How Online Training Helps in Tracking Your Employees

Online training benefits both employees and employers, but only when two criteria are met. Online training courses must keep employees motivated, and training results must be tracked in a way that allows the employer easy access to testing data. 

Online training benefits

By providing online training, employers are giving employees what they ask for: According to Gallup, 87% of millennial employees see career growth and opportunities to develop their skills as very important. 

From the perspective of the employer, online benefits can be broken down into five factors. Training improves:

• Safety
• Productivity
• Engagement
• Compliance with governmental regulations
• Retention. 

The relationship between online training and retention is important. Employees who receive online training benefits feel more valued by the company, appreciate the opportunity to improve their skill set, and are more likely to remain with the company over the long term. 

How exactly do online training courses keep employees on track?

Understandably, employers sometimes worry that employees will lose motivation during training. Online training courses utilize a number of strategies to keep employees on track, including:

• Fostering a sense of community and teamwork with other students.
• Providing online support as needed.
• Frequent assessments test the student’s knowledge without the stress of taking actual exams.
• Easily accessed online notes, training videos, and quizzes.
• Live streaming classes with instructors for virtual “face-to-face” time. 
• Immediate feedback after assessments.

By making the outcome of online training the responsibility of the employee, online training courses foster both accountability and ownership, further motivating the employee to complete training successfully. This is especially important when online training culminates in a certification or licensure, without which the employee would not be authorized to safely complete tasks.

About online training and retention

Training is of no use if your employees don’t retain the information they acquire in the course. Online training uses retention strategies to ensure what employees learn sticks in their minds. 

Retention strategies include repetition, frequent spot quizzes and assessments, surveys to evaluate student mastery of one subject before moving on to another, and different learning options. 

This last is important. While some employees learn best in a virtual classroom with a live instructor, others prefer self-guided online courses where they learn at their own pace. Which type of online training benefits employees the most depends on their individual learning styles. 

Outcomes of tracking employee training 

The ability to track online training courses is vital, especially in situations where training is required to meet federal, state, or local regulations. An online training center should provide easy access to training throughout the course, allowing employers to identify employees who are experiencing difficulty. Upon course completion, the training center should provide all information needed to satisfy legal documentation, certification, and licensure. 

The ability to track individual employees through their training helps instructors identify hidden skill gaps and opportunities for additional or supplementary training, ensuring no employee “falls through the cracks.” This is important in all situations, but especially so when onboarding new hires, who often must complete extensive training before being allowed to enter the company workforce.

Providing online training benefits to employees improves productivity, loyalty, and retention. Training is a valued commodity amongst employees and one which helps build a strong relationship between employer and their workforce. 

If you need additional resources to determine the appropriate online training courses to provide for your employees, reach out to us and our training consultants can make sure you’re on the right track.