Five Common Mistakes in Corporate Training

 

Assume you’ve logged into your company’s learning and development portal, selected and enrolled in a course, and then your focus wanders. While the course is going on, your interest shifts to something else; you start reading some articles on your laptop, and then the phone rings, and you answer it.

These are, believe it or not, an L&D professional’s worst nightmares.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world with its deadly virus, many businesses got disrupted violently and many of them have embraced the new normal i.e. work from home model.

As a result, many corporate training programs were probably not prepared to go virtual when everything had to go online all of a sudden. Even before the pandemic, research revealed that roughly 75% of top managers were unsatisfied with their companies’ training programs. Now that many firms are navigating online corporate training for Crucial Accountability for the first time, the risk of making a mistake has increased.

1. Failure to conduct pre-training inspections and preparation - You may have spent a lot of time and effort preparing the lessons and materials. Similarly, you may have spent a significant amount of time promoting yourself as a freelance corporate trainer.

However, you may not give proper consideration to pre-planning, checking, and other factors such as key access. And, believe it or not, you will not be the first to make this error!

Taking the time to plan and confirm the following ahead of time will help to make your training day run more smoothly and make you a more relaxed trainer on the day:

Is there a confirmed booking for the training room?

Is the availability of refreshments (if applicable) confirmed?

Do you have a backup contact number for the gatekeeper (key access to the venue and/or training room) in case there is a problem on the day?

Do you have a point of contact for IT support on a day-to-day basis?

Before the training day, you’ll want to double-check (where applicable) the following items.

Solution - Get the Pre-Training Checklist and use it.

Don’t be daunted by the long list of things to check. It’s relatively simple as long as you have a well-organized checklist.

2. Failing to account for a variety of learning styles - You might already have a good understanding of pedagogy if you have experience in teaching or training.

Pedagogy is a term that refers to the different ways people learn. Some of us will learn best when we listen, others when we see, touch and experience.

Making sure that the course plans are structured so that all learning styles in the training are given opportunities means a lot more committed and happier students!

Happier students mean better feedback. It is important to assess the people for whom you provide training and with whom you can hope to enter into a training contract.

Also, if you arrange your training directly with students, your positive feedback will lead students to want to do more of your courses.

I am sure you agree that it is a diligent and caring trainer that makes training fun and enjoyable.

Solution - Make sure to incorporate a variety of learning styles into your training materials (including PowerPoint presentations, activities, and student handbooks)!

If this appears to be a lot of work, it is. That’s correct. The good news is that we make it extremely simple for you by providing training course materials that have already been pre-designed and are available for immediate download.

3. Failure to Receive and Follow - Up on Student Feedback - We are all flawed in some way. We’re all human, and we’re all prone to making mistakes. And, as trainers and teachers, we can all learn, right? Do you think you’ll agree?

One of the most valuable things you can get, in our opinion, and which will help you to:

Become a better trainer

Better customize the training you provide to your students

It is to receive feedback and giving feedback is completely free! It will not cost you anything, but it will be extremely valuable.

Solution - All the training materials packages should include a feedback form; simply print and distribute one to each student.

Because you want the feedback to be anonymous, you should make sure (as we did) that there is no request for the student’s name or similar information.

What’s the point of being anonymous? Because you want the students to feel free to say whatever they want without fear of retaliation. Allow 5 minutes for written feedback at the conclusion of the training.

Allow students to fold the feedback form and place it in a box near the door so they don’t feel pressed by you.

4. Viewing training as a one-time event and failing to upsell related courses - This is especially true if you are a freelance trainer or someone who is self-employed and needs to sell themselves in order to get more training work.

Thinking in terms of grouped training is one of the best ways to approach trying to build your business as a trainer.

This may seem obvious, but many trainers overlook it, and it is a great opportunity for you to grow your business!

There is a way to try and sell your training to companies and followers, so if you start to reflect on which courses are naturally grouped and focus on 3, 4, or 5 connected courses each time.

Indeed, you may also want to ask a question about what other training workshops students are interested in doing (and we discussed this earlier in this post). In addition to an open option, you may want to include 4 or 5 associated courses.

Solution - Just think about what training leads to further training (if you haven’t already had it). Look at logical groups so you can sell them and provide additional workshops and training days.

5. Speaking non-stop - Talk too much and be not surprised if you nodded in a training room for a few students. Give them the opportunity to think, be creative and provide insight into the classroom.

They discuss the scenario and connect it to what they have learned in small groups of 3 or 4 students. This allows students to talk to each other, think for themselves, and make their contribution to the lecture. Hundreds of various activities are integrated with training that you can choose from.

Solution - Remembering to ask that feedback we discussed is one approach to figure out whether you’re talking too much.

But, if you’re designing your own Accountability Training Courses, make sure there’s a delicate balance of teacher talking time vs. class activities and engagement.