Training in the workplace varies greatly. I personally have started at jobs where there is intense training during onboarding and others where the employer threw me to the wolves on day one. This inconsistency between employers is due to a lack of universal training requirements, which only exist in highly regulated industries. 

Traditionally, positions that are considered dangerous or affect the public’s safety are required to follow certain regulations. For these companies, regulators hold companies to a higher standard resulting in a greater focus on employee compliance training at all levels. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can require strict education protocols. 

Luckily, the trend is changing with more companies realizing the numerous benefits of enhanced learning and development. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently updated its corporate governance guidelines, which suggest a process that encourages employees to be more engaged with company guidance and actively seek feedback online or in-person. Most importantly, the DOJ wants companies to evaluate the extent to which the training impacts employee behavior or operations. Basically, have people learned from the training or not?

Learning from a training program is not a given. Some training programs don’t offer the material in a way that resonates and stays with employees. 

When Training (and Learning) Fails

Training, to some employers, is seen as a necessary yet annoying step to onboarding employees and keeping the company compliant. They want to “check the box” on compliance and aren’t giving enough attention to if and how their employees learn and retain the information. 

Unfortunately, many employer training programs don’t include effective teaching techniques to get information across to employees and have it stick. This isn’t good for the company or the employee. Employees come to resent training when it’s mindless—they don’t retain the information and easily forget anything they can’t quickly put into action. 

Just “checking the box” on employment training can be dangerous. Look at the public scrutiny that Wells Fargo faced when its employees created millions of fraudulent accounts. Or the outrage in the aftermath of the systemic deception by Volkswagen over its vehicles’ emission levels. Failing to educate employees on ways to make the right decision and keep themselves and the company compliant can have dire consequences.

Surely at Wells Fargo and Volkswagen, there must have been training and guidelines that did not significantly impact those who were supposed to be learning. 

All Methods of Training Are Not Created Equal

In grade school and even at University, I would make flashcards and review facts, formulas, and definitions over and over again. I would drill information into my brain (or so I thought) only for most of it to disappear shortly after the exam. 

Research shows that going over notes or constantly repeating information is not optimally efficient and, in my opinion, it’s incredibly dull. Merely “reviewing” is not critical to learning. What is crucial to learning is connecting concepts and making the subject matter relevant. This forces us to do further analysis and makes concepts stick. The deeper connections, not the repetition, help people retain information for the long haul.

But, not all employer training programs are structured to encourage this type of learning.

What’s the best strategy for learning? 

There are three approaches to education that help describe how people learn best. 

Construction Learning – Learn by Doing

Physically or digitally creating things forces us to construct new mental models, analogies, memories, and synaptic connections. To learn this way, ask yourself, “Is there something I can create to practice what I’m trying to learn?”

Cognition Learning – Learn by Thinking

Even though it doesn’t look like much to the outsider, a lot of learning can happen between our ears—aka in our inner thoughts. Processing feedback from our environment to make observations and predictions helps information stick.

To kickstart this type of learning, get feedback on your work, reflect on it, and return to those reflections over time to create new mental models that can apply to future work/learning.

Community Learning – Learn from Others

As humans, we often want to be accepted and validated by our peers. We are good at observing, imitating, and innovating. Community learning happens when humans want to survive and thrive among their fellow community members.

If you have a mentor or role model, you’re already practicing community learning. Ask yourself, “What am I learning from the people around me? Who do I need to spend more time with to learn what I want to learn?”

Combine Learning Techniques for the Optimal Outcome

To train people most effectively, aim to consistently combine these three types of learning to create a positive habit.

For example, I needed to learn a new marketing analytics software for my job. To ensure I knew it well and would retain the information, I…

• Wrote a blog post about it for constructive learning
• Brainstormed different ways I could use the software and predicted outcomes for cognition learning
• Learned even more about the software by watching a marketing role model lead a live strategy webinar for community learning

Had I merely read about the analytics program, I may have forgotten what I learned within a matter of days. 

Learning New Skills by Phishing

To move forward, companies need to take hypothetical training and turn it into real-time training that incorporates constructive, cognitive, and community learning attributes. 

A great example of a way that companies are putting their training into real-life situations is with phishing training. Phishing is when someone poses as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. Phishing commonly happens over email, telephone, or text messages.

Employers will educate employees on phishing: what to look for, what information to keep private, what to do when you suspect phishing, etc. Then, the company creates its own phishing email and sends it to employees. The company monitors how many employees fall for the scam and take the opportunity to teach their employees what they could do differently the next time. 

It’s an excellent in-real-time training that helps bring the hypothetical teachings to real-life learnings. Employees get feedback, can learn from their peers, create a new plan, and adjust their behavior going forward. With these active-mental processes, they are likely to retain what they have learned and take a different approach the next time they receive a potentially suspicious email. 

As I mentioned in a previous article, The Growing Void in Communication Training, the best training methods (and therefore the best learning methods) incorporate traditional training with tools like Fairwords for real-time learning, context, frequency, and reinforcement. People retain more information when they can make cognitive connections, test predictions, and learn from those around them. 

Fairwords is an excellent tool to reinforce learning and provides training and feedback in real-time. It connects ideas by giving case studies and more context around policies and procedures. Training becomes ongoing and speaks to constructive, cognitive, and community learning. With optimized learning, Fairwords helps companies save time and reduce risk.

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