Top Types of Employee Training Courses & Programs to Create an Unstoppable Team

Fostering a culture of learning is more crucial than ever. Not only does it attract and retain talented employees, but it also bridges costly skill gaps in your organization. 

However, many L&D teams struggle with where to start with employee training programs. What are the most important types of employee training courses, and how can your team prioritize them as you plan for each quarter? 

Aligning employee training programs with your company’s key objectives is crucial for success, according to LinkedIn’s 2023 Learning Report. By tapping into the top types of employee training, your team can create a program that fosters growth for both individuals and your organization as a whole. 

What is employee training?

Employee training involves improving your team members’ skills at work. This could mean building on existing skill sets or learning entirely new skills. 

Why does it matter? 

LinkedIn’s 2023 report also found that skill sets for existing jobs have changed by 25 percent since 2015, and by 2027 that number will double. At the same time, 87 percent of companies say they are facing or will face significant skill gaps in the next few years.

The only way to keep up with the pace of change and close skill gaps is through a robust employee training program.

Benefits of employee training courses and programs

Investment in employee training has been growing steadily over the last few years, and that’s not surprising considering the many benefits a company gets from employee development programs. 

Here are just a few to keep in mind.

Improved employee performance and autonomy

Employees that have excellent training do better at work and are also better prepared for new opportunities and promotions. 

When they have the right skills, team members ask fewer questions and can work more independently. They also perform at a higher level because they have the skills to excel.

This benefits not only the manager, who can focus on other tasks, but employees themselves, who feel more empowered and capable at work. This can boost engagement and productivity while also reducing turnover. 

Increased motivation and engagement

Having the right skills for your work—and advancement—is linked to better motivation and engagement among employees. 

In fact, 60 percent of business leaders who oversee training said they’d seen increased morale and job satisfaction among trained employees, according to the 2022 Emergen Pursuit of Effective Workplace Training report. 

Employee motivation and engagement lead to better performance, lower absenteeism, a higher willingness to go above and beyond, and lower turnover rates — all results any manager would happily embrace.

All it takes is consistent employee training and skill development. 

Read more: 7 Ways to Motivate and Retain Top Talent

Stronger alignment on company goals and objectives

The L&D team has a powerful leadership role in aligning employee development to company goals. By creating a strategic learning program, your team can identify skills gaps, discover employee career goals, and match the two to help your organization succeed long term.

The L&D team can also look at ways to create training modules that help employees meet specific company objectives as well, whether that’s improving customer service ratings or driving a higher rate of close in sales.

Read more: Align L&D With Business Strategy: Maximize Organizational Performance

Higher employee retention

Consistent training has a significant impact on employee retention, as well as your company’s ability to attract ideal candidates. 

Among employees, 76 percent are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training, and 86 percent of HR managers say training is beneficial to retain top talent, according to the 2022 SHRM Workplace Learning & Development Trends report. 

If you want to attract and retain key talent, a strong L&D program is essential.

Top types of employee training courses and programs

Many types of employee training can benefit your organization. From onboarding to leadership training, it’s imperative to promote continuous learning to empower employees to reach their full potential. 

One of the pillars of an effective employee training program is the right technology. A platform like the Learning Cloud from WorkRamp allows you to offer a wide variety of training for your team, customers, and partners. 

Before you dive into creating training programs, ensure you have the necessary technology to support every type of training.

1. Employee onboarding

Onboarding is essential to helping new hires get to know your company, learn the role, and meet key people within your organization. 

Poor onboarding leaves new hires with low confidence, less engagement, and an increased risk of turnover if a better opportunity arises.

The benefits of effective onboarding are the opposite:

• Confidence in the role
• High levels of engagement
• Less likelihood of turnover

Read more: 5 Effective New Hire Onboarding Strategies

2. Compliance

Compliance training is essential to maintain a safe workplace. Annual compliance training can also help you reduce costs from fines and establish an inclusive working environment.

One or more government agencies regulate many organizations. For example, everyone has to maintain a safe working environment according to OSHA rules. Medical facilities must also follow HIPPA regulations, while financial institutions are subject to rules about customer identity, fairness, and financial stability.

