8 Benefits of Using Online Training for Employee Onboarding
Human Resources, Operations and Training Managers have no difficulties accepting that employee training is one of the most critical aspects of running a successful organization. Effective onboarding and orientation of new hires serve as a foundation for the development of a strong, cohesive workforce that complies with regulation and standards within the organization.
Today, advances in technology have made training employees easier, faster and more cost effective. While the benefits of using online training for employee onboarding are numerous, let’s take a quick look at eight that are most compelling.
1. Save Time
In our hectic world, time is arguably the most valuable currency, and who doesn’t want more?
Traditional onboarding methods usually require time-consuming facilitation. This includes meticulous documentation, preparation of printed materials, scheduling of classroom training and other daunting requirements that can suck up every free moment that a facilitator has. On the contrary, utilizing online training for employee onboarding can eliminate the vast majority of this time-consuming preparation and allow facilitators to regain enormous amounts of time.
2. Improve Productivity
With online training, your employees can get a good amount of their training requirements out of the way even before their first day at work. This will automatically enhance their performance and reduce the learning curve while on-site since they’ve already become familiarized with much of their duties, responsibilities, and requirements.
3. Train to a Consistent Standard
Online training enables you to streamline and standardize the content and message that’s delivered to your employees. This will allow you to have a well-defined training process that can be repeated consistently for every new trainee. For instance, you can use online training to consistently train all participants in full compliance with the WHMIS 2015 standards and regulations.
You will be able to provide top-notch training regardless of the experience or mood of the instructors.
Invariably, training errors or omissions will be eliminated, and when new employees resume their duties, they will be able to avoid costly occupational injuries and accidents.
4. Save $ and Reduce Training Costs
Time and time again, studies reveal that online training results in significant cost savings. It’s no surprise since, facilitating online training eliminates or reduces much of the expenses associated with traditional classroom-based training. This includes travel costs, training facilities and reproduction of physical training materials.
5. Minimize Record Keeping
The daunting volume of paperwork that usually accompanies conventional onboarding programs will be eliminated through online training. Instead of using paper forms, that could get misplaced even with the best manual filing systems; all record-keeping can be done electronically, and in many cases, automatically. Thus, employees can sign up at the most convenient time, complete their registration forms online and start their training immediately. All training documents will be stored online for instant access. Vital reference materials will also be available to your employees anytime they need them.
6. Make Training More Convenient
Providing online training for employees will empower them to choose the best time, place and atmosphere to learn. Trainees do not need to commute to a particular location or sit in a restricted classroom environment. This is crucial since there are varied learning styles and people learn at different rates. Online training provides the best avenue for employees to learn at an appropriate pace and assimilate the content of the training effectively. Your trainees will be able to go over training content as many times as required until they understand it thoroughly. This is simply not feasible when using conventional classroom training methods.
7. Learning is More Effective
Various studies have shown that interactive learning components can improve learning engagement and enhance retention of the subjects learned. With the variety of sophisticated electronic learning tools available now, it is easier to introduce interactivity into training programs than it’s ever been.
8. Track Training Status Easily
During any training program, it is vital to monitor the status of the entire process as well as the progress of each participant. Online training simplifies the tracking process, from attendance, to test scores and completion status, so you can easily get a comprehensive report on each employee any time you need it. Subsequently, if you have to provide evidence of training to a legislative body such as a safety inspector, you have the ability to effortlessly produce comprehensive reports and proof of evidence with just a few clicks.
Conclusion
Those are some of the obvious benefits of using online training for employee onboarding and safety training. Presently, it is the most ideal and effective form of training that can be used to speed up the process of delivering consistent training to newly hired employees. No other effective training method provides instant access to employee training materials and offers substantial cost savings on training materials, instructor expenses, and logistics.
