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How To Keep Your Employees Engaged During Training: 8 Strategies for Success

Do you struggle to keep your employees focused during training? Overcome potential distractions and keep your employees engaged with our 8 expert tips: 

  1. Use Knowledge Checks And Assessments
  2. Integrate Gamification Into Training
  3. Use Branded Training Materials
  4. Incorporate Hands-On Learning Through Extended Reality
  5. Take Advantage Of Polling, Breakout Rooms, And Q&As
  6. Send Out Employee Surveys
  7. Follow The 1/3:2/3 Principle
  8. Use Microlearning To Focus On One Topic

Did you know that we spend around 47% of every waking hour “mind wandering”? While many believe that technology is a major distraction, our minds actually distract us more than we think.  

Whether you catch yourself daydreaming about your dream vacation or thinking about a new episode of your favorite show, it’s easy to lose focus on your task at hand. How, as an organization, can you break through these distractions and keep learners engaged during training?

At Roundtable Learning, we have the solution. As a full-service learning partner, we’ve uncovered the most effective strategies for keeping learners engaged during training. 

This article will cover 8 strategies for keeping your learners focused during training through engaging content and learning strategies. 

8 Strategies To Keep Your Employees Engaged During Training

1. Use Knowledge Checks And Assessments

By incorporating knowledge checks and assessments into your training program, your learners will have opportunities to test their understanding of content. This not only benefits the learner themself, but also helps facilitators identify areas where learners need additional help. 

While knowledge checks are typically ungraded and informal, assessments offer a more formal way to assess understandings through graded questions. Knowledge checks and assessments can include any of the following question types:

  • Multiple Choice
  • Short Answer
  • True/False
  • Matching

When creating knowledge checks and assessments, you should ensure they’re relevant to learning objectives and help learners reflect on their understanding of content. 

2. Integrate Gamification Into Training

Gamification transforms the way your learners participate in training by giving them an enhanced user experience, opportunities for healthy competition, and a sense of enjoyment in learning. 

You can integrate gamification into your training in any of the following ways:

  • Use a master narrative or story for a learning journey
  • Integrate personalized challenges and different levels to overcome
  • Keep track of individual scores, badges, and rewards on a leaderboard

3. Use Branded Training Materials

With branded training materials, you can add a personalized touch to your training materials. Organizations can customize a variety of training materials, including:

  • Cardboard headsets
  • Learning portal
  • Welcome package
  • Personalized learning journals

In order to create consistent messaging and branded materials for your program, organizations should consider consulting their marketing team or HR department. These branded materials will leave a lasting impression on your learners because they demonstrate your organization’s investment into their development. 

4. Incorporate Hands-On Learning Through Extended Reality

Integrating extended reality (XR) technology into training has become an increasingly popular way to engage learners. XR technology, including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), provide learners with unique, hands-on training experiences. 

Regardless of your training topic, XR technology brings many benefits to your program, including:

  • Keeps learners safe
  • Reduces on-the-job mistakes
  • Ensures long-term knowledge retention through interactive activities

To integrate XR technology into your training, your organization should evaluate your business goals, training needs, and ensure you’re accommodating to your learners’ needs. By running a pilot program at your organization, you can ensure that XR is the right fit for your organization. 

5. Take Advantage Of Polling, Breakout Rooms, And Q&As

Common to instructor-led training (ILT) and virtual instructor-led training (VILT), polling, breakout rooms, and Q&As are used to actively engage your learners. These tools come with the following benefits:

  • Allows learners to collaborate with others in small groups
  • Reinforces key learning materials through live polling
  • Provides a space where learners can ask questions and receive live responses

Read More: The Top 5 Virtual Instructor-Led Training Platforms For 2021

6. Send Out Employee Surveys

Employee surveys are a great way to involve learners before, during, and after training. These surveys help organizations gain insight into what worked and didn’t work regarding employee training. 

Consider integrating any or all of the following types of employee surveys into your training program:

  1. Satisfaction surveys — Indicates how satisfied employees are with their organization and pinpoints problem areas that training can address. 
  2. Culture surveys — Measures employees’ thoughts on the organization’s social environment, leadership, and values that can be improved through training. 
  3. Engagement surveys — Assess employees’ motivation levels and passion for their job, which highlights where organizations can improve with ongoing employee development. 

Read More: 5 Key Reasons to Conduct Employee Engagement Surveys

7. Follow The 1/3:2/3 Principle

Regardless of your training topic, your organization should consider implementing the 1/3:2/3 principle. This principle states that 1/3 of your training session should be presented by the facilitator and require learners to simply listen. The other 2/3 of the training should actively involve the learners in any of the following ways:

  • Think-Pair-Share
  • Role-playing
  • Pause for reflection

This rule provides a framework for training that creates a space where learners can listen and digest information, then put their knowledge into practice. 

8. Use Microlearning To Focus On One Topic

Microlearning is a methodology that allows organizations to create high-impact training in a way that recalls former learning, while still teaching something new. With microlearning, organizations can provide information to learners that has the following benefits:

  • Available just-in-time
  • Agile and accessible
  • High impact
  • Less time-consuming

For example, if your organization needs to teach learners about a recent equipment advancement, you should pinpoint the specific update and provide learning on that specific topic only. This way, you don’t waste a learner’s time and instead focus on the most critical information. 

Are You Ready To Help Your Learners Succeed?

We’ve covered 8 tips that will help your organization better engage your workforce, from using knowledge checks and assessments to utilizing microlearning that focuses on one specific topic.
Let’s put your learners in the driver’s seat! Book a meeting with one of our experts or get started designing your custom training program today!

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