Delivering effective systems training for employees is crucial to ensuring your business operates smoothly, but it’s often overlooked.
It’s an obvious assumption that implementing new software and technologies is a positive move for businesses, but for employees the introduction of new systems can feel overwhelming and complicated. This feeling of being burdened is often magnified by organisations underestimating the cost or complexity of training their employees on the new system.
What is Systems Training?
Systems training is the process of educating individuals on how to operate, maintain and make best use of complex systems, such as software. Effective systems training gives employees the skills and knowledge to use the system productively.
Thinking more strategically about how to deliver the necessary training plays a critical role in making sure that your employees have the knowledge and skills they need to effectively navigate and contribute to the systems within the company.
Challenges of training new systems and technologies
Employees can often feel overwhelmed by the prospect of learning a new system and without proper training, may find it challenging to grasp all the aspects of the technology, leading to confusion and frustration. It’s understandable that employees can feel daunted by the volume of learning with continual updates to existing systems, or the introduction of an entirely new technology or software system. Software systems are often very complicated to understand and it can be difficult to feel at ease with the multiple features and functionalities they offer.
The rapidity of evolution within the software and tech world is daunting to employees who need to become competent in order to do their job using the new software within a short period of time. Frequent updates, new versions and emerging technologies can all feel like an impossible task.
Your employees will naturally have very different learning styles and be starting from different levels of existing knowledge or competence and the systems training you deliver needs to be able to handle these differences. In a fast paced work environment employees are already at capacity in their everyday role, so enthusiasm and motivation are essential to encourage individuals to go beyond their daily routines. Fear of change, perceived difficulties or doubtfulness about the benefits of a new system can all make systems training harder to deliver effectively.
5 steps to deliver effective systems training
1. Simplify complex concepts
The first step in making sure your systems training is delivered in a way that meets business needs and the needs of your employees, is making it easy to understand. Complex concepts can be off-putting for learners and can lead to confusion and difficulty in understanding and engaging with the training.
Using clear, concise language, visuals and demonstrations to explain concepts helps to break complicated software features into smaller, more digestible chunks. Strategies such as step-by-step instructions and practical examples can help participants grasp the material more quickly and efficiently and understand how to apply it in their daily roles.
Not all your employees will have the same level of basic knowledge, so simplifying concepts means the training remains accessible to all levels. It also allows more information to be conveyed efficiently, covering more material in less time.
It’s important for the trainers who produce your training to understand the systems thoroughly themselves and feel enthusiastic about their uses. Only with complete comprehension can a trainer realistically simplify a concept for those engaged in systems training.
2. Stay up-to-date
Making sure that your systems training materials are kept up-to-date is important in maintaining relevance, accuracy, credibility and quality. It also enables you to have a competitive advantage over those who don’t prioritise staying updated and it promotes a culture of continual learning and professional improvement.
Technology and software is regularly updated whether you are implementing an entirely new system or simply updating one that already exists. Either way, information that was once accurate quickly becomes out of date or even wrong. Systems training that passes on obsolete or incorrect information is not just pointless, but also frustrating and potentially damaging.
For your employees to have faith in the training they are receiving, they need to trust that the knowledge and expertise they are being exposed to is the most relevant there is. By making sure your training is current, you’ll enhance your reputation and credibility and instil confidence in your learners.
3. Offer flexible training options
Offering flexible training options makes learning accessible to a wider audience and increases the likelihood of engagement. When designing systems training, it’s important to remember that not all learners will have the same schedules, learning styles, knowledge base or preferences. Responding to their differences can be a tall order but it’s necessary to deliver effective training.
Your employees undoubtedly have busy working schedules that make it difficult to fit systems training into prescribed hours. Flexibility in how the training is offered allows employees to fit it around their existing commitments and may reduce the amount of frustration they feel at having to squeeze everything in.
Efficient systems training tailors the content to different learning objectives or levels of expertise. Each employee will likely have a slightly different base knowledge and will be able to learn and understand concepts at different levels and speeds. Making sure your delivery methods meet the specific needs of each employee means your staff will receive training that is relevant and beneficial to each of them.
Flexibility allows learners to access the training from diverse locations and means you can scale your systems training up whether training a small team or an entire department. Offering flexible training options demonstrates your commitment to support staff to learn around their time preferences and learning requirements. This, in turn, leads to higher levels of employee satisfaction, engagement and retention.
4. Engage participants
Designing systems training that engages your participants is essential for promoting active learning, encouraging motivation, increasing understanding and retention and giving learners the confidence to apply what they’ve learned to real life situations. Poor engagement leads to negativity towards the software or technology, dissatisfaction with management, poor learning outcomes and ineffective implementation.
Employees who are enjoying and engaged with systems training are more likely to actively participate in the process rather than just passively consuming information. Active learning promotes better retention of the content and a deeper understanding of the material.
Engaged learners are more likely to complete the programme and apply what they learn in their daily roles. A high level of engagement also means theoretical concepts are more readily applied to practical scenarios and fosters a sense of achievement and community, which maximises the effectiveness of the training.
5. Offer ongoing support
Access to continued support resources allows employees to ask questions or deal with challenges they encounter in the real world. It gives them the opportunity to seek clarification and guidance to effectively apply their new knowledge and skills.
Without ongoing support, your employees may forget what they have learned in systems training or struggle to apply the concepts in their actual roles. Ongoing support also helps keep your employees up to date on any changes or updates to systems they’ve been trained on.
Knowing that they have access to ongoing support can help employees feel more confident and comfortable in moving forward, which translates into improved performance, productivity and job satisfaction. It also demonstrates a commitment from the business beyond the initial training phase which helps employees feel supported and valued.
To learn more about how Omniplex Guide can support delivery of your systems training, get in touch or book a free product tour.
