Top 4 Takeaways from the Best Employee Training Programs
Employee training and developmental programs are varied, including online modules, cross-departmental training and traveling across the country for workshops. Here is a look at some of the best employee training programs, and how you can apply some of the same methods to your own business.
1. Have Intensive Training in the First Year
The Container Store’s Kip Tendell believes that one excellent employee equals three good employees. To that end, the company hires excellent people first and then trains them in job-specific technical skills. It makes for a training-intensive first year but one that reaps tremendous rewards including high employee retention.
2. Mix It Up
Employees learn differently; one might do better with self-guided online training, for example, while another thrives in a collaborative training environment. Starbucks draws from this principle by diversifying its training, with the majority coming via hands-on experience. Mentorships and online programs, among other approaches, help round out the picture. Likewise, Nugget Market mixes up its training via performance reviews, in-person meetings, formal training, and mentorships.
3. Mentor Employees (At All Levels)
Yelp is among the companies that focus on active mentorship as a key attribute in employee training. Facebook, too, takes this approach, even pairing new managers with coaches to help them become better leaders.
4. Pay for Tuition
Top-tier companies such as Amazon and Seattle Genetics are among those who happily pay for tuition (or who use tuition reimbursement) to boost employee training. Training courses such as those offered by colleges often do not come cheap, and since your business reaps the benefits of the training, it stands to reason you should pay. Doing this helps foster employee loyalty, and it shows that your employees are people, not numbers, to the company.
The best employee training programs tend to involve diverse ways of training employees so that whatever an employee’s learning style, something will match up. Coaching and mentoring are valuable as well; mentors help anchor employees and give them a safe place from which to develop their skills.