5 Ways to Make Employee Training Fun and Free
I’ve heard of a mystical land. One where there are entire teams of people dedicated to training. A land where training budgets and systems are meaty and plentiful. Sadly, I only visited this type of land very early on in my career. Since then, I’ve had to be, shall I say, very creative to get training addressed. To all those out there feeling like they don’t have the time, budget or manpower to offer employee training at their organizations, look no further. Check out the options below to help you get started.
1. Free Employee Training Material Is Right at Our Fingertips
The Internet is amazing. You can take classes at Ivy League institutions, listen to TED talks, engage in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) as far as the eye can see. Not to mention search through the vast playground that is Youtube. And most of these offerings are FREE. You read that right. Free and just waiting for us and our employees to partake. Take a lunch hour and watch a TED talk or two and see what happens. You never know what ideas will spawn with a little inspiration.
Pro Tip: Add interactive training moments to meetings
Turn meetings into learning opportunities with an interactive Word Cloud or Q&A Poll. All you need is a free Poll Everywhere account to get instant responses zooming straight from your employees’ phones to your PowerPoint slide. It’s anonymous, dynamic, and irresistible.
2. Voracious Readers Are Your Friends
Do you have an employee who eats up every leadership book they can and are dying to share that content? That seems like another great opportunity to gather a team together. Book club? Maybe. Give that person an opportunity to create and deliver a training session? It could be a great way to bolster their confidence and perhaps encourage others to do the same. It only takes a few people to get something up and running!
3. Make Mentoring a Way of Life
It doesn’t have to be formal to be considered employee training. As long as people are learning, it can be as simple as a conversation if speaking with the right mentor. Create opportunities within your organization for mentoring conversations to occur naturally.
4. Scope Out Your Existing Partners
Does your Employee Assistance Program offer a myriad of training for low or no cost to their participants? What about your healthcare providers? Oftentimes, we’ve got existing relationships that aren’t being fully leveraged. Do your digging and if it’s not something they currently offer, why not be the client who requests it?
5. Pay it Forward When it Comes to Conferences
Are you able to send only one of your team members to a conference? Ask that individual to pay it forward upon their return to the office. They can share the knowledge and hopefully some of the passion that was ignited when they were in attendance.
This list certainly isn’t all inclusive. There are plenty of ways to get people up and learning if they want it. We can all be a little better and you never know where the next earth shattering idea will come from. Start the dialogue in your organizations and you may be surprised by what comes of it.
Create free training activities with Poll Everywhere
Make multiple-choice quizzes, open-ended questions, group word clouds, and instant Q&A activities in less than a minute with a free Poll Everywhere account. It’s the fastest way to start an honest conversation, and deepen learning anytime, anywhere.
As Vice President, Talent & Operations at Allen & Gerritsen, Kelly is responsible for leading the company’s talent acquisition while simultaneously developing innovative culture programs agency-wide. Kelly has held several Human Resources roles throughout her career in a variety of industries including Behavioral Health, Tourism, and Advertising. Kelly possesses a degree in Psychology which has been a great help in figuring out why employees are occasionally a little bit….eccentric.
This article is by Kelly Poulson from blogging4jobs.com.
