Employee Training Methods

18 Best Employee Training Methods & Techniques (2024)

  • Updated: July 23, 2024
Picture of Disha Gupta
Disha Gupta
17 Best Employee Training Methods & Techniques (2024)

Large organizations understand the need for a dedicated L&D strategy that develops leaders from within, upskills employees to become influential team members, and utilizes various learning methods and training techniques to drive skill acquisition.

In this article, we explore the various training methods, including traditional instruction-led learning, eLearning experiences, and hands-on training, to identify the more effective employee training methods for corporate learning.

By uncovering each method’s strengths, limitations, and applications, we aim to provide insights that empower organizations to design training programs that foster continuous learning, skill enhancement, and adaptability in an ever-changing professional landscape.

What are the most effective employee training methods?

  1. eLearning
  2. On-the-Job training
  3. Instructor-led learning
  4. Role playing
  5. Coaching
  6. Simulation training
  7. Collaborative training
  8. Video training
  9. Cross-training
  10. Job shadowing
  11. Case studies
  12. Peer-to-peer learning
  13. Spaced learning
  14. Gamification
  15. Mobile learning
  16. Blended learning
  17. Microlearning
  18. Adaptive learning

What Are Employee Training Methods?

Employee training methods refer to the various approaches and techniques used to educate and develop employees’ skills, knowledge, and competencies. These methods are designed to enhance employees’ job performance, job satisfaction, and overall effectiveness within an organization. 

Employee training methods encompass a wide range of strategies, from traditional classroom-based training to modern technology-driven approaches. The choice of training methods depends on factors such as the nature of the content, the learning objectives, the target audience, available resources, and the organization’s goals.

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18 Best Employee Training Methods & Techniques in 2024

Here’s a list of eigtheen common employee training methods found in the workplace:

1. eLearning

eLearning has become one of the most recognized employee training methods, accelerated by COVID-19 and the move to hybrid and remote work. eLearning enables employees to learn via a web browser and provides learning that adapts to different learning styles and needs.

Modern organizations leverage corporate learning management systems (LMS) and instructional design software to create training courses, manage learning content, distribute training, and assess performance.

Advantages of eLearning

  • Online courses combine interactive games, quizzes, activities, and gamification to keep employees engaged and improve learning retention.
  • It gives employees the freedom to learn anywhere they can access a web browser.
  • Components of eLearning can be automated, lowering overhead and decreasing the instructor’s need to be constantly involved in the training. 
  • eLearning is scalable and can be used for hybrid workforces and remote training.
  • eLearning does not require a physical classroom, which translates to reduced monetary spending.
  • Employees can easily manage work with learning by taking the online courses at their preferred time. 
  • Learning Management Systems (LMS) provide enough data to efficiently calculate training ROI, allowing L&D teams to measure the success of different training programs.

Disadvantages of eLearning

  • It takes dedicated resources to design and keep training materials updated. 
  • Employees might feel isolated due to the lack of face-to-face interaction with instructors.
  • Requires stable access to high-speed internet.
  • Because employees use a screen, it’s easy to get distracted by other apps or internet sites.

2. On-the-Job training

On-the-job training (also known as hands-on training) enables employees’ active participation by allowing them to learn in the flow of work. The end goal of on-the-job training is faster task mastery or accelerated time-to-proficiency.

Hands-on training embraces the 70-20-10 rule of learning which states:

  • 70% of learning comes from real experiences.
  • 20% from social interaction.
  • 10% from traditional learning sessions, like instructor-led or classroom-style learning. 

Advantages of on-the-job training

  • On-the-job training leads to better results as it is easier for employees to learn by experience.
  • Provides contextual learning to an employee’s actual tasks and responsibilities.
  • Training employees on the job saves money spent on costly off-site training programs.
  • Employees pick up new skills without disrupting their daily routines and productivity.
  • Facilitates personalized training by allowing employees to focus on the skills most relevant to their job.