The benefits of offering robust, trackable compliance training include:

• Avoiding expensive violations
• Promoting a safe and secure environment
• Encourages ethical behavior among employees
• The ability to provide proof to agencies that required training occurred on time

3. Professional development

Professional development training allows employees to improve their skills within their role, as well as allowing them to develop new skills so they can advance within the company. 

There are many benefits to offering a strong professional development program, including:

• The ability to align training programs with larger company goals
• Attract and retain talented employees
• Employees can craft a career path that fits their goals rather than having to leave the company to advance
• Improved morale and productivity
• Fewer skill gaps in your organization
• Effective leadership training gives the organization a strong “bench” of future leaders

4. Diversity and inclusion

Every workplace includes people from a variety of backgrounds and generations. Diversity and inclusion training can help everyone not only appreciate each other’s contributions but also help team members communicate more effectively and treat each other with respect.

The following benefits are just a few of the advantages of diversity and inclusion training:

• Eliminate discrimination and harassment that create a poor working environment and put the company at legal risk
• Improving communication between employees of different backgrounds and generations
• The ability to leverage everyone’s experience and unique viewpoint in creating new ideas
• Better problem-solving due to multiple approaches
• An inclusive workplace gives you access to a broader range of talent

5. Soft skills training

Soft skills are interpersonal skills that can be hard to define but are essential to success at work. 

For example, adaptability, communication, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving are all soft skills. 

What benefits do your team and organization get from soft skills training?

• Increased self-confidence in team members
• The ability to adapt to new situations and market realities
• Increased creativity and innovation
• Better communication among team members
• Better leadership at every level—even senior executives can benefit from leadership training

6. Customer service

There’s a saying, “Sales without service is like putting money into a pocket with a hole in it.”

Excellent customer service helps you maximize your company’s bottom line by retaining customers and creating opportunities for upsells and repeat business. 

Some of the many benefits of customer service training include:

• Higher customer satisfaction
• Less customer churn
• A more customer-focused company culture
• Better interactions between customers and employees can reduce stress and improve morale on the customer service team

7. Project management

Managing a project takes various skills like planning and scheduling tasks, assigning and holding team members accountable, and tracking results to show the benefits. 

Having specific training can help your project managers feel more confident and guide their projects more effectively.

Benefits of project management training include:

• The ability to work smarter, not harder, to accomplish projects
• Projects are more likely to be effective and on-budget
• Project managers will have improved leadership skills
• Project teams will communicate better and complete work effectively
• Your teams can use specific project management methods, such as Six Sigma

8. Unconscious bias training

We all have specific ways of seeing the world based on our experiences and upbringing. Unfortunately, this can result in unconscious biases that affect how we work, lead, choose employees for promotions, and more. 

These biases could impact how we interact with people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and appearances. 

Your team wll see several benefits in taking unconscious bias training:

• Awareness of biases that are often unnoticed
• The ability to manage natural biases to make fair, balanced decisions
• A more comfortable work environment for everyone
• Improvements in behavior toward those who are different
• Biases will have a much lower impact on work decisions and promotions

9. Conflict management

While it would be great if we could all just get along, that generally doesn’t happen all the time. 

Fortunately, conflict management training can help employees learn how to address issues constructively, work toward resolution, and respect each other in the process. 

The following are among the many benefits of conflict management training:

• Improved listening skills
• Issues will be surfaced instead of silently destroying productivity and morale
• Less blaming and more constructive conversations about issues
• Improved ability to take feedback
• Discussions that lead to solutions instead of broken relationships

10. Sales

One of the most important teams in your organization is the sales team—after all, they’re the ones that bring immediate revenue in the door. 

Ensuring your sales team is well-trained helps improve close rates, average deal sizes, and even turnover rates on your team.

Some of the significant benefits of sales training include:

• Better close rates and increased revenue
• Improved morale and lower turnover on the sales team
• Shorter ramp times for new hires
• Improved knowledge of the company’s products and services
• A single, clear message being communicated to all leads and prospects

11. Communication and presentation skills

Giving presentations and communicating with managers and colleagues can be intimidating for many employees. They may worry about being misunderstood, looking foolish, or not knowing what to say when questions are asked. 

