The importance of Corporate Policies training

Continuous training is more and more viewed as a strategic objective within companies. According to a US research(*), 70% of employers believe that employees need continuous learning simply to keep up with the demands of their current jobs and 96% of employers say ongoing education improves job performance.
But although businesses acknowledge that training their staff for their specific functions or for compliance is essential, they often do not realise the importance of training employees on their company’s policies.

According to a survey carried out by employee training software review firm, Software Advice, which was based on 1,633 adults in the US, only 56% of employees said they had received training on corporate policies. Out of those, 57% were very or extremely confident that they understood and remembered them. 44% of employees are therefore not aware of company policies.

Ensuring all employees have a good grasp of corporate guidelines, such as equal opportunities, harassment and non-disclosure policies, is extremely important for a company and can avoid future legal issues.

The survey also showed that the delivery of the training played a key part in the retention of the information. 26% of respondents who received a combination of in-person and online training were extremely confident in their knowledge of companies policies as opposed to 15% of respondents who were trained solely with online material.

Confidence level by training type

 Training can be a burden for companies. Many businesses do not have the resources and budget required to efficiently train their staff and rely solely on online material.

There are however open-source learning platforms now available (Totara) that offer a cost-effective answer to training requirements:

• Open-source allows for on-site and off-site access. Staff can access training material from anywhere on their computer, tablets or phones
• Platforms offer user-centred learning: they can integrate videos, quizzes, surveys making the training more interactive and engaging therefore increasing levels of retention
• Progress of a group of learners or individuals and the stage they are at is easily monitored. Each user can also be offered a personalised training
• Platforms are easily and quickly developed and implemented

As a Totara Platinium partner, Webanywhere has already implemented many open-source learning platforms for a wide range of organisations in the healthcare, education, retail and technology sectors.

Erin Osterhaus, HR Market Researcher at Software Advice, comments:

“44 percent of employees are unfamiliar with their company policies. That’s not an ideal situation for companies. After all, training employees on company policies informs them not only of what behavior is expected of them in the workplace, but also of the benefits available to them. When they’re equipped with this knowledge, employees can make better decisions and potentially save your business legal troubles down the road, while also ensuring they don’t leave your company because they’re misinformed about the advantages of working there.

So why are almost half of employees unaware of their company’s policies? Scarce resources may be one of the driving factors inhibiting employers from investing time and effort in training employees. After all, creating a curriculum can be time-consuming, and many smaller businesses may not have a designated staff member to train new hires. But technologycan often help. There are many affordable employee training software solutions on the market, such as Webanywhere, that allow employers to organize and create a curriculum using already available materials.”

Click here to read the full survey.

To find out more about the benefits of implementing an open source e-learning platform, visit www.webanywhere.co.uk/workplace or click here to contact us

Source:
(*) research commissioned by The EvoLLLution
https://www.softwareadvice.com/