How to Make Employee Training Fun

Employee training, particularly mandatory training, may seem like a negative experience for some, especially when they have been forced to sit through an hours-long mundane presentation in the past. Training courses are highly beneficial for company and employee growth and success, so it’s in everyone’s best interests to change that negative point of view and make training fun and exciting for all participants. Make Employee Training Fun

Being a good teacher may come naturally for some, but overall it takes time and practice to achieve good engagement and inspire the audience. Choosing the right material for a training course doesn’t require as much experience, as long as you know what aspects and ideas to look for and include.

Here are some ways to make employee training courses more fun and engaging.

Know The Difference Between “Fun” And “Funny”

People often confuse making a fun presentation with a presentation that makes people laugh. Sitting through training from someone who is trying too hard to make people laugh isn’t enjoyable. Trainers who are trying to be funny aren’t thinking about what their participants need, but instead thinking about how to make them laugh. More often than not, it becomes awkward and sometimes even cringe-worthy, and the audience becomes disengaged or disinterested. 

The best way to avoid this is by changing how you think about what makes a presentation or workshop enjoyable. A better perspective to focus on is how to make your training engaging and interesting, rather than fun, which (depending on the context) could come across as juvenile. If the audience is engaged, they are likely enjoying themselves.

Know Your Audience

This is key when choosing how you will run your training program. Knowing your audience and what kind of experiences they have, what their personalities are, and what goals they’re trying to achieve from the training needs to be factored in. Some audiences may resonate extremely well with certain course content, while others may be completely uninterested in the same course because it isn’t relevant to them. This is even more important when trying to make a program more fun, because not everyone finds fun in the same activities or humor if that’s the route you’re trying to go down. Try to understand who your audience is as much as possible before developing the training course. 

Make It Relevant

Above all else, if you want your audience to be engaged and give their attention, you need to make your courses relevant. The information you’re delivering to them needs to be useful and interesting, and has to provide them with what they need. The courses at Corporate Coach Group are an excellent example of tailored courses.

If you aren’t sure what your audience interests and goals are, conduct some initial research. There’s no harm in asking your audience what kind of goals they want to achieve, or what kind of information they’re looking for – it will make your course purposeful.

Talking specifically about the topics your audience is intrigued by or solving specific pain points or other problems will undoubtedly increase the amount of attention they pay to you and the course.

Bring It Into The 21st Century

Ditch the old and traditional presentation. In the digital and information age, trainers should recognize that everyone learns differently; some are visual learners, some respond to spoken and written words, and some can only learn by doing a physical activity to drive the point home. Foster an inclusive learning environment by combining different teaching methods and interactive portions. 

There are also many different resources you can include in your training course, like YouTube videos, Ted Talks, or an interview or insight from a podcast. Your course doesn’t need to be one long PowerPoint presentation anymore, so get creative and branch out.