Every year, organizations spend millions of dollars developing carefully designed training initiatives that reflect their organization’s values while equipping their employees with essential skills needed in the workplace.

Initially, the trainees seem to be engaged, absorbing information eagerly during workshops and seminars. Yet, fast forward a few weeks, and the enthusiasm wanes. Despite the initial knowledge transfer, retention dwindles, and the application of newly acquired skills becomes sporadic.

Remember: It’s not always the training program, sometimes it’s just human memory! Within the first month of training, learners can forget an average of 90% of what they’ve learned. This is where training reinforcement comes in.

What is Training Reinforcement?

Training reinforcement is a learning strategy that leverages repetition and retrieval practices to improve post-training retention levels. It serves as the essential bridge between learning and application, ensuring that the knowledge and skills acquired during training sessions are not only retained but also effectively utilized in the workplace. These reinforcement strategies are specifically designed to solidify learning outcomes and foster long-term employee behavior change.

Why Reinforce Training?

Boosts Retention and Increases Recall

By putting what they’ve learned into practice, trainees get to practice what they’ve learned. This is a great way to ensure that the learners retain the knowledge and are able to apply it in the workplace. The more the learners are made to recall information, the more likely they are to encode it into their long-term memory.

Not just that, reinforcement also requires employees to engage with the training materials, whether it is in the form of post-training reminders or short, gamified quizzes. These activities enable trainees to interact with the learning materials in brief intervals, fostering heightened engagement and improved retention.

Increases ROI on your Training Initiatives

From the organization’s perspective, training reinforcement is not an added expense; it can actually end up saving costs! If employees are able to recall and apply their training well, they are less likely to make errors and can work more efficiently. Backed by a well-trained workforce, the organization is likely to increase its profits, yielding a substantial return on investment in its employees.

Post-training reinforcement also means employee performance does not decline once the training workshops are over. Moreover, it allows organizations to keep their employees up to date on any new technologies and processes, ensuring that they adapt to changes in the industry seamlessly.

Encourages Continuous Learning

Organizations today must look beyond specific training events and treat workplace learning as a continuous process, with training ingrained into the fabric of everyday work life. This leads to an adaptable, resilient workforce that can evolve with changing industry trends. Training reinforcement is a part of the continuous learning process, allowing learning to be an ongoing process. 

If training content is reinforced regularly, there is more room to identify deficiencies and work on improving the learning culture of the organization. As a result, the training can be modified to better meet the needs of employees and the organization as a whole.

Methods of Training Reinforcement

Microlearning

Training reinforcement is all about keeping things short. Microlearning is the perfect tool to deliver this type of training. Microlearning involves breaking down training content into smaller, bite-sized modules that can be delivered through various formats such as videos, infographics, or quizzes. This allows employees to access information quickly and reinforces learning in shorter intervals.

Spaced Repetition

Delivering training content in the form of brief reminders after a fixed period of time is a tried and tested method to counter the forgetting curve. Spaced repetition can be used to implement training reinforcement by using a digital flashcard system or spaced repetition software. Based on the learner’s competency, the algorithm determines how often these reminders need to be sent.

Tools like these are a great way to embed learning in everyday work life without being disruptive or needing the learners to spend too much time away from their tasks. 

Performance Support Systems

Performance Support Systems are tools or resources designed to provide just-in-time assistance to employees as they perform their tasks or duties. These systems aim to enhance employee performance by offering on-demand access to information, guidance, and resources as they come across challenges in their work. 

Providing access to useful training resources post-training allows these materials to be used whenever trainees encounter blockers in the workflow. By implementing solutions from the resources at hand, employees are likely to commit the information to their long-term memory.

Peer Learning

The social aspect of workplace learning does not need to end with the workshops. Learning from others, especially in the workplace, must be a natural and continuous part of the organizational culture. 

By facilitating opportunities for employees to learn from their peers through group discussions, knowledge-sharing sessions, or mentoring programs, organizations can reinforce training content and encourage collaboration among employees, long after the training sessions have ended.

Get Your Training Needs Met With Edly

Achieving lasting impact through training initiatives is not impossible. It’s all about creating thoughtful training programs, factoring in training reinforcement as an essential part of the program from the very beginning, not as an afterthought. By embracing training reinforcement as an essential component of the workplace training package, organizations can unlock the full potential of their workforce and stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.

At Edly, we understand the intricacies of effective training reinforcement and offer tailored solutions to meet your organization’s unique needs. Get in touch today to explore our corporate training solutions or try our platform for free!