Disadvantages of on-the-job training

  • Can be less productive for employees who prefer face-to-face interaction or guidance.
  • Often requires additional technical skills or software tools to build hands-on experiences and simulated environments.
  • If learning in real applications or by completing actual tasks, it risks corrupting data, incorrectly following processes, or providing poor customer service.
  • Can be difficult to measure training effectiveness.

PRO TIP

With Whatfix, your employees can learn in the flow of work via in-app guidance and simulated application environments.

With Whatfix Mirror, quickly create and manage replica versions of your mission-critical applications (like your CRM or ERP) to provide hands-on training to end-users without risking live software usage.

With Whatfix Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), create in-app guided to support your employees within the digital workplace. With Whatfix DAP, use Tours and Task Lists to onboarding new employees and reduce time-to-proficiency on core application, use Flows to drive adoption of advanced workflows or infrequently done tasks, and Smart Tips provide additional context to employees or nudge them to take specific action. Self Help provides employees with an in-app help center that integrates with your LMS, process documentation, SOP, and other knowledge repositories, allowing employees to find answers to process-related questions and technical support without leaving their application.

Whatfix-Mirror-Guidance-Training-GIF

3. Instructor-led learning

Instructor-led training is one of the most traditional and popular types of employee training techniques. It mimics physical classroom spaces, with an instructor present to lead the training session. This usually occurs using a lecture-style presentation with supporting visual components.

Advantages of instructor-led training

  • Direct interaction with trainers and other employees prevents social isolation.
  • Questions that arise during the course are brought up and responded to quickly and effectively.
  • A practical method for complex topics that need personal guidance.

Disadvantages of instructor-led training

  • Trainees cannot move at their own pace. 
  • Rented spaces, travel, and catering costs make it non-economical.
  • Employees might find it boring and disengage easily.
  • Limited data to calculate ROI.
  • Not suitable for remote workers.

4. Role playing

This technique is when a learner and an instructor both act out their roles in potential workplace scenarios. This method is most effective for employees whose job roles include direct client or customer interaction, as it gives them some experience in handling difficult situations with customers (like customer service training or call center training.)

Advantages of role playing

  • Roleplaying for relatable scenarios boosts employee engagement.
  • Encourages learners to utilize problem-solving and critical thinking skills in the moment.
  • Prepares employees for difficult work scenarios.
  • Improves customer interaction skills for employees.

Disadvantages of role playing

  • Requires more of an employee’s time, hurting productivity.
  • Unnecessary for simple, straightforward topics.
  • Not everyone is comfortable with role-playing scenarios; this can affect performance.

5. Coaching

The coaching method involves an experienced professional—a supervisor, mentor, or veteran employee—who mentors or coaches an employee on specific job tasks and responsibilities. The method can be implemented in person or virtually using coaching software, making it ideal for both in-office and remote workforces.

Advantages of job coaching

  • Builds a relationship between employees. 
  • Allows employees to ask questions they may not feel comfortable asking in a classroom during instructor-led training. 
  • Employees learn by watching their mentor do things in real-time.

Disadvantages of job coaching

  • Requires a significant amount of time investment from the supervisor/mentor.
  • The relationship between the mentor and learner is a major deciding factor for a successful training session.
  • Limited data to show how social learning works and calculate ROI.

6. Simulation training

Simulation training lays out different scenarios that allow employees to practice tasks that mimic the actual work of their specific job’s role. This is an ideal training method for employees working in high-risk or high-stakes fields such as pilots or doctors. Many times, simulation training is mandated by the state or federal government and it’s called compliance training.

Advantages of simulated training

  • Builds skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking under pressure.
  • Learners can make decisions in a risk-free environment and experience the consequences of different decisions.
  • Offering trainee participation keeps learners engaged and focused.
  • Allows learners to improve their skills by learning from their errors.
  • Learners gain a better understanding of the consequences of their actions.

