Make training fun

It can be true that some employee training sessions revolve around topics that aren’t necessarily especially interesting. Take the example of health and safety briefings. While these are absolutely essential for any business, they can often come across as dull or unnecessary.

You can counteract this by making the sessions as fun as possible. A training session on the driest of topics can be lifted by injecting humour and allowing employees to relax as they learn. One of the best ways you can do this is by using charismatic and engaging trainers. The right presenter who can have fun will really improve the amount that staff members can get from a session.

Another popular way to keep staff interested is through gamification. Gamification works by introducing aspects of games to motivate people to achieve certain goals. For example, when running a sales training event you can set up a league table for sales. This could then lead to prizes being awarded for the best performance.

Make use of audience response systems

An audience response system (ARS) allows you to receive immediate feedback from individual handheld devices. This has a huge variety of uses in training sessions as it allows you to engage individuals through the technology.

One use is in testing and quizzes to ensure that everyone in the session is paying attention and understand the material they are being introduced to. Instead of having paper tests that then have to be assessed and marked, ARSs allow for instantaneous assessment. Which can then be displayed anonymously.

Live Q&A sessions help to keep employees interested in the subject matter instead of expecting employees to sit and listen for the duration of the training.

Encourage interactivity

It’s not actually particularly useful for employees to listen to a lengthy lecture filled with stats. In fact, if you are trying to get a message across it’s a much better idea to break up the training sessions with opportunities for interactivity. This can come both through Q&A with the tutor and time for peer-to-peer discussions.

People often learn best by talking things through with their colleagues. It gives them the chance to share their own stories and experiences which can often be far more effective than examples given by trainers. You might find that some members of staff are performing a task in a different way to others. When alternative methods are shared it can ultimately lead to an improved way of working.

Revolutionise your employee training sessions by using an audience response system (ARS). Here are three great tips to help you get the most from an interactive voting system.

1. Interactivity encourages engagement

If you’ve ever tried to take a training session with employees you’ll know that they can be a tricky audience. Take a subject like health and safety – it is essential information that employees need to
know, but many will see it as a waste of time to take a training session on it. The best way to keep things interesting is to improve interactivity and you can do this easily through an ARS.

Once the attendees are engaged in the presentation itself you can impart more information and enjoy a fun learning environment.

2. Quick quiz questions

An ARS is a great way to quiz the participants as a part of your training session as you go along. After each section of the training session, have a few multiple choice questions.

Ditch the stuffy pencil and paper tests – they’re just a waste of stationery – and let your trainees answer questions in real time so that you can check that everyone’s following along. The fact that you can collect anonymous data also means you don’t have to embarrass anyone who hasn’t quite got it right.

3. Gamification

Training sessions aren’t always a lot of fun and if the topic is relatively dry, it can make sense to liven things up. Gamification is a great way to do this. Use elements of game playing to get the participants interested and engaged in the subject matter. Challenges and team games that involve problem solving can add to the team-building atmosphere and make sure that everyone feels included.

It’s smart to break up a lengthy training session with this sort of activity. Place the games at intervals to space out the lectures and you’ll see the benefits of better attention for attendees.