The success of your business depends on the efficiency and loyalty of your channel partners towards your organization and the products you offer. They could be retailers, wholesalers or agents. Training becomes an important medium to engage and involve the channel partners in your business and seek a long term commitment from them. What is the type of training that best suits channel partners? Keeping in mind the fact that training goals should mirror the business goals of your organization, training programs for channel partners should include the following:

Product Training: Your channel partners should be well-versed with your product range and the benefits they offer to end-customers. Therefore, the training program should devote considerable time in highlighting the USP of your products vis-a-vis competition. If your organization has launched a new product, it is important for you to educate your channel partners about the same. Unless they understand the features and utilities of the new product, they will not be able to advocate the same to the end-consumers. New product training provides an opportunity to create excitement and generate interest. By showcasing the new product, you will help in its promotion which will ultimately help in boosting its sales.

Sales Strategies and Sales Process: Your channel partner will be interested in promoting your product only if it helps him to reach his business goals. It is therefore in your interest to help your channel partners, guide and plan their sales strategy and help them implement the sales process. Channel partners are often provided with varied discount and incentive schemes for different products. You might also provide them with some co-marketing support such as providing display boards, advertising and so on. It is not enough to provide good incentives to the channel partners; you need to educate them about the same to ensure their loyalty towards your brand.

Selling Skills: It is normally the onus of the organization to train the dealer’s sales staff to sell your products. It is important to equip the sales staff with critical skills that are essential to promote your product. This ensures that the people who interact with your end customers are competent, proficient and true spokespersons for your product.

Virtual Training or Online Training: If your product is a market leader, you could set up online training centers and get customers or channel partners to receive training and provide certification for your products. Microsoft offers such training programs for channel partners and provides a certification as “Microsoft Certified Partner” for its channel partners. Thus, if your products enjoy market leadership, you can actually make training your channel partners a revenue-generating activity by charging for them.

A well-thought out training program will not only help you to foster productive relationship with your channel partners but also helps in increasing the revenues you generate through them.

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Design strategies for product training can be multifold depending on the nature of the product and the target audience. For example, the learning strategy for a software product would be different from the strategy needed to train on a piece of equipment or an electronic gadget. Similarly, the strategy cannot be the same for a sales person selling a product and the end-user who is actually going to be using the product.

Nevertheless, there are some basic design strategies that can serve as guidelines for product training. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Workshops/ Hands on sessions: The best way to get a learner to familiarize himself with a product is through workshops which are hands-on where a learner can actually get to use the product. However, when you need to train a large group of employees spread across different regions on using a piece of equipment, you could use an alternative strategy. You could use online training options which could be followed up with hands-on or on-the-job training.

Demonstrations/ Videos: Online demonstrations of products can be very powerful means to demonstrate how the product needs to be operated. Demos are effective to showcase the products in action. If using an online training method, videos of the demonstrations can be embedded into the eLearning courseware.

Graphics: When it is not possible to show a product physically, the best way to represent it is through graphics. In fact, in certain situations, a 3D model of a product can be visually demonstrated more clearly using graphics so that its functionality is better understood.

Job Aids: As the name indicates, these could consist of any information that helps the user do his job better. It could be a checklist for operating machine or simple dos and don’ts while using a product.

Case-based learning: A scenarios can be used to explain product features or functions. Content that is otherwise theoretical and boring could be made more interesting to the learner by using case-based scenarios. Troubleshooting of problems could also be explained in a similar manner with relevant examples.

Testimonials: Customer testimonials about the benefits of a product can be used as an effective means to highlight the main features of a product.

Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS): Barry Raybould in 1991 defined EPSS as a computer-based system that improves worker productivity by providing on-the-job access to integrated information, advice, and learning experiences. These are ideal for training that requires needing access to a huge amount of information. Think of the kind of information that dealers or distributers of spare parts for automobiles need and you will see how an electronic performance support system provides an optimal solution.

eLearning or online learning can be effectively used for product training purposes. Instructor-led training for products may have certain advantages but if they are supplemented with online training with the design strategies mentioned above, it surely will make the course very learner-centric and user-friendly.

