How To Motivate Your Employees To Keep Up On-The-Job Training

On-the-job training of employees is crucial for the broad-spectrum growth of any business or organization. However, your employees might complain about the time they have to devote even after they are done with their work. Plus, there is a common perception that not much can be gained from the chosen training and development programs for the team. Here’s how you can motivate your employees to take up on-the-job training.  

Give Them A Compelling Reason

Resistance to something new doesn’t take a team forward. It leads to frustration on personal levels and lower productivity for the team. Taking part in a training program implies you have the urge to move forward. The employees who are in the frontline often believe that training is conducted just for the sake of it and no results can be derived from it. As an employer, you have to boost the motivation levels of your employees by making them aware of the consequences of not being able to embrace something new in the organization.  Put them in some sort of psychological dilemma and communicate to them that the methods which are now in use in your company have become outdated and training will help everyone come up with and practice better and faster solutions in case these problems arise in real life. You need to remember that until and unless you create a feeling of dissatisfaction in their minds, the employees wouldn’t be intrigued to know the latest trends and procedures. Your motto is to make them engrossed in the training session.

Think (And Act) From An Employee’s Perspective

Each and every person in this world can feel motivated, but it’s not always easy. Motivational beliefs and practices vary from one person to the other, and they are usually stored in the unconscious mind. When someone gets exposed to a new set of goals, suggestions, and ideas, the mind starts evaluating how much it has to put in and what gains can be obtained. An individual starts assessing the importance that can be attached to the possible outcomes, the utility of learning, mastering, and the execution of new knowledge and the satisfaction levels while performing a particular task. Aside from that, the employee also tries to figure out the associated cost. Positive evaluations lead to 100% engagement while negative ones lead to withdrawal, both psychological as well as physical. If you want to make your employees realize the true worth of the training, you have to see things from their point of view and show them what they are going to achieve. Their engagement needs passion. Without that, nothing can be learned.

Eliminate Any Kind Of Fear

Employees are usually nervous and anxious as far as learning a new set of skills is concerned. They are of the belief that learning more will lead to extra responsibility and as a result, they would be held more accountable after they go through the training procedure. Learning can sometimes be quite intimidating. They are not worried about accentuating personal competencies but about where they stand in comparison to their peers. Naturally, their self-confidence takes a hit. In these kinds of situations, an employee develops a feeling of repulsion and starts withdrawing psychologically. You have to make your workforce realize that learning new things creates the zeal to improve and shows how strong they are in making an effort to equip themselves with a completely new skill set. Make them understand that training is not all about cutting off the deficits in knowledge but to enhance confidence levels and grab a chance to be a role model for other people at the office.

Don’t Offer Incentives

Incentives are offered to employees on the basis of their performance throughout the year. However, when a performance is solely motivated by public recognition, awards, and incentives, the focus shifts from mastering a skill to attaining acclamation and accolades. In case your company is happy giving incentives to the workforce, base it on the job competency and not how fast they finish a program. You can always offer unexpected incentives — that’s highly motivating.

Of course, no one can give a 100% guarantee that the aforesaid strategies will be fruitful in inspiring and revitalizing employees fully. But rest assured that these steps are sure to eliminate a lot of elementary issues that are connected to an employee’s reluctance to take part in particular training.