If you’re going to take valuable time out of your workday to train your staff, you want to make sure that training is worth the time and effort. You have skills and knowledge you know would be beneficial to your staff, but maybe you’re not quite sure how to translate that knowledge into an effective training. Or maybe you’ve held training sessions, but they haven’t yielded the kind of results you hoped for. We’re here with four tips to help make your future training sessions more effective than ever.

Set specific expectations

You should begin every training session with an overview of the things you expect your employees to learn. The more specific you are, the better. For instance, “Learn better customer service” is too vague. “Learn how to interact with clients over the phone” is better. “Learn how to put worried clients at ease over the phone” is an even better, more specific goal. Not only will stating specific goals from the outset help your employees focus on the right things, it will also help you measure the success of the training.

Go beyond the obvious

When you think of training, you probably imagine learning new software tricks or covering the latest IRS rules and regulations. Training in those areas is important, but you can use training opportunities to teach less obvious skills and ideas. Try using your training sessions to help your staff become more comfortable with collaboration or emphasize company culture. The results of a culture training may not be as immediately obvious as a software training but setting specific expectations still applies. Other topics you could cover in a training session include:

• Task management
• Customer service
• Networking skills

Related: Why Creating a Positive Company Culture is Vital to the Success of Your Practice.

Leverage your employees’ strengths

As an employer or manager, you have a unique vantage point to pick up on the strengths and shortcomings of your employees. Use that insight to your advantage—and your company’s benefit—by asking your employees to lead a training that plays to those strengths. People often enjoy teaching about things that they do well themselves and will be happy to help teach their peers. Not only will this help add variety to your trainings, focusing on employees’ strengths leads to a more engaged, efficient workspace. It’s also a great way recognize an employee’s excellence and build respect between co-workers.

Ask for feedback

Asking for feedback can either be anonymous or not, but it’s important that you do ask for it. Employees may point out something you hadn’t thought of or suggest a good idea for the future. Additionally, employees will feel more valued if you take the time to listen to them and will likely be more engaged in the next training session if some of their ideas are implemented. If you don’t have the time to hold a brief meeting for feedback (or want to keep things more anonymous) have employees write down their feedback and leave it on your desk.  

Want to learn more about how to be an effective leader? Take a moment to read our post on How to Delegate More Effectively.