in its employee training program efforts. Employees are given the opportunity to lead a training session on a topic they are interested in, and it is open to all other employees to attend. This is an example of ongoing training, and almost 80% of training at Google comes from its g2g program. 

Amazon’s Career Choice Program

Amazon provides courses and resources for its employees to study anything they choose, from professional development to college classes. Amazon’s incentives encourage employee retention as Amazon provides tuition and grants for employees studying with Career Choice. Through the Career Choice tuition program, many employees are able to get a higher paying job. 

Microsoft’s “One Week” Hackathon

Microsoft’s one week hackathon program brings together Microsoft colleagues and clients for the purpose of an intense tech-focused event to drive innovation and provide solutions. Designed as an opportunity for business growth and development, Microsoft encourages collaboration and learning by bringing together employees from around the world. It is a unique way to encourage learning and skill building, as employees work on real products and issues. 

Key Takeaways

All in all, an employee training or development program allows for companies to build their employees’ hard and soft skills. By providing an opportunity for growth and development, employees are likely to become innovative, productive and collaborative, driving growth for the business. Employee training also provides job satisfaction to your staff, and can improve rates of retention, which is favorable to both the companies’ and employees' long-term success. Essentially, employee training programs are a win-win! If you want to know more about implementing training for your employees, or any other career topics, check out Cake for more guides!

— Originally Written by Bronte McNamara —