Training employees can be challenging when they’re often preoccupied with plenty of work. This is usually the case when they’re mired with many commitments both in their company and at home. And with the COVID-19 health crisis, training has become even more difficult because many businesses are obliged to work remotely to deliver their services.
Fortunately, companies can employ online courses to train their employees. Online courses have gained popularity in recent years, most notably because of the convenience and flexibility they afford employees.
Today, a vast selection of online classes is available to professionals in almost every industry. Online business courses, such as project management or customer service training courses, can be taken by employees during their free time without interfering with their professional tasks. Some companies may also schedule online courses specifically for synchronous group sessions, ensuring that each employee learns at the same pace as the rest of their team.
As a business owner, you might be wondering if an online course can teach your team new skills that can empower them to perform better. Once they can apply more efficient and effective ways to do their job, this boost in their performance can result in an increase to your company’s bottom line. Here are several reasons why providing online courses for your employees can encourage real growth for themselves and your business:
The Right Online Course Can Boost Business Efficiency
Every company has unique weaknesses they need to address with proper training. Perhaps a certain department needs help with time management or maybe they need a sales training course. Maybe you need to make certain processes faster by offering your employees software skills training. This may come in the form of an advanced Microsoft Excel course, for example.
Once you identify specific skills your employees need to improve, you can choose the appropriate online course for your company’s needs. During the training process, employees can learn valuable skills that will help increase their productivity and standardise your business processes.
Furthermore, online courses provide in-depth information on specific topics, encouraging your employees to work smarter so as to make their jobs easier. For example, learning advanced Excel skills can help managers generate faster and more accurate calculations for performance reports. Better calculation accuracy also minimises errors, saving employees the time and trouble going back and correcting data errors. These skills can also improve your customer service, as faster and more efficient services generally contribute to better customer satisfaction.
An Online Course Can Enhance Employees’ Knowledge Retention
Making sure employees remember the skills they learn is a challenging aspect of training. Fortunately, taking an online course can increase employees’ memory retention. According to research by IBM, participants who engage in an online class learn five times more information through multimedia materials such as videos or online modules than traditional face-to-face classes. This is likely because online courses typically engage employees to think and practice what they learned through online quizzes, games, and activities. It encourages active learning which enables them to apply what they learned in real-life professional situations.
Providing an online course also enables employees to learn at their own pace. They can move quickly through parts of the course they’re more familiar with and take their time with any lessons they find challenging. Overall, it allows employees to focus on skills that they need to improve on in a way that makes sense for them.
Online Courses Can Create More Agile Teams
The flexibility of online courses has become more apparent after the COVID-19 global health crisis. Many companies left their offices to work remotely and shift their operations online. With this drastic change came the need to reorient employees with their work processes. To do this, some businesses turned to online courses to help their entire organisation adapt to a completely digital work set-up. This helps develop more agile teams that can work well despite sudden changes due to unforeseen circumstances.
The right online course can help companies train their employees with the latest skills and software programs to stay connected with their teams. This allows teams to sustain smooth operations while learning to use new tools that can further make their business processes more efficient. When your employees learn new skills that enable your organisation to work better online, it improves your business. It also reduces the technological strain of having to adapt to a remote set-up, making sure each team in your company is aligned with the entire organisation.
Providing Regular Online Courses Helps Retain Good Employees
Many young employees especially value a fulfilling and meaningful career these days, and a good place to start is by offering online courses. Since online courses are a flexible way to learn and upgrade one’s skills, employees place a lot of value in them. Good employees, in particular, usually stay because of learning and development opportunities in a company. When you provide consistent training and development opportunities, it satisfies your employees’ need to keep growing with purpose.
Having good training courses also signifies that your business cares about your employees’ career growth, which is also an investment in your company’s growth. Thus, having regular online courses can motivate employees to stay for the long term and add more value to your business. Even if some of them eventually leave, your company still benefits from having employees that stay for longer periods. Essentially, investing in them keeps turnover rates down and ensures that those who stay contribute to a healthy company culture.
Online courses are an effective way to enhance your employees’ skills. If you’re wondering what specific online course would suit their needs, it’s best to ask your employees and their managers about what they feel would be most beneficial. They can tell you exactly what business areas, skills, and software programs they need help with to improve your operations. Employees will also appreciate that you’re taking the time to listen to their inputs while figuring out how to help them improve their performance.
We here at Priority Management Australia offer nationally accredited virtual online training courses that can hone your people’s skills, from time management to sales training and so much more.
Take a look at our current courses and see which one may work best for your company.