Every employee who has to sit through the training you are planning hopes you will remember the Golden Rule.  In this case, “Do unto others…” means don’t bore them, don’t waste their time, and don’t make them sit through a presentation you would hate.  Successful training takes the employee into consideration at every stage.  Here are a few suggestions. 

Plan to provide training at a time when employees can get the most out of it.  Avoid scheduling training programs during peak times, near deadlines, or at the busiest times of the business cycle. 

Plan to provide training during work hours.  Requiring employees to attend training outside of work hours increases their commuting costs, requires special arrangements, and creates resentment.  From their point of view, if you really value the training you will find a way to hold it during work hours. 

When thinking about content beware of speech-making or lecturing.  Lectures and training presentations are different animals.  Lectures are directed at employees who listen passively - and are often bored.  Training presentations treat employees as participants, involve practice exercises, and provide feedback on performance from instructor and other participants. 

Lectures can be educational and can lead employees to embrace new ideas.  However, after a lecture each employee may apply the new ideas in different ways and no change to behavior may be visible.  After a training program employees returning to work will perform new tasks, or perform old tasks in new ways.  Supervisors and managers will be able to observe these new behaviors, encourage them, and discourage old ways. 

This brings up a key point in applying the Golden Rule to training.  Make it very clear to employees what changes are expected.  Be prepared to incorporate and reinforce change as soon as training is complete.  If a week goes by without the opportunity to practice newly learned skills, much of what was learned will be lost. 

One of the greatest myths related to learning is that smart people only need to hear something once to learn it.  People need to hear new information as many times as they need to hear it.  It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with reinforcement and retention. 

Give employees something in writing or online that they can take away from training and use for reference when they are trying to practice new skills.  Don’t let supervisors or managers fall into the habit of being impatient or overly-critical.  Everyone needs to be prepared for lots of repetition and lots of judgment-free feedback when introducing change. 

In some industries employees must attend legally-mandated training (OSHA, FDA).  Bosses, supervisors, and managers need to be aware that their approach to requiring attendance, and even the way they talk about such training, tells employees whether compliance is important or not.  If management disparages safety training, for instance, there will be little compliance with safety standards.  

It is surprising how many of the issues related to employee training are the same as business etiquette issues.  Be considerate, be respectful, don’t bore people, don’t waste their time.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.