Having trouble getting employees to attend training? Check if you are making these mistakes

For most people, the opportunity to learn at work is an advantage. However, it often happens that an excellent seminar organized by colleagues goes unnoticed, and employees who initially planned to attend training organized by the company change their plans at the last minute and do not attend. Often, e-learning courses created by companies are carried out sluggishly, as if their completion were solely the responsibility of HR specialists. This creates an interesting situation: the company invests in employee training, but the employees themselves are not interested. So, why is it difficult to get employees to attend training, and what should be done in these situations?

Work environment issues: lack of time

Lack of time is one of the most common reasons why it is difficult to get employees to attend training. And perhaps your colleagues really do lack time right now because they are currently working on an intensive project or have a lot of work piled up. Perhaps your colleagues are indeed working under increased pressure and are barely managing to keep up with their daily tasks. In such a work environment, training will certainly not receive much attention, it will be difficult to get employees to attend training, and this may even cause negative feelings (read more about this in the HBR article).

What should you do if it is difficult to get employees to attend training due to lack of time?

Encourage managers and employees to create learning plans/set priorities, and ensure that the training programs you develop are aligned with them. If you offer training based on what is important to managers and employees, you will receive more attention.

Plan ahead. Inform employees about training in advance so that they can plan their work. When it comes to e-learning deadlines, communicate them clearly, specifically, and in advance. Send your colleagues calendar invitations to the training and reserve time in their calendars for e-training.

For longer or more complex training, I would recommend organizing it for the entire department or team together and combining it with team-building events. Ideally, the team should have a set time of year (and it should always be around the same time) when everyone takes a break from work and dedicates a few days to improving their skills. A company training calendar or regular time set aside for self-improvement can also help.

Make sure the training is accessible. Sometimes a situation arises where employees may want to participate in training, but the location or time is not convenient for them. Organize training flexibly, offer a choice of several dates, and organize remote training. E-learning also improves the accessibility of training.

Work environment issues: this training is not a priority

Lack of motivation is another reason why it is difficult to get employees to attend training. This problem is related to lack of time. Lack of time can be solved by planning. The issue of priority needs to be addressed in other ways.

Training is not a priority when it is not directly related to an employee’s work, but is nevertheless necessary for risk management or other reasons. Training also falls to the bottom of the priority list when employees lack the motivation to participate in or complete it. It is important to note here that people are different and some are more influenced by internal motivation (the desire to learn, to know, to be able to apply) while others are influenced by external motivation (various incentives: rewards, competition, fear of failure, HR reminders). It is important to take this into account.

What should you do if it is difficult to get employees to attend training due to a lack of importance?

Communicate effectively: explain the importance of training and how it relates to their work. Show the consequences if training is not completed. If you cannot name the consequences, it is a sign that you have missed something when planning the training.

Link the training to other processes taking place in the company. Link risk management training to natural career stages, such as onboarding new employees or training colleagues after promotion. Ensure that training completion statistics are visible and included in performance reviews.

Involve managers. Don’t forget managers in your communication: plan training with managers or present training to them, communicate clearly and agree on what level of participant activity is appropriate or not (you can introduce a traffic light principle: what attendance is low (red), what is normal (yellow), and what is good (green)). Clearly share responsibilities and draw up an action plan for the respective attendance situation of participants.

Consider external incentives: refreshments, participant certificates, public acknowledgments, and praise always work well.

Errors related to training design: training is boring, unattractive, etc.

If all issues related to the work environment are addressed, your efforts to attract people to training will bear fruit. However, it is often difficult to attract employees to training due to mistakes in training design.

A common mistake is trying to use training to solve problems that are not related to a lack of knowledge or skills. For example, employees are not performing certain actions. Without looking into the situation in depth, it might be possible to solve the problem with training, assuming that the employees do not know what to do. However, it is often the case that employees do not perform certain actions not because they lack knowledge, but because of a lack of motivation, environmental factors, etc.

To a large extent, the design of the training itself determines whether or not the training will be attractive to employees. Training is attractive when it is:

• Practical: provides not only theoretical material, but also the opportunity to try to apply that knowledge.
• engaging: not just a talking head effect or an avalanche of information that overwhelms the participants, leaving them to decide for themselves what is relevant or not, and what to do with it next;
• responsive to existing knowledge and experience: whether the training is related to the amount of knowledge and skill level already possessed;
• directly related to the work performed and responsibilities;
• visually appealing, using a variety of media;
• ensures a good learning experience: relevant in the case of e-learning;
• encourages the application of knowledge and skills after the training is over.

What should you do if it is difficult to get employees to attend training because the training is not interesting?

Author of the article: Agnė Ignotienė – organizational development contultant and instructional designer, E. mokymų sprendimai