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To evaluate the impact of training, there are two possible ways of measurement – one based upon financial measures (Return on Investment) while the other include qualitative measurement based on Return on Expectation. However, the ultimate objective remains the same – to generate greater benefits at the lowest possible cost. Therefore, it makes good business sense to know about the major ways to increase the impact of training.

In-depth analysis of the possible need of training

This is the first thing that has to be done when evaluating the need for a training solution. You will need to do an in-depth analysis as to what purpose the proposed training will serve. Is training really required? What are the key problems this training will solve? Who are the people who need training? The answers to all these questions will give a vivid picture of the actual training needs.

Choosing the right trainer

Once the purpose of the training is determined, it is important to select the correct delivery channel for training? Who are the people chosen to impart the training? Selecting an expert having an in-depth knowledge and expertise in conducting training sessions is very important. Selecting wrong people for the wrong purpose will prove detrimental to the very purpose of training.

Proper training ambience

The ambience is another important factor to consider. Proper infrastructure and the availability of proper materials to support the training process is required to increase the impact of training.

• a) Peaceful learning environment: Be it classroom training or online training, a peaceful environment – free from disturbance will help the trainees to better concentrate on the subject matter.
• b) Abundance of learning materials: Enables the trainees to gather the maximum possible knowledge and information by studying this material.

Thus, the proper ambience and adequate learning materials help trainees to gather knowledge and practice the same in a controlled environment.

Using an innovative mix

The use of various options such as webinars and videos enhance the learning experience for the trainees. In addition, adopting some interesting elements such as role plays, group discussions and demonstrations makes learning more attractive and easy to remember, thereby leading to a long-lasting impact in the minds of trainees.

Motivation

Another important way of increasing the impact of training, where the trainers motivate the trainees is by supporting them and helping them in solving a particular problem. It is also important for a trainer to give the trainee adequate time to understand the context of training and to clear all their doubts by having a question and answer session.

Regular Evaluation

Having regular feedback and proper evaluation of training methods enables trainers and instructional designers to bridge knowledge gaps and deliver training in a better way next time. The results of these evaluations help in strengthening the training programs and offer better delivery in future.

I will be interested to learn your views on the subject. Do share your thoughts on the same.

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Your organization has decided to go in for a new software application. This new application is going to make things easier by speeding up processes and systems. It is also going to bring great added value to your customers. But before anything else, you will need to train your employees on how to use this new software application. What would be the best way to do it?

Organizations today are increasingly using online training solutions to impart training for software applications. There are many advantages of choosing online training solutions for software applications. Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons.

• 1) An experienced user need not be a good teacher: I may be an expert in using a particular software application but I may not have the requisite skills to teach the same. With online training it is possible to provide uniform training meeting high standards across the organization.
• 2) Hands-on exposure: Learners get to learn the application while using it. Each individual prefers to learn at his own pace and method. With step-by-step course material, he will be able to use and experiment with the application at his own convenience.
• 3) Best for technical training: Online training is especially beneficial for technical training as visual learning aids and graphics facilitate easy learning.
• 4) Cost-effective: Providing online training is very cost-effective as training managers need not coordinate travel arrangements or individual schedules. It is much easier to implement an online training program across different geographic regions.
• 5) Training on newer versions of the software is faster: Organizations may be already using an older version of the software and when a new version is launched, it becomes easier to provide online training with respect to the new features of the latest version and its benefits. This can be done by having an online course just for highlighting the new features. It also becomes easier to modify the older courses by incorporating changes if the course is developed as eLearning courseware.
• 6) Easy reference: To have the program online or on the company intranet serves as easy reference for the employees or learners whenever they have a problem and need to look for a solution.
• 7) Multiple formats: Online training can be imparted in many ways. Users can be given options of using the company intranet or website, they may be given CDs or they could use LMS portals. Depending on the geographical location and available bandwidth, companies can choose the format in which the course can be deployed. These formats become handy when users need to adapt to new technology or software platform within a short period of time.

Online Training Solutions have become a norm with big software applications development organizations like Microsoft and Adobe. They have a dedicated online platform through which training is imparted not only to corporate clients but also to individual learners. With rapid technological changes, online training is the best way to train individuals on software applications.

