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Three unusual ways to improve staff training

Staff training should be something that your team looks forward to – an opportunity to get away from their routine and learn ways to improve working practice. But too often, training has negative connotations and is seen as a waste of time. That means that if you are running a training session, the onus is on you to ensure it is as interesting and engaging as possible. Here are three important ways that you can improve both the effectiveness and value that you get from your training sessions.

Train in a different setting

One thing that can motivate staff and provide a unique atmosphere for the learning environment is to move the session away from your normal workspace. We’ve all had the training experience that is just conducted in a meeting room and feels more like an excuse to get away from work for a few hours. But if you can get away from your office for training it can feel like something important and can help to make the whole experience more memorable.

Hotels with conference rooms can make for a great choice but there are plenty of other venue options that are designed for corporate functions. If you’ve got a training budget you should definitely considering hiring a space.

Use an audience response system

For training sessions and workshops to be most effective and engaging it’s always best to include interactivity between the participants and the person running the session. And one fantastic way to incorporate interactivity is through using an audience response system (ARS).

An ARS allows every person in the training to have their own handheld voting keypad, these can be incorporated within presentations to make for easy question-and-answer sessions, quick quizzes and gathering opinions within the room. An ARS means that the whole session is interactive and that everyone can get involved.

Incentivise training

Rewards and incentives can be a powerful tool for ensuring that staff get the most out of training. Being asked to take part in training sessions isn’t usually something that staff get excited about so it can be worth finding ways to get them completely engaged – but this doesn’t have to be through cash.

The hope for most training sessions is to give staff something to take away and apply to their role, so why not reward those staff for are best able to implement the things they learned in training into their job. This could include anything from gift cards or even a half day off work at the end of the month.