You assigned the training. You sent the email. Then the reminder email. Then the “Friendly reminder that this training is due Friday” email. Friday arrives, you open the completion report and…half the company still hasn’t done it.
Sound familiar?
When employees repeatedly ignore workplace training, it’s tempting to blame the employees. They’re busy. They’re unmotivated. They don’t care, etc. But when disengagement happens across an entire workforce, the problem probably isn’t the workforce – it’s the training.
Businesses spend an average of $1,071 per employee each year on traditional training, yet much of that investment goes toward programs workers avoid, rush through or forget shortly after completing.
That’s a pretty lousy return.
If we want team members to engage with training, we need to understand why they’re avoiding it in the first place.
Reason #1: Training Takes Too Much Time
This is probably the most obvious problem. Employees already have jobs, and they want to do them. They take pride in their work. So when training requires you to stop for an hour and complete a lengthy course, your brain chooses everything else you’re expected to accomplish that day except the training.
And that hour becomes expensive fast. If 500 employees each complete the course, the organization has invested 500 hours of paid employee time (and that’s not including course development, administration or productivity disruption).
And then there’s the time required to create the training. LMS designers spend an average of 48 hours developing a single course. Using an instructional designer wage of $47.48 per hour, that’s approximately $2,280 in development costs per course.
Teams don’t necessarily need less development. They need development that fits into the workday.
Video-based microlearning breaks learning into short, focused lessons, often just one or two minutes long. Instead of making training an interruption, organizations can make it part of employees’ normal routines.
Two minutes feels doable, and “doable” is an important first step toward “done.”
Reason #2: The Training Isn’t Relevant
Few things kill motivation faster than realizing the next 45 minutes of your life will be devoted to information that has almost nothing to do with your job.
Generic training often casts too wide a net. Organizations create one course, assign it broadly and assume everyone needs everything. The employee spends half the lesson wondering, Why am I learning this?
If people don’t understand how information connects to what they do, attention evaporates. Video-based microlearning allows organizations to assign training by role, responsibility, department or learning need. Rather than sending everyone the same course, team members receive smaller lessons that address the skills and information they actually use.
Reason #3: We’re Asking Their Brains to Do Something They’re Bad At
Let’s say employees do everything right. They attend the training, pay attention, take notes and pass the test. Problem solved? Not quite.
People forget an average of 70% of new information within 24 hours and approximately 90% within a week. Traditional training often makes matters worse by cramming enormous amounts of content into a single session. It’s the instructional equivalent of opening a fire hose and asking teams to take a sip.
Video-based microlearning uses a different model: Rest and refresh. Employees receive information in snackable bites, have time between lessons to process it and then continually revisit important concepts to cement that information into long-term memory.
Reason #4: Training Feels Like Homework
Nobody wants to finish an eight-hour shift and discover they have homework. Yet, a lot of corporate training still feels like school. Read this. Click this. Answer these questions. Don’t forget, it’s due Friday.
Compliance may get employees through the LMS course, but compliance isn’t engagement. Completing training and benefiting from training aren’t remotely the same thing.
Gamification in video-based microlearning apps gives team members visible progress through badges, achievements, performance tracking and friendly competition. Instead of training disappearing into the void after workers click “Complete,” they can see what they’ve accomplished and what comes next.
Those little wins turn learning from an obligation into progress.
Reason #5: Employees Can’t Access Training When They Need It
Traditional workplace training often teaches people information months before they’ll actually use it. New team members complete onboarding, for example, and learn dozens of processes during their first few days. Six months later, they encounter one of those situations for the first time.
Are we really expecting them to remember slide 72? Probably not.
Training should be searchable and available on demand. An employee who forgets a process can quickly find a short refresher instead of digging through a giant course, hunting for a manual, scrolling through old emails or asking a manager to explain it again. Video-based microlearning is available at the point of need.
Stop Asking How to Make Employees Complete More Training
Maybe we’re asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, “How do we get employees to complete their training?” ask: “How do we create training employees actually want to use?”
Team members need training that’s short enough to fit into their workday, relevant enough to deserve their attention and practical enough to use immediately. They need information reinforced over time rather than dumped on them once. They need easy access, visible progress and opportunities to build skills that matter to their careers.
Training doesn’t have to be something managers assign, team members avoid and HR chases until everyone finally clicks “Complete.” Done well, it can become part of how work gets better every day. Because when employees aren’t doing their training, another reminder email isn’t the answer.
Better training is always the answer.
Learn how you can up your training game for a more engaged and productive workforce by scheduling a meeting to speak with a Tyfoom training consultant today.