Training Employees on New Software: Is the Best Employee Training Software Enough?

Posted on 06/15/2019 by Niko Venev

Teaching your staff how to work with a new computer program involves more than just picking the right employee training software and letting them explore it on their own. As a small-business owner or a corporate employee in charge of training groups of workers, you’ll have to adopt appropriate teaching strategies, foster encouraging learning environments, and keep employees engaged in the learning process to see results.

How to Train Employees on New Software?

After choosing new software to implement in your workspace, you’ll likely want to find the fastest and most convenient way to train your employees. This can be done by:

• Setting practical and reasonable learning objectives
• Finding the right employee training software/programs
• Implementing microlearning environments
• Being open to employee feedback

In the rush to help employees understand a new program’s features, those in charge of training often attempt to teach them as much as they can in as little time as possible. This approach can lead to confusion and even draw out the learning process. To ensure comprehension, design your lessons around single, specific purposes and test employees’ understanding after training. Increase the chances of assimilation by clearly highlighting how the new software’s features will aid workflow and improve employees’ productivity.

The best employee training software can often come bundled with the actual program that you purchase. The software may be bundled with demos that new hires can use to learn basic functions and layouts. More advanced features can be taught in a formal learning process with a live instructor. At Certstaffix Training, we offer a number of instructor-led and self-paced courses that teach basic and advanced functionality of popular programs.

If you want to skip trying to find the best employee training software on the market, consider teaching employees through the technique of microlearning. Microlearning breaks up new or difficult concepts into easily digestible chunks so that employees will have a less challenging time learning them. Think about offering training videos that are about two minutes long that cover theory, provide demos, and offer tips.

Understand that employees don’t have to learn all of a program’s features and functions when you’re training employees on new software. Simply concentrate on teaching employees the functions that they need to master to perform their jobs well.

When implementing new software in your work environment, consider any comments, suggestions, or even complaints that come from your employees. This feedback can help inform you of any operational problems and streamline future training sessions.

How Companies Train Employees on Software?

Corporate environments often have more resources at their disposal, which can provide employees with more options than just employee training software. Customized learning techniques, such as those that incorporate different learning styles, professional classes, technical assistance teams, and even gamification strategies can offer employees modern ways to learn new software.

To increase the software’s adoption in the workplace, companies can employ different training methods based on the preferred learning styles of each employee. These learning styles may be geared toward information presented in a variety of ways:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Tactile
• Experiential

While training employees on new software using all of these different modalities can seem daunting, allowing employees to find their preferred method of learning can decrease the time it takes for them to learn the software, reduce user errors, and increase productivity in the workplace.

Businesses with large budgets can buy several different employee training software programs, sign up for online training classes for common office programs, or even develop internal teams to aid in training efforts. This team can be paid for the specific tasks of creating and teaching training courses and include employees who are quick to understand the software and willing to mentor others. On-the-job training like this can encompass group classes or guided training by an individual instructor.

Think about implementing gamification strategies to increase employees’ incentives to learn the software. This rewards-based training motivates employees to learn concepts more quickly and can also foster collaboration, especially when trainees are separated into groups that compete with each other.

While employees are still learning the software, offer a robust technical assistance group dedicated to troubleshooting problems with the new software. Buy relevant books, provide documents, offer electronic references, and ask your vendor about any support that they may offer after you buy their software. Make all of these resources readily available to help your employees feel comfortable working with your new software.