The market’s ever-changing whims make training your employees a necessity. We’ve all read stories about the falls of giant corporations who refused to change. And while training doesn’t guarantee immunity from failure, it improves survival odds.
But in business, survival is not enough. You want to thrive. And to thrive, you need top talent. Training your employees helps you acquire top talent in two ways: You can hire top talent from the market, or you can grow it in-house.
Employee training helps with both of these aspects. In their 2022 Workplace Learning & Development Trends, SHRM reports that:
The choice of training tools is as important as the training itself. Each company has unique training needs. Smaller businesses won’t do well with an enterprise Learning Management System (LMS). Big companies have deeper needs than simply tracking completion rates and compliance.
That’s why we included a diverse range of tools in our list. Whether you're looking to impart hard skills or cultivate soft skills, there's a tool that meets your needs.
Make your trainings interactive, and you will maximize retention. And that’s what Slides With Friends makes easy. Load up one of our decks, edit it accordingly, then host a session.
With our platform, you won’t need to read long documentations or watch hours of tutorial videos to create an effective training session. You can edit any deck you like with our visual editor. Tailoring the training to your needs is a matter of a few clicks.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
SWF makes it trivial to engage with your training's audience. How many trainings have you supervised where the trainees were distracted? You can avoid this issue with live polls, word clouds, and quizzes to interact with trainees in real time. Make them active part of the training and they will find the session more interesting.
And you don't have to change your workflow. Slides With Friends comes with many integrations, so you can keep using the tools you're used to.
Slides With Friends offers a streamlined solution for creating engaging training sessions. By harnessing the power of interactive features like live polls, word clouds, and quizzes, you can actively involve your audience and maximize retention of key concepts.
Learning Management Systems (LMS) are comprehensive training solutions. They help companies set up training paths for all employees, no matter their role or level.
They do so via features like content authoring, certification tracking, and progress reporting. LMS platforms enable organizations to tailor training programs to meet the specific needs and objectives of individual employees.
Whether you're looking to teach a new hire how to follow company policies, or a senior employee how to excel in leadership roles, an LMS provides the framework and tools you need.
TalentLMS is a LMS that brings a fresh approach to training. The platform aims to be a one-stop solution to your training needs.
TalentLMS comes with several standout features:
The platform is SCORM-compliant, which guarantees that the content meets industry standards. Its branches feature — which allows for the creation of sub-domains — helps businesses manage training across departments or locations.
And you don’t need to alter your workflow to use TalentLMS. Its automation tools and integration capabilities let you adapt the platform to your need. Plus, the software offers in-depth tracking and reports. That way, you always know how the training is going. This data reveals which employees are acing their training, and which ones are lagging behind.
TalentLMS is perfect for small- to mid-size businesses (SMBs) looking for a complete training solution. Typical use cases it covers include employee onboarding and compliance training. But the platform is so flexible you can mold it to your necessities.
Docebo is an enterprise LMS. Its goal is to offer a complete training suite for big businesses.
Features that separate it from its competitors include:
Automation is the name of the game for Docebo. It minimizes the need for manual input, simplifying the training process. Tasks like enrolling learners into courses or sending out regular status updates are as thrilling as counting bark splits. And to boot they are prone to errors. But Docebo conveniently automates them for you.
Enterprises must ensure every bit of work is compliant with regulations. And every employee has a hand in that. Docebo rises up to the challenge, as it sports sound compliance training features.
Integrating Docebo into your existing ecosystem is straightforward. It comes with extensive integration capabilities with popular third-party applications and services. This flexibility means you can tailor the platform to fit your organizational needs.
Trainual is a platform that combines LMS-like features with organizational tools. Its main goal is to help you create order out of the chaos typical of the production process.
Features that set Trainual apart from its competitors include:
Trainual helps you carve a path that starts with an employee's onboarding and that accompanies them throughout their stay. By automating much of the repetitive work associated with training, it frees up time for team leads and HR professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.
For example, you can set up automatic quizzes and tests at specific intervals. As research tells us, testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning. This way, you can know whether your employees are actually learning the material, and improve their learning of the material.
And you don't need to alter your current systems to add Trainual to your toolshed. The platform offers vast integration capabilities with a wide-range of third party tools. It fits perfectly within any tech stack, adding value without disrupting existing workflows.
Trainual is an excellent choice for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to scale their operations . It is particularly useful for companies looking for a way to make new hires productive with minimal downtime.
EdApp is a snappy mobile learning app that's perfect for fast-paced teams. Among its most unique features we find:
EdApp's main goal is to help businesses make learning accessible anywhere, anytime for its employees. The microlearning approach is especially useful for busy professionals. They can watch a quick 6 minutes video and do a short quiz on it to ensure they absorbed the material. They can then move on with their day. Over time, these few minutes here and there compound into a strong body of knowledge.
The platform is particularly useful for companies looking to ensure employees get the knowledge they need without disruption to their workflow. EdApp is ideal for teams seeking flexible learning solutions.
Online course platforms have burgeoned in the past decade. And it’s easy to see why. Demand for alternative ways of delivering educational content is growing. Before these platforms popped up, training your employees required you to hire a trainer, set aside time to host a workshop, and coordinate logistics, such as venue, materials, and scheduling.
Now, the traditional approach still works. But it doesn't fit every company's needs. It is time-consuming, costly, and limited in scope. If you need hands-on, interactive training, the traditional approach to employee training is still the best option.
For example, industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and hospitality need practical, on-the-job training. Training that you cannot replicate in an online environment.