Disadvantages of simulated training

  • Simulation exercises can be expensive.
  • Simulation cannot always completely recreate real-life situations.
  • Learning simulations require regular updates and maintenance based on the changing industry trends.
  • Simulation training may provide a faulty sense of safety or employee’s downplaying simulations as a result of desensitization.
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7. Collaborative training

Collaborative training is a methodology in which employees share their knowledge and expertise, teaching and learning from one another. This technique helps enhance the overall training experience for employees by capitalizing on their skills, ideas, and knowledge.

Advantages of collaborative training

  • Creates a shared learning culture by building an atmosphere where team members are continually collaborating.
  • When training is conducted in groups, it reduces time investment and costs.
  • Promotes better knowledge retention.

Disadvantages of collaborative training

  • Slow participants cause the entire class to fall behind.
  • It can be challenging to get everyone in one place, at the same time.

8. Video training

Video training is one of the most effective team member training methods to engage employees and deliver sophisticated learning experiences at a lower cost than traditional training. Creating training videos for employees enables them to digest information in an easy-to-understand format that is easier to retain, and that employees can go back and watch at any time.

Advantages of video training

  • Investing in video training is a one-time cost associated with video production that can be used until your processes become outdated.
  • Videos offer better engagement for your team members, resulting in a higher likelihood of information retention.
  • Enables employees to learn at times that are convenient to them, without hindering their workplace productivity.
  • Videos provide better knowledge retention, employee engagement, and learner attention in comparison to basic text documents or traditional classroom seminars.
  • Your video hosting providers give you access to different training metrics to track and measure training effectiveness.

Disadvantages of video training

  • Video training does not offer the in-person level of human contact.
  • Videos can be time-consuming when it comes to updating any information changes.

9. Cross-training

Cross-training involves teaching an employee hired to perform one job function the skills to perform new job functions. This allows them to offer support in the time of need instead of having to outsource work.

Employees find cross-training beneficial for their personal growth. It allows them to learn new skills to enhance their value within the organization or switch to a role that is more aligned with their career aspirations. 

Advantages of cross-training

  • Prepares employees to fill a vacant position temporarily in time of need. 
  • Equips the current skill set of employees with an enhanced set of skills.
  • Teams become more collaborative by helping each other more actively.
  • Ability to promote from within, reducing recruiting costs.

Disadvantages of cross-training

  • For larger organizations, it takes dedicated time, effort, and resources to accomplish cross-training.
  • Additional duties can be a serious distraction to most employees.
  • Employees might end up feeling overworked.

10. Job shadowing

Job shadowing allows employees to follow and observe other professionals working in different job functions to gain insight into their work area. It is also implemented to allow lesser experienced individuals to work alongside experienced professionals to sharpen their skills from those already mastered them.

Advantages of job shadowing

  • Improves communications across different departments.
  • Boosts continuous employee development and improvement.
  • Allows employees to explore different potential career options.
  • For the person being shadowed, it is an excellent way to share their experiences with other colleagues.
  • It’s less time-intensive than an internship.
  • First-hand information or knowledge provided to the observer.
  • Builds strong relationships between new hires and tenured employees.

Disadvantages of job shadowing

  • In the beginning, the observer will need to shadow their mentor for a long length of time to fully understand the information.
  • Before the observer starts learning about a specific job, they need to have some initial knowledge of the field – as well as the workplace behavior required of it.
  • There might not be enough time for in-the-moment questions, meaning some important answers may be lost due to the fast-paced nature of job shadowing.

11. Case studies

With the case study method, employees are presented with a real or fictional complex situation to analyze and use as a reference for their solutions. While cases vary in complexity and detail, trainees should be given enough data and information to analyze the situation and devise solutions. 

Advantages of case studies

  • Develops data analysis, decision-making, and problem-solving skills for employees.
  • When employees constantly work on case studies, they find it less difficult to handle similar situations in real life.
  • Increases employees’ capability of thinking outside the box.
  • The case study method is inexpensive.

Disadvantages of case studies

  • It is a labor-intensive method of collecting data.
  • Time-consuming for employees to analyze the data.

