Interactive training content: the key to unlocking employee engagement

Employee training is no longer limited to simply sitting in a boardroom while watching drawn-out presentation slides. Instead, employees want an immersive training experience that mirrors real-life scenarios to boost engagement, improve comprehension and allow for better information retainment. After all, intricate work requires a high level of employee engagement, which is why we cannot expect employees to learn how to solve complex problems by simply reading traditional training material. They need to see examples being worked on, practice solving these problems themselves, and receive sufficient and instructive feedback for continuous improvement. As a result, modern learning and development sectors have shifted towards a more interactive approach to developing employee training material.

As the name suggests, interactive training content requires direct interaction between the learning content and the employee. An interactive training experience allows employees to perform specific actions to carry on to the next training step. Still, there are many ways to include interactivity in your training content: assessment questions of all sorts, click-to-learn hotspots, and immersive videos, to name a few. The variety of interactions is so vast that we are forced to ask, how do we decide which interactions to use? Can a course have too many or the wrong kind of interactions?

People are more likely to retain the information shared during training when they find the material interesting and are engaged. However, interactions should never be used merely for the appeal but should be directly tied to the learning objectives. Like every aspect of customised training content, interactions are thoughtfully designed to increase learner application. When deciding on implementing interactivity in your training content, it is imperative to keep your audience at the centre. If most of your employees are over the age of 40, they might be comfortable training with learning content with less interactivity than younger generations would. Other audience considerations should include technical ability and current knowledge level or skill in the interactive training content area. By creating custom interactive training content best suited for your audience's learning needs, you can ensure that your employees are fully engaged in training programmes.

Finding the right fit to build your customised training programmes may take a while, but using a content creation agency that focuses on developing quality content according to your own brand, style, and budget will always result in an overall reward. Here are the various ways in which you can use interactivity to optimise your training content:

1. Include interactive activities in the training content

Creating a training experience, including interactive activities such as discussions, quizzes, tests, and assessments, is the best way to ensure an immersive learning experience.

If you provide your training through an instructor, the best way to keep the training interactive is to ask questions and encourage discussions. This way, you can ensure that the training content is understood while ensuring that your employees communicate.

Through e-learning, you can include quizzes, tests and assessments in your training content to enhance employee engagement.

The most common format of quizzes used in online training is multiple-choice questions; however, there are various question formats that you can use, including fill in the blanks, drag and drop, sequencing questions, et cetera. You can also provide questions where employees have to write answers in brief. This question type assesses their soft skills, ability to put thoughts into words, and their ability to retain information. The purpose of incorporating different types of quizzes is to gauge the employee's understanding and keep the training interactive.

2. Include game-based training

Game-based learning is a learning technique where games are used to enhance the learning process. Learners are required to play these games, which aims to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a digital or non-digital environment. Before you implement a game-based training programme, you need to establish your objectives. For example, what do you want to achieve through game-based training, and which games do you want to incorporate? By incorporating games, you keep your employees motivated and mentally active throughout the training session.

3. Design short videos

Videos are a great way to keep employees engaged with training content. Most likely, most of your workforce are millennials which mean most of them are regular viewers of online videos. Therefore, they might expect similar quality and engagement from your training videos. To meet their expectations and keep them engaged with the training content, you need to create visually appealing training videos. Visually appealing videos can include high-quality images, rich graphics, animations, et cetera.

In general, training videos should be short so that employees can quickly refer to and recall the information. However, it is essential to highlight the important points. To add interactivity to the training video, you can include elements like click and reveal, drag and drop, et cetera. Providing a voice-over or background music can also enhance the training content.

4. Incorporate simulations

A simulation is the imitation of a realistic situation to provide experience in a controlled and risk-free environment. Simulations are used to give employees an idea of actual situations that might occur, prepare them for different scenarios, and develop their decision-making skills without the fear of damaging the company's reputation.

Simulations can be both online and in real life. Creating simulation-based training content with multiple options to choose from will urge the employee to take any action they consider appropriate. This exercise helps them develop their critical thinking skills, and working through different simulations will give them experience in handling difficult situations.

5. Make use of gamification

Gamification means applying certain gaming elements to a training programme to make it more engaging and entertaining. This process has employees competing to achieve specific milestones that will reward them somehow and can be used to motivate employees to perform better to reach improved results and better outcomes. Employees like to be acknowledged for their hard work; therefore, "badges" or certificates as rewards for performance is a great way to keep your training programme interactive and engaging.

These are just a few ways to create a fun and interactive training experience that can aid in employee engagement.

The modern working world undeniably needs to implement more learning practices that contribute to an immersive training experience. By implementing any of these ways in your training content development, you can deliver engaging and interactive training content which employees will remember and recall.

If you're wondering how to deliver quality training that is guaranteed to engage, excite and inspire your employees, then look no further. Lesson Desk's very own digital media experts can assist you will all your training needs. Contact Magic Lantern at create@magiclantern.co.za or visit their website portfolio .