Every business needs to conduct employee training to maintain a competitive edge and capable workforce, regardless of the job task. Unfortunately, in 2022/3, companies struggled with employee training for several reasons. These included deciding which areas to focus training on, how to keep employees engaged, and ways to ensure employees retain newly acquired information.
Creating an efficient employee training program is crucial to keep businesses running at peak performance. To help your HR and Learning and Development departments level up their strategy next year, we’ve compiled a list of the top eleven employee training topics for 2024.
Read on to discover the benefits of employee training, how it has evolved, and what your employees need to learn to help your business prosper.
What is an employee training program?
An employee training program is a course or system of activities designed to prepare employees for their job tasks. Effective employee training benefits the whole company by increasing employee confidence and driving the business to reach its goals.
92% of employees say employee training positively impacts their job engagement. Companies that invest in continuous learning opportunities through their training programs will reap the benefits of happy, engaged, and confident employees.
The Benefits of Employee Training
Employee training and development programs provide many benefits for the employees and the entire business. Companies benefit since their workforce will perform better and ensure high staff retention. Employees benefit as it positively impacts their professional momentum and improves their work ethic. Other benefits include:
- More efficient employees – Well-trained employees, will naturally become more efficient at their jobs. Higher efficiency means they will complete more work in less time, allowing the company to meet targets faster.
- Improved innovation – As employees learn more about their jobs, they will discover new ideas and become more creative at work. Employee training improves workers’ knowledge, allowing them to apply new skills to improve products and services within the company.
- Increased motivation and retention – Employees offered learning opportunities on the job are likely to be more motivated when they see the company cares about their individual growth and future within the business.
- Increased confidence – Employee training builds confidence when providing employees with new skills that are useful on and off the job. They will also understand their jobs better, allowing them to complete tasks confidently and efficiently, armed with the knowledge that they are doing it right.
- Teamwork improvement – Since employees will mostly work together during training, it promotes camaraderie and improves teamwork. It also exposes employees to new perspectives and ways of thinking from people they may not otherwise interact with regularly.
How has employee training changed?
As technology evolves, companies are changing the way they train their employees. For example, businesses are switching from traditional training methods such as classroom-based ‘one and done’ training events and turning towards video training and e-learning solutions.
The switch to digitized learning allows the learning and development process to become more personalized and efficient. Creating instructional material is also easier since corporate trainers are now using AI to help with the process. AI allows trainers to seamlessly provide cutting-edge training programs to target the company’s culture and specific goals.
Employees retain 95% of information learned within a training video compared to retaining just 10% when reading training material. Employees who receive valuable training materials, like in-depth videos, can learn and apply the knowledge much easier than with other forms of instruction. They continue to remember key concepts and details better over time.
Top 11 Employee Training Topics for 2024
With changes in training processes and techniques also come changes in training topics. Here are eleven in-demand and up-to-date employee training topics perfect for your 2024 strategy.
1. Conflict Resolution
Conflict occurs in the workplace naturally and can rarely be entirely eliminated. The best way to deal with it is to teach employees conflict resolution skills so they can resolve problems in any situation. Conflict resolution is a skill that individuals can use in all areas of life, benefiting employees in and out of the workplace.
2. Cross-skill Training
Cross-skilling is when employees learn multiple skill sets and job functions, allowing each member to become more valuable by being able to complete various tasks instead of just mastering one. Cross-skill training is optimal because it keeps employees engaged and allows great employees to provide maximum value to the organization.
3. Team Communication Training
Communication is a critical aspect of any team. Employees will make more mistakes and perform less effectively without possessing proper communication skills in the workplace. Communication training will also allow employees to experience how others view their ideas and take constructive feedback.
4. Customer Service Training
If your business is showing any signs of poor customer service, it’s unlikely that customers will return. Providing employees with customer service training can improve client retention, repeat business, and promote a positive experience with your company.
Customer service training is crucial for employees on the front lines directly dealing with clients. Sometimes customers can be challenging, so employees can genuinely benefit from customer service strategies.