12. Peer-to-peer learning

Peer-to-peer learning is a mutual learning strategy that involves participants of the same level engaging in collaborative learning. This type of learning allows employees to work through new concepts and share ideas with their peers working on the same project. The opportunity to teach and be taught by one another is an effective way for organizations to grow stronger employees who work together productively.

Advantages of peer-to-peer learning

  • Encourages connectivity, collaboration, and teamwork.
  • Increases employee engagement and productivity.
  • Promotes knowledge-sharing culture within the organization.
  • The peer-learning method is inexpensive.

Disadvantages of peer-to-peer learning

  • Time might be wasted on discussing irrelevant topics.
  • Needs dedication and commitment from peers.

13. Spaced learning

Spaced learning breaks down long employee training programs into several sessions or modules of shorter durations, with spaced intervals in between. Parts of these sessions are reintroduced multiple times over the next few days or weeks for learners to recall information, driving long-term knowledge retention.

Spaced repetition learning is based on research from Hermann Ebbingaus, a 19th-century psychologist, who discovered that information is forgotten over a period of time when no effort is made to repeat it (known as the Forgetting Curve). Later, this was the foundation of the learning curve theory, which states that task master can be represented on a graphic, with mastery happening over time as learners continuously practice a task.

Advantages of spaced learning

  • Overcomes the effects of the forgetting curve by providing learners with periodic review and reinforcement of previously learned knowledge.
  • Incorporates interactive and real-world scenarios into your training programs.
  • Prevents fatigue, reduces mental exhaustion, and keeps learners engaged with the content.

Disadvantages of spaced learning

  • Knowledge retrieval exercises can be challenging for some people.

14. Gamification

Gamification in training incorporates gaming elements such as points and badges into training courses. By leveraging psychology, gamified training engages learners and makes them more willing to take on repetitive tasks despite the risk of failure. Gamification of training has been shown to increase employee performance and the adoption of new software.

Advantages of gamified training

  • Gamification makes learners want to achieve the learning objectives of a course thereby increasing engagement and completion rates.
  • As learners progress through the game, they receive instant feedback.
  • Employees are provided with badges or rewards as they proceed through the game. This boosts employee motivation.

Disadvantages of gamified training

  •  The cost of additional resources to enhance the gameplay might go over budget.

15. Mobile learning

Mobile learning (or mLearning) refers to online learning via a personal mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. This training method empowers learning on the go, enabling users to access content whenever and wherever they want. 

Advantages of mobile learning

  • Utilizes familiar technology, promoting higher engagement and comfort
  • Mobile learning content comes in various forms, such as podcasts, videos, quizzes, or eLearning courses that help increase engagement and boost learning retention.
  • Facilitates just-in-time learning, addressing immediate performance needs.
  • Fosters self-directed learning, empowering individuals to take control of their development.

Disadvantages of mobile learning

  • Limited effectiveness for complex or in-depth topics that may require a more immersive learning environment.
  • Relies on stable internet connectivity and appropriate device capabilities, potentially excluding some learners.

16. Blended learning

Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face learning and eLearning to create a more holistic, effective training system. It leverages the best in-person learning experiences (like social learning and subject-matter-expert-led training lessons) with online learning (via LMS courses, hands-on training experiences, etc.) to provide a comprehensive, multi-method approach to learning and development.

Advantages of blended learning

  • Combines the strengths of various methods, catering to diverse learning styles and preferences.
  • Provides flexibility by allowing both in-person interactions and self-paced online learning.
  • Offers a well-rounded learning experience that combines theoretical knowledge with practical application.
  • Maximizes engagement through a variety of activities, increasing learner motivation.

Disadvantages of blended learning

  • Requires effective time management skills to balance both in-person sessions and self-paced online learning.

17. Microlearning

Microlearning is an approach to learning new knowledge that breaks learning content into small, bite-sized information modules. Smaller learning sessions provide all the information necessary for learners to achieve a specific training objective quickly, making microlearning valuable in business contexts.

