Re-thinking Mandatory Training

Just the words “mandatory training” can get a sigh of boredom from most employees. But giving your employees the right training to do their jobs well is vital to the success of any company. In this article, we’ll dispel the myth that mandatory training is always boring, and show you 4 simple ways to actually make it a fun experience for your employees and you!

Can Mandatory Training Really Be Fun?

We’ve all been through at least one mandatory training session, and the chances are, it wasn’t an enjoyable fun experience. The stereotypical experience goes a little like this: you and a number of other employees are stuck in a stuffy office room for hours on end, listening to a seemingly endless speech. A lot of the time, you may feel that what is being discussed throughout the training isn’t directly relevant to you or your role. But mandatory training doesn’t have to be like this. It’s quite possible to do things differently so that your employees feel engaged and motivated, and even have fun in training by creating a tailored experience.

Why Is It Important for Mandatory Training To Be Fun?

Sure, some of the information you need your employees to learn in mandatory training is not going to be exciting. But you need them to not only learn this information, but retain it and put it into action while on the job. The way in which information is taught to us can make or break our engagement and enjoyment in what we’re learning. When you are able to make mandatory training sessions fun for your employees, you’ll find that it:

• Helps them stay engaged during the training

• Helps them retain information for later

• Makes them motivated to do a great job

• Makes them happy to be an employee at your company

4 Simple Ways To Make Mandatory Training Engaging

Rethinking your training sessions can get you all these results and more. Here are 4 simple yet effective ways to make mandatory training engaging for your employees.

Make It Interactive

No one feels energized when they’re listening to someone talk for hours on end. Adding elements of interaction to your training classes will allow your employees to get involved and get thinking. Some ways you can add interaction to your mandatory training sessions are:

• Quizzes

• Polls

• Games

• Videos As we mentioned earlier, the more engaged you can get your employees to be during training, the more they’ll retain the information.

Add Incentives

You don’t need a gift, but recognition of the work they’ve put in throughout this training could be a significant incentive. This could hugely impact their view on the training process. Having a leaderboard for employees who have completed the most training modules is a free yet highly effective form of incentive. This could make employees go that extra mile to complete their trainings. Engaging your employees is intrinsic to the employee lifecycle!

Highlight How It Will Help Their Success

At first glance, your employees might not care so much about the information you’re training them on. But when you align it with their professional goals and place it into the grand scheme of a career path you’ll see a massive shift in the level of engagement. Frame your training sessions as ways for your employees to get closer to their goals. Let them know that the knowledge they’re being trained on could help them apply their skills in other areas of the company or lead to their work on new exciting projects for example.

Move to e-learning using an LMS

A Learning Management System(LMS) empowers your company to provide your employees with training sessions that are engaging and fun. You don’t need to have the management team take time off to train new employees – with an LMS, it’s all automated. Your company can structure multi-step learning journeys that your employees can take, with quizzes, incentives and more. It also allows you to stay in the loop about your employees’ progress through the training material. Using an engaging LMS can entirely transform the way your employees perceive 'mandatory trainings'