A successful staff training session requires eight essential elements in order to provide staff and management with a cohesive process and a productive environment. First, an effective training program relies on skilled leadership that can adequately manage the process of learning. Second, the staff’s learning needs must be identified for the experience to address actual weaknesses and be less time-consuming. Working on staff knowledge and skills gaps is respectful to the staff and their time and allows management to apply resources only where appropriate. Third, training should be modified in accordance with an organization’s business goals. The alignment of learning needs with organizational goals allows for clarity of the training process by clarifying how learning tasks contribute to the functions of a firm.
Fourth, the sessions will benefit from correctly selected measurement metrics and goal tracking. This is because having a clear understanding of the staff’s progress allows for greater cost-effectiveness, learning quality, and time use. Fifth, the content provided to the staff should be relevant and follow modern industry standards. There is no benefit in providing outdated information and as such, it should be excluded from any training sessions. Sixth, because training programs, especially those that occur frequently, can be exhaustive or repetitive for staff, creative approaches are necessary. Because the central focus is to improve the abilities of the staff, it is vital that the environment and approach of the session are engaging, active, and not tedious.
Seventh, the session or program should be marketed strategically throughout the organization. Staff requires access and information to the program in order to join and benefit from the learning experience. Eighth, further training reinforcements are essential in order to retain all the acquired skills and information.