But there are many areas in which online courses outperform traditional learning paths. Digital courses and resources allow employees to learn new skills from any place at their own pace. All they need is an internet connection.
The proliferation of online course platforms has democratized access to education. Small businesses can now invest a fraction of what they had to a couple of decades ago to access high-quality training material.
Since the number of platforms is ever-growing, we prepared a list of the best ones to help you in your choice. All of these have special offerings for businesses, so you can create the best possible training paths for your employees.
Coursera offers an extensive catalog of courses from top universities and institutions worldwide.
You'll find courses on all sorts of topic, here are a few examples:
Your employees are in good hands. Coursera's teachers are experts in their fields, with years of industry experience.
With a diverse array of courses spanning technical skills, soft skills, business acumen, and more, Coursera offers a comprehensive learning experience that empowers employees to thrive in today's rapidly evolving workplace.
Udemy boasts one of the largest collections of online courses that cover every topic imaginable.
Here are a few courses to give you an idea of the breadth of course selection:
What distinguishes Udemy is its marketplace model. This model allows instructors from around the globe to sell their courses directly to learners. The result is a diverse range of courses, often at affordable prices, catering to a broad spectrum of learning interests and skill levels.
Formerly known as Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning offers a vast library of video-based courses taught by industry experts.
Here’s a sample of courses to show you what you can find on the platform:
What sets LinkedIn Learning apart is its integration with the LinkedIn platform, allowing learners to showcase their newly acquired skills and certifications on their LinkedIn profiles.
With courses spanning business, technology, creative skills, and more, LinkedIn Learning is a valuable resource for professionals looking to stay ahead in their careers.
Pluralsight is like a superhero academy but for tech skills. Imagine a place online where you can learn how to code, protect computers from bad guys, and even make cool designs—all with the help of experts who know all the tricks.
Here’s a quick sample of topics you can find on Pluralsight:
The platform not only provides access to thousands of courses but also features skill assessments, learning paths, and analytics to help managers track progress and measure the effectiveness of training programs.
Pluralsight focuses on technology and creative skills, offering in-depth training that's updated regularly to keep pace with the latest industry trends.
Pre-packaged training courses don't always meet a company's needs. They tend to be more generic, trying to be useful to as many people as possible. But oftentimes, you need more specificity. That's when building your own courses becomes a viable path.
For instance, Slides With Friends offers an innovative way to build a slide deck that not only educates but also actively engages your employees through quizzes and interactive content. This personalized approach ensures that your training is directly relevant and highly effective, contributing to a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce.
Edit one of our trivia decks to create an interactive lesson. Here are two to get you started:
The key advantage of Slides With Friends is its emphasis on interaction. Unlike passive video courses, Slides With Friends' presentations require active input from participants, making each session a live experience. This is particularly useful for subjects that benefit from discussion, debate, and real-time problem-solving. The platform's versatility allows it to be used across various industries and for a multitude of training purposes, from onboarding new hires to developing advanced skills for seasoned employees.
Chances are that you already have a training program in place. And while your existing program is effective, there's always room for improvement. That's where supplementary training tools come into play.
These tools come with features that enhance the effectiveness of your training program and create more engaging and interactive learning experiences for your employees.
But why would you use supplementary training tools over a Learning Management System?
The answer is specificity. An LMS serves as a central hub for organizing and delivering training content. Supplementary tools address specific needs and objectives within the training process.
For example, if you have a lot of great training material and you just need to deliver it over video, getting a LMS wouldn’t make much sense. Or, similarly, if you already use
Microsoft Teams for communication, you don’t need a fancy LMS to host internal mentoring sessions, a whiteboard tool would suffice.
As a result, you can deliver more focused training sessions at a fraction of the price. They also need almost no setup compared to a LMS.
With broadband developments, distributing video content has never been so easier. And video content helps you bring a teacher to anyone’s PC or smartphone, no matter where they are.
Among the most popular video stream / host tools for business training we find:
Task and project management tools help you coordinate the trainings. For example, you can create a card for each employee, and use it to track their progress.
You can also create schedules and goals, and have the employee manage their own cards. That way, you know who is learning what, and how well they are doing.The information helps you track your learning goals.
Here are a few tools to get you started:
A teacher explaining things via video often turns into a snooze fest. It's not always the teacher's fault; the material is not exactly exciting most of the times.
But with the proper tools, you can turn a mundane presentation into a stimulating one. That's what interactive engagement tools are for. These tools turn training sessions from a passive experience into an interactive and dynamic journey.
For example, you can use a tool like Slides With Friends to run live polls, quizzes, and interactive exercises. That way, you encourage active participation and collaboration among participants.
Thus, instead of passively watching a presentation, learners take an active role in the learning process. Which, in turn, makes it more engaging, memorable, and effective.
Here are a few tools you can use in your next training session:
Ever wish you could make training materials that look so good they almost teach themselves? Or want an easy way for your team to work together on projects, even if you're miles apart?
That's where content creation and collaboration tools come into play.
Here are three of the most popular ones:
The world of employee training tools is vast and varied, with something for every learning style and organizational need. The tools you can pick from let you create an environment where learning is interactive, engaging, impactful. For trainers and managers, the choice of tools is crucial. It's about finding the balance between educational content and interactive experiences that can transform the learning process.
Finding the right tools for training at work is crucial for any organization. These tools are like bridges that make learning fun and something everyone can get into. They’re not just for showing you new things but for making the journey exciting and something you want to stick with.
The challenge for organizations is to embrace these tools, integrating them into their training strategies to enhance learning outcomes. By doing so, they not only equip their employees with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed but also inspire a lifelong pursuit of learning and growth.
