Use these five easy steps to create an effective training environment
Do you know what an effective training environment is?
When you are hosting a training event, it is very easy to get lost in the training programme itself. But the environment in which your trainees are learning within is equally as important as the training.
You will be putting across essential pieces of information that will hopefully take your business forward. It is vital, therefore, that your staff are not only paying attention but feeling comfortable and energised. Moreover, studies have shown that people tend to retain more information when it has been presented in an effective training environment.
With the recent spate of hot weather, the last thing trainees want to do is sit in a stuffy conference room and look at powerpoint presentations. But with a little forethought and organisation you can make their experience a pleasant one.
Here are five easy steps on how to create the effective training environment
1. Get the temperature right
Provide your employees with a warm (if outside is cold) or cool (if outside is hot) room. No one in their right mind is going to be able to remember a thing if they are too cold or too hot. Make sure you have the basics covered but remember that not everyone feels the temperature in the same way. There’s always someone that will feel cold on a boiling hot day, and vice versa, so have a contingency plan up your sleeve.
2. Are you sitting comfortably?
Sitting on a wonky chair, or having to write on a desk that wobbles is not conducive to effective training. Your employee’s minds will be fixated on keeping upright or trying to work on that distracting desk. Make sure the furniture is both functional and comfortable. These are your employee’s tools for their training, and if the tools do not work, the training doesn’t stand a chance.
3. Create a positive, open atmosphere
People tend to learn more when they are being praised and enjoying the training than if the atmosphere is too formal or negative. Actively encourage your employees to speak out and ask questions during the training. Foster a positive energy around yourself and your employees. This will be especially important to newcomers who will appreciate the supportive environment they are about to enter.
4. Do not give too much information in one go
The human brain may be a magnificent organ but it can only retain so much information in one sitting. Do not overload your employees with new rules or systems. It will only frustrate them and cause them to feel frustrated and worthless. It could even affect future training if you are not careful. Avoid this by asking how everyone is coping and take frequent breaks if the information is particularly difficult.
5. Allow your employees to give feedback
Not all employers are perfect, some make mistakes but this is all part of the learning process. If employees see their managers taking stock of what they have done wrong in the past, and correcting it, it creates trust. It also promotes feelings that the workers are being taken seriously. That can be priceless to an employer. It is a good idea at the end of the training to ask your employees for feedback to see if they have any ideas on how to make the training a little more efficient next time.
We hope you have enjoyed our suggestions, remember, if you need to hire any furniture for your next training event, please get in touch with us!