Advantages of microlearning

  • Enhances knowledge retention by delivering information in short, focused bursts.
  • Fits nicely into busy schedules, allowing learners to access content quickly during spare moments.
  • Facilitates continuous learning by promoting frequent engagement with small, manageable units of information.
  • Accommodates various learning styles through the use of multimedia elements and interactive formats.
  • Supports just-in-time learning, providing immediate solutions to specific challenges or questions.

Disadvantages of microlearning

  • Might lack depth for complex topics that require comprehensive understanding.
  • This could lead to fragmented learning experiences if not properly organized and integrated.
  • May not suit all learning preferences, as some individuals might prefer more comprehensive and in-depth learning approaches.

18. Adaptive learning

Adaptive learning utilizes AI and big data technology to facilitate individualized learning experiences based on several learner factors and inputs to build contextual paths for employees that drive L&D outcomes.

Courses are adapted based on a learner’s profile and preferences, previous knowledge of a concept, behaviors, and performance. Experiences are adapted by presenting real-time feedback to learners, presenting new pathways that aren’t “pass” or “fail”, and can present contextual tooltips or future resources for learning more. The experience adapts its content, sequence, and assessment based on all previous actions and factors.

Advantages of adaptive learning

  • Personalizes learning paths for individual people, making training contextual to specific needs.
  • Improves learner engagement.
  • Gives learners real-time feedback.

Disadvantages of adaptive learning

  • Requires a mature L&D strategy and sophisticated training technology stack.
  • Requires L&D professionals to be literate in big data sets.
  • Requires motivation from the learner themselves to progress through the material.
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Factors to Consider While Choosing the Right Training Method

Here are a few factors to consider while choosing the right training method for your employees.

1. Learning objectives and content

The learning objectives and content of the training are fundamental in determining the appropriate training methods. Different methods excel at achieving certain types of objectives. 

For instance, if the training aims to teach technical skills, hands-on methods such as simulations or on-the-job training might be effective. On the other hand, for theoretical concepts, eLearning or instructor-led sessions work well. The content’s complexity, depth, and practicality influence which method aligns best with the desired learning outcomes.

2. Learner preferences

Understanding the preferences of their learners is vital for L&D managers. People have different learning styles, some respond better to visual content, while others prefer interactive discussions. 

Gathering information about how your learners like to learn guides you in selecting a method that resonates with them. Catering to your learners’ preferences enhances engagement, motivation, and the effectiveness of the training.

3. Accessibility and availability

Consider the logistics of training, including where and when it will take place. If your workforce is geographically dispersed, virtual methods might be more suitable. Accessibility is also crucial—can employees easily access the training content? Ensure that the chosen method aligns with participants’ availability and accommodates their schedules, especially for remote or shift-based workers.

4. Costs and resources

Different training methods come with varying costs in terms of both money and resources. Some methods, like eLearning or mobile learning, might require investments in technology and content development. Others, like instructor-led training, might involve hiring trainers and renting physical spaces. Assess your organization’s budget and resource availability to choose a method that aligns with your financial capabilities.

Enable employees to learn in the flow of work with Whatfix

In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and the ever-growing need for skill agility, the integration of digital adoption platforms (DAPs) marks a transformative shift in the landscape of employee training.

As organizations strive to empower their workforce with the skills and knowledge required to navigate complex digital environments, DAPs emerged as catalysts of success.

With no-code platforms like Whatfix DAP, organizations can create in-app guided training and performance support that overlays employee workflows and tasks. This guidance enables employees to learn in the flow of work, which is more effective than traditional classroom-style learning techniques. According to the 70-20-10 learning model, 70% of all skill acquisition and institutional knowledge comes from hands-on experiences.

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DAPs seemingly guide employees through software applications, offering contextual, role-based learning experiences and performance support and providing insight into how users engage with applications and in-app training. DAPs enable employees with user-friendly guidance that drives productivity and maximizes digital application ROI.

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This “learning by doing” mentality fosters a culture of continuous learning and growth, all without sacrificing employee output.

Ready to learn more? Request a Whatfix demo today!

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