In an industrial setting, it's important to make sure your employees are on the same page, so they can meet your production goals, while also getting the job done right as efficiently as possible. With that in mind, it's often going to be training that allows you to reinforce the right practices and teach new skills to help your company get ahead, because when individual employees follow recommended best practices, everyone has a greater chance for success.
Read on to learn a few ways to make your in-house factory training more effective:
1) Make everything hands-on
Typically, your workers are going to do better in training when you give them the opportunity to "learn by doing," according to Ericson. It's one thing to tell them the right way to get the job done, and it's another entirely to show them.
2) Strategize your training
As with anything else that goes on under your roof, your training sessions should redound to what you are trying to do as a complete entity, Ericson said. That is, you should train for skills your workers will need in the near future and make sure they are prepared to rise to whatever challenges you present.
3) Get feedback
It's always a good idea to make employees feel like they're part of the decision-making process when it comes to what and how they are trained, Ericson added. You don't have to take every single suggestion, but if you see trends repeatedly cropping up in feedback, it's best to consider why that might be the case.
4) Institute KPIs around what you're teaching
The more you can do to track whether your employees are picking up on the skills you're training for, the better off all involved will be, according to Convergence Training. After all, you can't properly evaluate if training is working if you don't have key performance indicators that would show what's working and what isn't.
5) Set goals for what the sessions get you
There should be an intentionality behind every training you conduct, and along with establishing new KPIs, you should set goals for what the new skills get you as an organization, Convergence Training said. That way, you can course correct as needed and make sure everything you pursue is realistic.
6) Create accompanying materials
You certainly want your employees to finish their training with something they can take away in terms of skills or mindset, Convergence Training advised. Making sure they have a document to refer to that reinforces what you're teaching is an important thing they can literally take away as well.
7) Let employee interests guide you
If you hear from employees that they would like to learn a certain kind of skill, it might be a good idea to accommodate that, according to Reliable Plant. If they're interested beforehand, their engagement with the session will likely be high.
8) Make it an ongoing effort
Regular training always helps to reinforce what you're going for as an organization, so setting aside the right amount of time is always a good idea, Reliable Plant noted. Even if you don't do it monthly, a quarterly training session will set you up for enduring success.