Improve your Training Programs: More Tips for Retaining Information

Last week we discussed how the timing of your training program could mean the difference between employees retaining what they’ve learned in a training program, or quickly losing it all. This week we’ll discuss a few tips for tweaking the content and direction of your training programs in order to help your trainees retain more of what they learn.

Break up your content into manageable learning objectives.

When you have a big topic that needs to be covered in a training session, it can be easy to put forth too much information at once without even realizing it. One way to prevent this is to take the time to break out your training into specific learning objectives. If you’re aim is to teach employees how to use a new software program, it would be more helpful to separately teach how to use individual features (e.g. printing reports, creating schedules, etc.), instead of doing a complete run through of the system with no breaks for your trainees to apply what they’ve learned so far.

Have trainees actively apply what they learn.

Taking breaks for activities is a great way to separate your learning objectives and help employees absorb the information they’ve just been given. Each time you cover a new objective, stop and have your trainees practice what they’ve just learned. It is also important that each learning objective and corresponding activity relate directly to something the employee will be actively doing for their job. This allows trainees to be actively engaged in the training session, and ultimately retain more information.

Repeat learning objectives in new ways.

People learn differently, and not everyone picks up what they learn after hearing a single explanation. By repeating content multiple ways, you target a wider range of learners and can give your trainees multiple opportunities to absorb information.

Creating specific learning objectives, pairing them with activities, and repeating your content in new ways allows you to create wide-ranging, engaging programs that ultimately ensure that your employees are really learning what they’re being taught, instead of forgetting much of the information before they’ve had a chance to apply it.