Collaboration is an incredibly valuable workplace tool, particularly when it comes to training employees, yet it’s frequently overlooked.
With collaboration, you can strengthen not only the comprehension and retention factor of your employee training, but it’s also an important way to onboard employees and make them feel like a part of the workplace team.
Collaboration allows employees to delve more deeply into training, making it more engaging and compelling.
When building employee training that includes collaboration, consider the following:
Simplify It
If it’s not accessible and easy for users, it’s not going to be something that adds value to training.
Access to collaboration should be user-friendly for your employees, rather than being complicated or difficult to use. Learners are likely going to be accessing collaboration tools on a variety of devices, so make them available for use on not only computers but also tablets and smartphones.
If collaboration isn’t smooth and seamless it’s likely to turn off trainees, rendering it frustrating and ineffective.
Link Collaboration with the Real World
When training employees it’s important to engage them in the process. Show them how training is going to have a real and immediate impact on their life—in the case of employee training that means more precisely, an effect on their job.
Before introducing collaboration within your e-Learning modules and courses, you should think about how to best show employees and training participants collaboration is going to be valuable to them in their role.
Don’t Use It Gratuitously
Yes, collaboration can be a powerful employee training tool, but only when used in the right places.
Don’t use collaboration just for the sake of doing so. Instead, when you’re developing training look for places where it’s going to reinforce and strengthen the learning process and also lead employees to take action.
One place collaboration works well is in conjunction with case studies and scenarios. Include these elements in e-Learning and then ask employees to work together to come up with solutions to particular problems they’ll be facing in the workplace. This method encourages critical thinking and shows employees how training can be actionable.
Use It as a Support Mechanism
As well as the option of using collaboration to delve into training topics more comprehensively, it can also be used as a way to provide support to your employees during the training process.
Collaboration doesn’t have to be a mandatory part of a training module. Instead, it can be something that’s optional if employees need extra help on a particular subject or want to voice concerns or ask questions while they’re training. It brings the human element into e-Learning, often one of the primary benefits of traditional classroom training sessions.
Vary Your Methods
Collaboration is a broad term that doesn’t just have to refer to one particular feature you’ll include in your online employee training.
Use diverse opportunities available through e-Learning to let your employees experience multiple methods of collaboration, which will feel more engaging and exciting to them. You can utilize features like video chats, webinars and even social media and instant messaging to strengthen training through the use of collaboration.
Collaboration can be a great tool to not only make your training more efficient but also build a stronger and more unified workforce.
When you’re creating your next e-Learning course think about creative and inspiring ways collaboration can bring something new to the training table.
Do you want to learn How to Jumpstart an E-Learning Program in Eight (8) Easy Steps?
Quickly see How a Learning Culture Can Improve Your Organization
Download our The Strategic Value of Workplace Training and Development white paper
Get the Top 20 Ways to Improve Mandatory Training in your organization.