Workplace Training: Planning, Methods, Guides & Resources

This workplace training hub brings together practical guides, frameworks, and editable training resources for HR professionals, trainers, facilitators, managers, and L&D teams delivering in-house workplace training. Whether you’re designing leadership development, communication skills, or workplace wellness programs, you’ll find practical resources to help plan and deliver effective training.

You’ll find practical training materials, guides, frameworks, and resources you can use to plan, customize, and run effective in-house training sessions. Already delivering workplace training and need ready-to-use materials? See our editable training course materials for trainers & HR teams.

12-Month Manager Development Journey

See how structured management training can be sequenced over the first year to build leadership capability, coaching skills, and performance management confidence. View the 12-Month Manager Development Roadmap

What is Upskilling

Understand how structured training programs help employees develop advanced skills within their current roles to improve performance and prepare for future responsibilities. Read: What Is Upskilling?

What Is Workplace Training?

When we talk about workplace training, we’re really talking about helping people become better at what they do at work.

This might involve teaching employees something completely new, but quite often it’s about improving skills they already have.

Take communication training, for example. Most employees know how to communicate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they feel comfortable giving constructive feedback, dealing with a difficult colleague, or speaking up during meetings.

Training gives people a chance to look at how they handle these situations and, ideally, practice different approaches.

The same applies to leadership, time management, teamwork, and many other subjects.

Some training needs to be fairly structured, particularly when employees must follow specific procedures. Other subjects lend themselves to discussions, group exercises, role-play activities, and workshops.

The challenge for trainers and HR managers is deciding what employees actually need help with and then choosing a way of teaching it that makes sense for them.

How to Plan Effective Workplace Training

So, you’ve been asked to organize some workplace training. Where exactly do you start?

There are a few things that are worth considering first, before you get into creating slides, looking for training games, or putting together a timetable for the day.

1. Start With the Reason for the Training

Perhaps the HR manager has asked you to organize a course on teamwork because there have been disagreements between colleagues in your team.

Before putting together the course, though, you could try to find out a little more about what’s going on.

Are people having difficulties working together because of poor communication? Or is the problem that nobody is quite sure who is meant to do certain tasks?

Different problems tend to have differing solutions, and this can affect what the best training should be.

2. Be Clear About What You Want to Achieve

Rather than having a general aim such as “We need to improve teamwork”, think about what employees need to do differently.

Perhaps they need to get better at sharing information, listening to colleagues, or dealing with disagreements before they become bigger problems.

With focus, you can be more specific in deciding what to teach.

3. Think About the Best Way to Teach It

There are lots of ways to deliver workplace training, and the best choice often depends on the subject.

If someone needs to learn how to use a new piece of software, showing them how it works and then letting them try it might be enough.

On the other hand, if you’re teaching people how to deal with conflict, a discussion or role-play activity might be more useful.

You also need to consider practical things, such as whether everyone works in the same location and how much time employees can spend away from their usual work.

4. Make Sure Employees Get Involved

Nobody particularly enjoys sitting through hours of slides, especially if there’s little opportunity to ask questions or contribute.

Try breaking up the training with activities, examples, and discussions.

Even a fairly simple exercise can get people thinking. For instance, you could give small groups a workplace problem and ask them how they would deal with it.

You might find that different groups come up with very different answers, which can lead to an interesting discussion.

5. See If Anything Has Changed

After the training, don’t just put the feedback forms away and forget about them.

Try to find out whether employees are using any of the ideas or skills covered in the session.

If the workshop was about communication, are people handling conversations differently? If it was about managing time, have they found ways to organise their work more effectively?

You won’t always see an immediate difference, of course. Some skills take practice.

But following up with participants and their managers can give you a much better idea of whether the training was useful.

Explore Workplace Training Guides and Resources

Looking for advice on a particular training subject? Our guides cover communication, leadership, training methods, and other topics that trainers and HR professionals regularly work with.

Useful starting points:

• Corporate Training Strategies
• Workplace Communication Guides
• New Manager Guides
• Trainer Delivery and Facilitation
• Free Training Activities

Common Challenges in Workplace Training

You might experience some challenges when organizing employee workplace training and when providing employee coaching.

The main challenges we have found are:

• Overcoming Resistance to Change: Strategies to encourage employee participation in training programs often meet with resistance. Sometimes managers are resistant to change; at other times, it is employees. This should not, though, stop necessary change from occurring. Employee training and development are always going to have those who resist it, but training is essential for growth.
• Training Budget Constraints: Whatever types of employee training programs you are offering, cost-effective training solutions for organizations with limited budgets are what you’ll need to try to offer as a freelance trainer if you want to expand your opportunities. Alternatively, building a strong case study to explain the long-term financial benefits (such as proven productivity indicators) can also be worth doing. The benefits of employee training, when the right training is provided, should outweigh the monetary costs.
  For a look at why it’s worth investing in employee development, see our guide to the 8 key benefits of workplace training for HR and L&D.
• Ensuring Consistency: Maintaining training standards across different locations and departments is a big challenge. This can become even harder with the trend toward a mix of online and offline training.
• Keeping Content Relevant: If you need to train employees over time, regularly updating training materials to reflect current trends and practices is important. For most of the training materials we provide, though, the content tends to be evergreen, meaning it does not become quickly outdated. This can be especially important with compliance training courses, where rules and regulations that relate to compliance measures can change.

Sometimes the issue isn’t the training itself, but the workplace conditions surrounding it. Our guide to why workplace problems persist explains how overlapping challenges can affect training outcomes and what can make training more effective.

Training Methods and Techniques

For tips and guidance on running training sessions, managing groups, and keeping learners engaged, see our Trainer Delivery & Facilitation Skills guide, including about 10 effective workplace training tips.

Workplace training can be delivered through several formats and methods, including in-person sessions, online training, blended learning, microlearning, and mentoring or coaching.

• In-Person vs. Online Training: Today, organizations generally choose between in-person and online training. Online training is environmentally friendly, scalable, and accessible, while in-person training often makes it easier to build relationships and gather immediate feedback.
• Consider carefully the audience you plan to provide training for, and the expectations of the person/company paying for the training.
• Blended Learning: There is also the opportunity to provide a mix of online and offline training, and this can work well.
• Microlearning: Short, focused training sessions can also help improve learning retention.
• Mentorship and Coaching: Employee coaching through a mentor program or by offering coaching skills training is also an option. Coaching and mentoring can be a great way to save money through the sharing of existing skills in your workforce.

Microlearning Hub

If you are also interested in microlearning units, you can find our microlearning hub here.

Final Thoughts

Are you a business looking for a trainer and having a problem finding someone suitable? We have a network of trainers who are looking for opportunities, so please contact us now.

Also, make sure to download our free eBook with 25 games and activities you can use for corporate training days.

We are also always looking to interview freelance trainers and anyone involved in employee workplace training and development for our Trainer’s Corner interview on YouTube and on our blog – so please get in touch if you are interested!