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Education imparts knowledge and develops an individual’s overall personality. However, training sharpens the knowledge acquired through education and provides skills essential to perform a particular job. It is recognized as a strategic component in today’s organizational settings. Therefore, organizations invest a vast portion of their resources and time in conducting training programs for their employees. But how effective are these training programs?

If employees attend training programs without applying what they learnt, it implies that the training program is a sheer waste of resources and time. To motivate employees to do their work smartly and skilfully, training programs should be designed meticulously. These programs should be relevant to the organizational and the employees’ needs. The training delivered should be effective enough to bring a positive change in the employees’ attitude and approach towards their job. Here are some pointers:

Focus on the objective of the training program

Training is not merely sharing information. This information should meet the professional needs of the employees, such as enhancing the skill-set required to excel in the job they are currently doing. It could also be to provide them with the new skills required to perform a new organizational task when a new technology, product or service is going to be introduced.

Ensure that learners understand the purpose of training

The purpose of the training is of course to bring about a change in the way the employees have been working so far. However, training program should not make the employees feel that what they have been doing all these years is a useless thing and there is an urgent need to change their working style. This will only de-motivate them. The learners should be encouraged to share and discuss their apprehensions and concerns.

Reward performing employees

Newly trained employees usually get back to their work stations with enhanced confidence, renewed enthusiasm and higher levels of competency. However, not all of them retain the same levels of zeal and commitment to apply the skills acquired through training to their job. It is only a handful of employees who do that. Recognize their exceptional performance by rewarding them smartly or by felicitating them with the ‘Performer of the Month’ award. This will instil in the employees the spirit to perform and achieve the target.

Implement online training programs

Learning is not a ‘one-time-affair”. Therefore, you should realize the need to provide training for the staff from time-to-time. But, conducting training programs involves huge expenditure in all respects – from hiring a trainer to finalizing the training room, providing lunch and so on. In such situations, online training is becoming increasingly popular among organizations. To make training programs cost-effective and save valuable productive time of employees, organizations are moving towards online training for their employees.

In conclusion, training will yield results only when the management identifies the right training gaps.

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For creating effective eLearning courses, you need to focus on the aspects of technology, content, infrastructure, delivery media and design strategy. While there are different parameters for designing interactive and engaging eLearning courses, using a design strategy suitable for a specific content type is a vital factor for effective eLearning design and development. In this post, we will briefly explore and understand the five basic types of content.

From a learning design perspective, your instructional strategy at the micro-level will depend on the type of content you are dealing with. In our next post we will see how each of these content types can be best taught in an online course.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, when it comes to eLearning, we think of servers, bandwidth, LMS/ LCMS etc. all very expensive to acquire and sometimes time consuming to set up. So, do you have the required infrastructure to get started with eLearning?

You already have the infrastructure if you:

• Are using computers
• Have Internet and Intranet access
• Have a training hall with web conferencing facility
• Are active on Social Media -
  • Facebook
  • Twitter and
  • LinkedIn

You don’t need an LMS/ LCMS to start with.

I know of an oil major, which for the first 5 years or so, used multimedia as teaching aids in their training centers and classroom, before they ventured out to deliver learning online.

While you may be in a hurry to roll out a full-fledged eLearning solution, I would like to suggest that if your existing trainers and a sizeable chunk of learners are exposed to some elements of online training in a gradual manner, the chances that organization-wide eLearning will take off will be high.

Start with the present Infrastructure

Initially start with what you have. Once learners become familiar with eLearning, then you can scale up the infrastructure to include a Learning Management System.

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When you hire an employee, it is essential that you train the new employee on your Company’s policies and processes. This helps the employee know about organizational culture, values and vision. New employee training programs help employees in quickly adjusting to their new environment and delivering the goods in compliance with the organization’s policies and processes.

Moreover, as the business grows, you need to modify the existing processes for better results. That may call for new skills on the part of your employees. In this regard, process training plays a crucial role in employees’ acquiring new skills and making a smooth transition into the new process. It immensely boosts the employee morale and keeps them motivated to perform better to reach the Company’s goals.

