Essential Components of any Corporate Training Plan

Policies, Skills, & Knowledge Training to Develop a Stronger Team

Each business has a different set of responsibilities they ask of their employees, so each corporate training plan should be based on the unique needs of the business. If you are developing a custom training plan for your employees, here are some components you would be wise to include:

1. Company Policies and Organization
Whether your plan is geared towards new or veteran staff, always include the key points of your "employee handbook". Explain company policies, standard practices and procedures. Your training should address policies towards non-discriminatory, accessibility, ethical, and legal issues. You should also include an overview of different departments or jobs in your organization and how they interact.

2. Company Product and Service Offering
Depending on the range staff should be responsible for knowing your products and services, this section can be quite extensive. Keep in mind that many employees have broad product knowledge, so product training can be very boring for them, so it is important to add something new and make this training fun and interactive.

3. Communication Skills
Your employees likely spend a vast amount of time face to face or on the phone with clients and prospective clients, therefore communication skills are essential in any corporate training plan. They should know how to speak and listen effectively and take into account the corporate culture when dealing with clients, vendors and each other.

4. Technological Training
This training could involve all the technical skills that the employees are expected to use, everything from transferring a call on the telephone system to proper safety and maintenance of the most sophisticated machinery or systems. You likely have a technical whiz and someone who can barely check email on staff, this creates an excellent opportunity for them to come together and address common issues.

5. Soft Skills Training
Here, general topics like customer service and time management are learned. This should also include attitude and knowledge training, such as sales training and management training. Sales and management should be every employee's responsibility to some degree. This kind of training lends itself to use of video-based, instructor-led, or computer-based training that can provide the context and interaction necessary to understand. Remember, the best training does not take place in the classroom. The test of your training regimen will be how transferable the skills learned will be in the everyday tasks performed. Focus on practical learning skills that will help your employee carry out their role more effectively. If you are successful, skills learned from your training course will be further developed on the job and will give you new insights into how to make your training even better.