Nothing changes more in a company than technology. If the organization isn’t prepared for technical change, it’s at risk of stagnation and eventual failure. With advancements in technology happening at breakneck paces, employees need to be able to adjust to the changes and navigate the transition to new skills and platforms.
Corporate technical training is a powerful tool to help employees adapt and usher them through the change process. Communication is at the core of change management but without training, communication can only do so much. By providing the right technical training, organizations ensure their employees are equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge to handle the challenges of changing technology and IT innovations.
Technical training provides employees with the necessary skills to help them make the transition from one system to another. When done right, it gives them the necessary skills to apply directly to their work rather than learning disparate skills that they then have to figure out how to connect to their work. There’s a hidden cost of inadequate software training.
Providing employees training for technical changes proves to employees that you care about their professional development.
With good corporate IT training, employees will transition quickly and effectively to new systems and technologies without disruption to their daily tasks and operations. Not only that but good training with custom eLearning can minimize the time it takes to learn new skills as well as offer a level of realistic practice that doesn’t exist in instructor-led training, one reason we don’t create instructor-led training for technical topics.
When a company invests in quality technical training, companies can rest assured they have a knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce that is ready to tackle any technical change. The training provided by the company makes the difference between good employees and bad.
How does technical training pave the way for smoother transitions during technical change?
To answer this question, this post explores the importance of technical training, its role in the change process of technology, and how it can be used to create a more effective and efficient transition. With the help of technical training, organizations can easily ensure their teams are properly equipped and prepared for any technical changes they may face.
The Benefits of Technical Training
Technical training is essential for organizations that are undergoing technical changes. So, all of them. By investing in the right technical training, organizations are investing in their employees to ensure they’re equipped with skills and knowledge to navigate the transition process and how it affects their job.
There are many benefits associated with technical training.
Technical training can help employees become more comfortable with a new platform, software, or system. Gaining a deeper understanding of new processes, how it works, as well as how to do it in relation to their job is invaluable. Employees better equipped to use the new system with the right processes can do their job more effectively and efficiently.
Technical traning ensures employees have the skills to use new tools in the context of their work.
You’ll also find that employees who are properly trained help organizations prepare for the challenges associated with switching to a new system. Employees who know what they’re doing are more likely to see a problem when (and they will arise) they happen and can identify potential issues. If they can’t solve the issue then they’re more likely to be able to report that issue so it can be resolved.
Overall when employees are properly trained they’re more resilient for all organizational changes. Adaptability is a huge strength in today’s ever-changing workplace. If an organization provides great training for employees then it’s a less scary process and people will be more open to change. Heck, they may even get excited about it someday!
Employees who are trained for changes will gain necessary skills quicker and organizations will reduce their risk of disruption. It all comes down to happier, more resilient employees who can do their job with the skills the organization provides.
Types of Technical Training
Organizations can utilize a variety of different types of technical training when preparing for a technical change. Many traditional organizations opt for classroom-style training, which is fine for some types of training but not the best option for technical training.
There are many better types of training to provide employees with training for technical changes which is why we specialize in these digital training solutions including:
- eLearning (with software simulations, etc.)
- Videos
- In-App Help (typically using a digital adoption platform such as WalkMe or Pendo)
- Performance Support
- Microlearning
For smaller organizations then instructor-led training might be a viable option, or even 1:1 coaching. These methods of training don’t scale well for large corporations, though.
Regardless of the type of technical training chosen, the goal should be to equip employees with the necessary skills and knowledge to transition to work with the new system and apply that information to their job specifically. By investing in the right technical training, organizations can ensure their employees are prepared to handle the challenges associated with technical change.
The Technical Transition Process
Before beginning the technical transition process, organizations need to understand the process and ensure that their employees are properly equipped to make the transition. To ensure a successful transition, organizations should develop a plan that outlines the necessary steps and timeline for the transition process.
This plan should include a timeline for testing, implementation, and training of the new system. One risk we see often is that training is done too early. While training should be planned for early in the process of a technical change, employees shouldn’t be trained until as close as possible to the transition portion that will affect them. That means training employees as close to the time of need as possible.
A thorough process ensures you’re training to the right needs as well as doing it thoroughly without too much unnecessary info.
Project managers typically account for everything in the technical transition process which often includes a list of tasks required to complete the transition. This plan should also include a list of resources needed to complete the transition process. A training plan or statement of work is essential for the technical transition also.
Monitoring the progress of the transition process and adjusting the plan accordingly increases the success of the transition. Evaluation can’t be forgotten as part of the transition process either. It’s essential to understand what was successful as well as what was not.
Preparing for Technical Changes
Once the technical transition plan is in place, organizations can begin to prepare for technical changes. Organizations need to communicate the changes to employees and ensure they’re adequately prepared for the transition.
Often that involves having change champions as well as working with managers who have a direct connection with employees and can prepare them for change. Communication and training are the two most essential parts of preparing for technical change.