However, can companies afford employee training, which can be expensive at times? It is an undisputed fact that employee training has many advantages for small as well as large companies. Nonetheless, companies cannot have their employees out of work for several days as this can hit their exchequer. Therefore, the best available option is online training where they can reap more or less the same benefits with online training as they do with full-fledged training. This is because online training provides employees with on-the-job training. This means that employees can train themselves while working from their workstations and implement immediately what they have learnt.

In addition, with online training, companies can save their resources while training their employees much faster. They can provide training to a large group of employees at a convenient time by keeping content-rich learning material just a click away from their employees. Employees can access the content and learn new information and skills without moving from their workstations. As a result, companies need not forego the employees’ production time.

Moreover, by offering e-learning courses, companies can have a rich pool of knowledgeable employees who can handle various work situations. Thus, they can take advantage of new technologies and operational settings to take their businesses to the next level.

Thus, companies should not be contented with hiring the best-of-the-industry workforce. They should properly train their employees on company-wide policies and processes. Only then can they achieve best performances from their employees. And it is here that e-learning comes in handy for the employer.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

In an ideal world, learning strategists and practitioners sold on eLearning would effortlessly decide on the kinds of exciting courses learners in their organization required and immediately get a generous budget sanctioned from executive management (without having to turn cartwheels to sell the idea of online training). They’d then spend an enjoyable time shopping for vendors for design and development before zeroing in on the perfect eLearning provider. Or if they had the talent in-house, they’d build that dream eLearning solution, without any glitches whatsoever.

The organization would of course have the required technological know-how to ensure that the courses are hosted on a platform accessible to all, while providing excellent reporting and tracking abilities. They would then roll out the eLearning courses which would be met with overwhelming enthusiasm across their organization. Learners would be so excited with the eLearning initiative that they would even be willing to get trained in their own time. The executive leadership would finally commend everyone on a job well done and they would all live happily ever after. <Regrettable end of fantasy>

In the real world, eLearning, as with any other change initiative, has its share of hurdles and challenges.

For the learner, eLearning is not likely to work if he/she is not the type to take charge of his/her learning. Even if learners were self-driven, sometimes their experience with shoddy eLearning courses in the past would have made them develop an aversion for this medium. It’s difficult to turn this attitude around without very strong change management initiatives that include creating a culture of eLearning. The skeptics have to sample something good before they take to eLearning. Here is where the importance of a high visibility, high impact pilot course with tangible benefits on completion can go a long way in turning the cynical or the hesitant type around.

The biggest challenge learning practitioners have to face is to create a culture of eLearning. If learners don’t participate, then there is no improvement in their performance, if there is no improvement, there is no business impact for the organization, if there is no impact, there is no further commitment from leadership, with leadership not being clearly committed, learners have no incentives, and so the vicious cycle continues.

A cohesive strategy that makes everyone successful is critical to the success of the eLearning mission in the long run. Stakeholders need to be able to see a demonstrated impact, learners need to see the benefits, and learning practitioners need see how it helps them impact the business goals of the organization. A win-win strategy would include the right kind of eLearning projects, the right vendors, the right people on the team, and the right motivation for taking up eLearning.

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When faced with the fact that this is the 21^st century and so much of life is technology-driven, some people wonder if teachers will soon become obsolete. I can’t see that happening, because there are still too many things that require “hands on” learning. Even if regular schooling, as in years 1 to 12 become computerized, a need for teachers will still continue in order to grade assignments and exams, as well as to provide tutelage. My own son provides a great example of why we still need teachers.

Master Four is learning to write. A very clever boy, he knows how to operate the computer and has his own games to help him learn everything from reading to math. There is even a program that shows correct pen strokes for writing! He had been trying to teach himself from that writing program, but it didn’t seem to be sinking in. We sat down together and began to practice writing and in less than an hour, he was scribbling his name. All I did was show him how to do the pen strokes and he could imitate my hand position and stroke order.

However, there is one problem that even I can’t solve… correct grip. I’m not a qualified teacher and don’t know how to teach my son how to hold a pencil properly. That is what he has a kindergarten teacher for, because I just can’t figure out how to do it without a great deal of frustration. So, for all of us parents who can’t figure out how to teach something that requires a physical example, there will be teachers who will do the work for us.

