“Employees cannot become more productive in every sense of the word unless they are provided with continuous on-the-job training.”- Gregory Balestrero

Employees are the face of any company, they are the minds behind the progress of the business as well, and therefore a company is only as good as its employees. To make profits, organizations must provide their employees with the right training so they can perform their best. If a company wants to reduce its turnover and increase productivity, then effective employee training programs can provide numerous benefits. 

Now the question is, how do I know which type of training will have the greatest impact?

Types of Training Programs for the Effective Workplace

There are several types of training programs available. You may require only one to boost your employee productivity and performance, or you may find several are needed. 

Below is a list of the 10 most common and popular workplace training programs.

1. New Employee Orientation.

2. Employee Onboarding.

3. Compliance Training.

4. Technical Skills Training.

5. Soft Skills Training.

6. Product Training.

7. Leadership Training.

8. Quality Assurance Training.

9. Sales Training.

10. Diversity Training.

Now let’s dig a little deeper into theses training programs:

1. New Employee Orientation

Employee orientation training usually takes place within the first days or weeks of an employee’s tenure. This training provides them with the basics of their job description, the company’s overall profile (including the mission, vision, and goals), and an introduction to the team. This training program covers the topics like company policies, core values, organizational structure, reporting structure, introductions, office tours, and administrative procedures. This is where your new hire will create login credentials and set up their workspace.

2. Employee Onboarding

Orientation falls under the larger umbrella of employee training known as onboarding. The onboarding process gives new hires the tools they need to get up and running in their role. It’ll also acquaint them with all the software and hardware they will use. By the end of onboarding, an employee should have a clear sense of their responsibilities and goals, as they are introduced to all relevant job skills and addressed all the subjects an employee requires to perform their job effectively.

3. Compliance Training

Companies often arrange compliance training programs to help them maintain compliance with government rules and regulations. This program helps companies to reduce the risk of penalties and lawsuits and fulfill certain legal obligations. Compliance training can prevent mental health problems of employees, avoid on-the-job accidents, and increase their productivity. Some industries face more rigorous compliance requirements, such as banking and finance. For example, financial institutions are obligated to train employees on anti-money laundering and insider dealing. These programs are intended to increase workplace productivity and enhance the company’s reputation.

4. Technical Skills Training

Technical training equips new and existing employees with the technological aspects to perform their jobs well. This training is essential if you want to provide your employees with a comprehensive understanding of their jobs. This training can be administered internally or externally as needed. It typically entails targeted courses that impart specific skills, like data analytics or social media management. 

5. Soft Skills Training

This is the non-technical form of employee training that refers to the personality-focused characteristics of an employee. Soft skills are broadly classified as a combination of personality traits, social attitudes, and behavior that is essential for job growth. This type of training is sometimes called the three C’s … Communicate, Collaborate, and Conflict management. The soft skills training program covers listening, communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork, public speaking, and adaptability.

6. Product Training

This includes all the information about your company’s goods, services, or products that employees need to learn to perform their jobs effectively. Employees cannot sell products unless they have a clear understanding of that particular product. This type of training can be utilized for the sales team, marketing team, and customers, or to enhance product knowledge for customer services. Product Training also opens up opportunities for innovation and iteration.

7. Leadership Training

In an employee’s career, the transition from an individual contributor to managing others is an important inflection point. While employees are growing to new and higher positions the company must provide them with Leadership and Management training to enhance their skills to work better with their teams. There must be training for such employees to make them true leaders. This type of training can be beneficial in many ways, such as refresher courses for existing leaders; resetting their mindsets or creating new leaders; increasing employee morale and retention; promoting better decision making; improving leadership styles; and building better teams.

8. Quality Assurance Training

A quality assurance training course is a great way to keep your employees content and productive, as well as enhance the results of your sales and profits. This training also helps employees better understand quality assurance activities to improve the processes that ensure the final product or services meet the set quality standards. This leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. These pieces of training can be beneficial in reducing waste, improving profit margins and accelerating growth, or establishing trust and integrity with customers to build a meaningful relationship with your clientele.

9. Sales Training

Sales training programs are designed to improve your sales team’s skills by equipping them with effective sales techniques, new approaches to selling, and software tools. To help close the deal, sales training combines hands-on sales tactics with nitty-gritty knowledge of products. Or, to provide a compelling detailed case for a prospect to make a major investment in business-to-business (B2B) companies.  

10. Diversity Training

Diversity training is an important tool to help employees understand and appreciate the diversity of their colleagues. Its goal usually is to increase awareness of diverse issues and improve workplace relations. These programs encourage employees to embrace people with diverse backgrounds and cultures including nationality, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, mental abilities, etc. It is an important step toward reducing the risk of workplace harassment and discrimination, to creating a better and positive environment by including everyone in the same frame.

Final Thoughts

A company is only as good as its employees, therefore, a company must work for its employee’s betterment. There are numerous employee training programs available to address different features and benefits. Organizations must adopt the policy of time-to-time training of their workforce to create rich learning opportunities to truly empower the employees and as a result, your company may prosper.