Fortunately, training on how to clear communication can build confidence and help team members excel.

Some of the benefits of communication and presentation skills training include:

• Increased confidence in all interpersonal interactions
• Fewer misunderstandings
• More efficient workflow due to better communication of needs and expectations
• Effective presentations that add value to the audience
• Better leadership skills since communication and presenting are key to effective leadership

12. Mindfulness at work

According to OSHA, 83 percent of U.S. workers suffer from work-related stress, and 54 percent report that it also affects their home life. 

Learning how to manage stress effectively can literally be a life-or-death skill. Fortunately, teaching employees mindfulness techniques can help them reduce stress, put it into perspective, and become more resilient.

Mindfulness training can help your employees in the following ways:

• Increased calm and focus at work
• Better awareness of stress triggers
• Increased confidence in facing challenges
• Improved emotional intelligence
• Effective strategies to manage stress
• Lower absenteeism

Read more: How to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace

Best practices for implementing employee training courses

Now that you have an idea of what types of training are available and how they benefit your employees and organizations, how do you go about implementing a training program? 

There are several steps to follow to create effective employee training programs and courses.

1. Analyze training needs

The first step is to understand what training would best benefit your organization. 

Take a look at your company’s short- and long-term goals, current and future skills gaps, and what employees are most interested in learning. 

This data will help you prioritize what training courses are most important and will help you get the best return on your investment of time and energy.

2. Use a learning platform

Next, you’ll need a learning management system (LMS) to create and host your programs.

To maximize the effectiveness of your L&D efforts, it’s important to choose a platform that allows you to easily create multiple types of training that include various content types. It should also be a platform that’s intuitive for employees and admins.  

Sprout Social maintained its culture of learning despite having a remote team using the Learning Cloud. With WorkRamp, learning was easy for managers to roll out and fun for employees to complete. As a result, they achieved 95 percent learner satisfaction, a 30 percent reduction in scheduling time, and 85 percent on-time course completion. 

Choosing an all-in-one platform like the Learning Cloud lets you effectively create and manage onboarding, revenue enablement, employee development, and customer education all in one place. 

3. Choose your learning methods

For each training program, you will need to choose your training content and decide on the learning method. 

First, it’s essential to decide how courses will be delivered. Is this an in-person training, or is it available on-demand? Or, is it important to have a blended learning approach so employees can learn at their own pace but have the ability to ask questions live?

Next, think about how long the course should be. Do you want to do micro courses that build on each other but are quick and easy to finish? Or is a longer course better for this topic?

Finally, think about the types of media you want to include. Your training must appeal to multiple learning styles using text, video, images, and interactive elements. 

Once you’ve chosen your learning methods, you’re ready to create your training. 

4. Prioritize employee engagement

Once the training is complete, it’s time to roll it out. The key is to share with your team members how they will benefit from the training so they’re more likely to follow through. 

Also, when you use various types of learning content, the training will be more engaging, so more people will be likely to complete it.

You can offer incentives for completing the training by a specific date or use internal champions to talk about how easy and fun the courses are so other learners are more likely to follow through. 

High employee engagement will help you get the maximum benefit from the training program and will help you with the final step: tracking results.

Read more: LEARN Recap: How to Empower L&D Champions

Track employee success

Once you have rolled out the training program, it’s important to track results. This not only allows you to see the fruits of your efforts, but also lets you show the benefits of L&D to leadership and see where there might be room for improvement.

Tracking allows you to see the many benefits of the training program, from improved employee performance to higher levels of engagement and productivity. 

The Learning Cloud offers advanced reporting and LMS analytics to measure team performance and track the effectiveness of your training programs. Taking a data-driven approach to your employee training programs will help you create more robust, effective programs and get more buy-in for your L&D initiatives.

Provide better employee training with the Learning Cloud

There are a dozen types of employee training you can offer within your organization; each one offers significant benefits. 

However, you need the right training platform to take advantage of these training programs and maximize the results. Choose the learning platform that can support a wide range of training, from onboarding to employee development to customer education.

The Learning Cloud is the all-in-one platform you need to create easy-to-use, engaging training programs. 

Ready to get started? Contact us for a free, personalized demo.