Does that mean we need instructors for everything we learn? Of course not. Workplace training (or any sort of auxiliary learning) is just one area where having face to face training can be simply a money pit. For example, if you partner a seasoned employee with a new one, then there is downtime as the seasoned person trains the newbie and answers any and all questions, as his work gets left on his desk for another day or two. This type of partnering usually makes the new employee feel more comfortable to approach that seasoned person with any and all future questions, thereby further hindering production by the veteran.

Or, if it’s a continuing education course that all employees have to take and a classroom set-up is provided in the conference room, well, what production could happen when everyone is sitting in the conference room? It’s not only the expense of production loss, but also the cost of facilitating the training such as the cost of the venue and equipment needed, including the instructor to teach the material, or if you have employees spread all over the country, possibly setting up various venues or having a trainer or team of trainers go to various locations. It would be much more cost and time-effective to have that training done via e-learning.

Some courses are constantly being updated. So, in a classroom scenario, it is a challenge to get an expedient turnover of information between the time it is released and the time the students learn it, because in the middle are trainers that need to learn, understand and then disseminate the material, as well as reprint and redistribute manuals. In an e-learning environment, content can be changed quickly and then employees can learn new information, thereby eliminating the middle man, so to speak.

People like having a face to connect with a course too. They like to feel that there is someone they can approach with questions on the subject matter. It is familiar to sit in a class with an instructor, because it’s what’s always been done. So if it isn’t broken, should it be fixed? Most of these issues are resolved in the design of any good e-learning course, so it’s not as much a case of a course being “broken”. It’s just a different medium, rather than the flesh and blood sort.

The “face” of an e-learning course may not be an actual face, but more the overall look and feel of the design. Some courses do make use of an avatar or images of people so as to give an actual face with which the learner can identify. Having a good, easy-to-use player will help the learner feel empowered and in control. All these “faces” help the learner to be able to connect with the course and feel a sense of familiarity.

I can’t think of one e-learning course that doesn’t have some kind of help attached to it. We all know that a button with a good old question mark on it is for help. So, for a learner to be able to ask a question regarding an e-learning course is a matter of clicking a button or two. Glossaries help with the program and common questions regarding the material are usually included in courses. It isn’t common for a course not to be programmed well enough to cover all bases. There are also some courses designed with the function of being able to e-mail questions that aren’t covered. From experience, I can say that often answers ARE within the material, but have been overlooked.

There are also plenty of people who prefer traditional classroom instruction over e-learning because there is less responsibility on the part of the learner for acquiring the knowledge of the subject matter. Classrooms are teacher-driven, whereas an e-learning course is student-driven. In the classroom, it is easy to say, “The instructor didn’t cover that.” When dealing with an e-learning course, all the information is there for the learner, but it is up to the student to learn the material. It is known what information the course contains and from the assessments, it can be known what the student has learned.

Along these same lines, what is actually being taught can vary from teacher to teacher, so consistency can be an issue. It’s highly unlikely that every single trainer will do and say the same things, so the material conveyed can vary, as well as the level of quality in training, but in an online course, the material is the same, in every instance. It also caters to the various learning styles of the students.

In any group of people, you have varying levels of skills and learning preferences. Some learners like to read, others to listen and even more who prefer to watch and do. An e-learning course can cater to all those styles at once through text, images/ animation, audio, games, etc that will engage and hold the student’s attention. Meanwhile, the classroom instructor must resort to rote learning and can only go as fast as the slowest student, usually losing the attention of the quicker learners.

There is a middle ground in the classroom versus the e-learning debate, which is called blended learning. It takes the best of both worlds and puts them together. Blended learning is the ideal learning process in that initially the learners complete an online course to gain knowledge in the subject matter and then proceed onto the classroom portion to reinforce what was learned through the practical application of the concepts. By the time everyone gets to the classroom, they are all on the same page and have relatively equal knowledge of the material to be fully ready to participate in application and problem-solving. In a way, that is what Master Four in doing in his quest to learn to write. He uses his computer program to learn the basics such as the alphabet and pen strokes, then I (or his kindergarten teacher) physically go through the lab portion of holding the pencil and physically writing.

Happy learning!

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