5. Time Management Training
To achieve maximum workplace efficiency, you must prepare your employees to use their time effectively. Even if employees clock in for eight hours, it does not mean they are productive throughout their shift.
Time management training ensures that employees use their time effectively by teaching them how to structure their day. Without time management skills, it’s easy to procrastinate and become distracted by unimportant tasks.
6. Stress Management Training
Individuals who work directly with customers can have their moods negatively impacted. An example might be if they are responsible for delivering unwelcome news. Training that teaches people how to deal with stressful situations can improve an employee’s frame of mind and promote job satisfaction.
Employees who understand how to deal with stress can pass that on to clients. Customers may feel stressed in much the same way as the employees who have to deal with them. If employees remain calm, this can positively affect the client and improve the customer experience.
7. Emotional Intelligence Training
Emotional intelligence is a solid indicator of workplace success, even if you are highly educated or excel within your workplace roles. Emotional intelligence training can be highly beneficial to any team’s future success.
Emotional intelligence involves identifying and managing the emotions of oneself and those of others. Training consists of gaining skills in personal and professional relationships, social awareness, and self-awareness. Employees can then apply these skills to thinking and problem-solving tasks and better manage their and others’ emotions in the workplace.
8. Negotiation Training
Negotiation skills are essential for any employee who handles partnerships, third-party collaborators, and customers. Effective negotiators have the skills required to drive the conversation to their desired outcome. They convey a sense of power and trust that aids them in achieving their goals.
Sales training is essential too, but if you don’t understand how to negotiate, you may miss out on some significant opportunities.
9. Leadership Training
Offering leadership training to employees is a great way to retain them because you are preparing them for higher positions. This training will encourage employees to stick around and be excited to participate in the company’s future.
Leadership training aims to improve communication, team building, conflict resolution, and forecasting skills. It’s a multifaceted developmental training program that helps employees grow and helps your business thrive with accountable, take-charge go-getters.
10. Project Management Training
Project management is a skill that every employee can benefit from regardless of their level within a company. After introducing a project management training program, employees should be more organized at work and be able to deliver tasks more efficiently.
11. Team Building Training
The number of employees working as part of a team continues to increase, but many are not as effective as they could be. Team building training is a necessary first step in building more efficient teams at work. When done well, team performance, group cohesion, collective efficacy, and team member satisfaction all increase.
Why Video Training Will Be Used More Than Ever
Video training offers employees the opportunity to learn at their own pace in the comfort of their own homes instead of attending live classes. They can utilize the training videos whenever it’s convenient since they always have access to the materials. Video training makes employees feel more productive and increases their job satisfaction.
Businesses now use video training more than traditional methods due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. With the help of AI video generator technology like Hour One, creating employee video training can be completed much quicker and at scale than hiring a production company to shoot and edit a training course.
Hour One platform is an easy-to-use AI-powered video creation software that doesn’t require specialist video production or editing skills. It needs only a script, which can be any text document, and the software takes care of creating a virtual presenter-led video at the touch of a button. It makes creating multiple employee training courses easier than ever, saving your HR and L&D departments time and money while increasing their ROI.
The Future of Employee Training
All companies need a way to train their employees, and new technology is speeding up the process. Employees and companies benefit from training because employees are empowered and feel more productive at work, while companies benefit from well-trained and more efficient employees. Be sure to try out the eleven topics listed above in your 2024 employee training.
Video lessons are continually proven to be one of the most effective training methods. With AI video generator software from Hour One, companies can make an entire training video course quickly, affordably, and at scale. If you are ready to create a video course for your business, try Hour One for free and start creating your 2024 employee training programs today.
Summary for Hour One
Employee training is crucial for a company to reach its long-term goals. New training topics for 2024 include emotional intelligence, cross-skilling, project management, conflict resolution, team building, and more. Businesses are utilizing video lessons more than traditional methods because they are easy to create using AI software and allow employees to learn at their own pace. Regardless of the training topic, providing employees with video lessons is far more effective than basic text courses and in-person training.