Training should help employees understand the new technology and how they use it for their job specifically. In other words, it should be performance-based rather than knowledge or expertise-based.
Preperation for training should happen at the same time as the change is being planned for, well before launch.
Just never forget that employees don’t need to know everything. Sometimes there are only a few tasks that are required to be known and other tasks can be provided through performance support, the often-forgotten yet extremely effective form of training. Just don’t bother with user guides and other documentation for the most part, those will rarely get used and are best served by the help desk or an expert.
Not every question asked should be trained on. Sometimes it’s best to leave those for the help desk or the experts. You have to strategically focus on the most needed-to-know information and leave the rest for other methods of helping employees. Effective technical training comes down to the fact that if everything is important then nothing is important.
Just make sure there’s some sort of support in the transition period, either a phone number or email address where specific questions can be asked.
By providing support to employees, organizations can ensure they’re equipped to handle the technical changes better.
Utilizing Technical Training During Change
Once the transition process has begun, organizations should utilize technical training to help their employees handle the changes. Working with a skilled instructional design consultant can help make the process go smoothly.
Here are a few steps to make the most of technical training during periods of change and transition in technology. You’ll find this process follows closely to the popular (and for good reason) ADDIE model that ensures a proper framework for creating the right training that’s also effective for the problems or changes at hand.
That means you should cover all the steps to create required and effective training. Don’t risk jumping right into any tool and throwing something together that’s overwhelming and unnecessary. This is a great way to end up with too much information and create ineffective training.
The ADDIE model is an excellent process for creating effective technical training during technical changes.
You can see how we use the ADDIE model to design effective training that creates value rather than wastes time.
Just be sure you always spend the most time doing the minimum necessary analysis and design. These are the most important steps. If you spend the majority of your time in analysis and design then the rest of your project will go smoothly. Development, implementation, and evaluation will all come together if you do the first two phases right.
We’ll spend a bit more time on evaluation next
Measurement and Evaluation of Technical Training
All good things come to an end. But it shouldn’t simply end with nothing more done on the project. It’s important to measure and evaluate the success of the technical training provided.
The success of technical training can be measured by evaluating how successful it was. Those should be metrics that were determined when preparing for technical changes. What are the success metrics of the overall change as decided by stakeholders and leaders at the beginning of the project?
Improvements can be made to technical training if you know how successful they were.
While feedback can’t give you any concrete evidence of success, it’s a good measuring stick for how employees feel after the transition. That can be helpful to know if they feel like they were supported by the organization. That’s extremely valuable because ultimately it determines if employees see the organization as valuing their professional development.
By measuring and evaluating the success of the technical training provided, organizations can ensure that their employees are adequately prepared to handle the technical change.
Organizations can gain insight into their technical training program and identify areas for improvement by doing a thorough evaluation. By investing in the right technical training, organizations can ensure a smoother transition to the new system. Evaluation helps the organization know if that smooth transition happened.
Challenges of Technical Training
Nothing is perfect including technical training as a solution for technical change in an organization. Although technical training can be an effective tool for navigating technical changes, it can also present some challenges.
One of the biggest challenges associated with technical training is ensuring that employees are adequately prepared for the transition process in a technology environment that might also be rapidly changing.
As you may be aware, applications develop quickly and may change before training can even be delivered. Not only that but as the application changes training can be difficult to keep updated with it.
Technical changes are tricky because they themselves are always changing. That means training to the change must keep up with what’s changing.
Another challenge associated with technical training is ensuring that employees take the training seriously. If it’s boring or not properly tailored to their job then it won’t be seen as relevant. Relevent training won’t be taken seriously and likely either not be taken or ignored as it’s taken.
Boring page-turners are often clicked through quickly to finish it. Another huge risk is having too much information. If there’s simply too much information in the training and it’s too long then people won’t learn the actual important information or may tune out entirely.
There’s nothing worse than making employees spend hours in training and then not learning anything. Effectiveness is essential and there’s a huge risk of creating ineffective training without proper analysis and design.
Wrap Up
Technical training is crucial for employees to adapt and navigate through technical changes within organizations. It provides employees with the necessary skills to handle challenges that come with changing technology and IT innovations.
Investing in quality technical training results in a highly skilled workforce ready to tackle any technical change. Technical training facilitates smoother transitions during an otherwise stressful period at work. It’s an essential component for organizations undergoing technical changes, ensuring that employees can navigate the transition process and understand its impact on their job.
Different types of technical training can be utilized to prepare for technical changes, with digital training solutions being particularly effective. Regardless of the chosen training method, the goal is always to make it easy for employees to make the transition into new technology.
Working with the right corporate technical training company is your first step in making sure employees are well-supported with effective training for technical changes. If you have a technical change coming up then schedule a free consultation to discuss how we can help you navigate the change with effective technical training.