Just-in-Time Training Best Practices – and How E-Learning Helps
One training strategy that is effectively used in some areas but remains somewhat neglected in others is just-in-time training. It is a strategy that can be incorporated into your overall training programme. Plus, e-learning is the perfect fit for the creation of just-in-time training content.
As always, you need to make sure the just-in-time training content you create is as good as possible, as well as being fully focused on achieving your training goals. Our best practices for just-in-time training will help.
Just-in-Time Training – a Recap
Before we look at just-in-time training best practices and how e-learning can help, let’s first recap on this important strategy.
Just-in-time training involves making learning materials available to your team on demand. So, rather than creating training and setting deadlines for completion, learners can complete the training when they need it most.
For many organisations, this may go against the normal approach to training. The normal approach is more formal and requires the right boxes to be ticked on the right forms.
However, just-in-time training is more in line with the way many of us do things today. We may not be expert chefs or super skilled at IT, but if we need a recipe or encounter a problem on our computer, we can look up a solution on the internet. More often than not, there will be an instructional video that will teach you how to deal with the situation.
Just-in-time training follows this principle. You can read more about the benefits of just-in-time training on our blog, but the most important one is that it works. After all, an employee will be at their most motivated to actively engage with training when they have an immediate need for the knowledge or new skill.
Best Practices When Implementing Just-in-Time Training
Make Sure the Culture in Your Organisation is Compatible with Just-in-Time Training
Just-in-time training won’t work for every organisation. You might also be in a situation where just-in-time training will work in some business units but not in others. It’s important to consider these factors before proceeding further.
You will get the best results from just-in-time training if you have a strong learning culture in your organisation. If you don’t, it will be worthwhile establishing and building that culture at the same time as introducing just-in-time training content.
Identify Skills Gaps
As with creating other forms of training, identifying skills gaps is an important initial step. With just-in-time training, though, you can often go deeper than you otherwise would, creating training for smaller groups of people or on more niche topics. E-learning allows you to create these modules cost-effectively with minimal, if any, negative impact on your wider training activities.
Decide What Training Topics Are Suitable for Just-in-Time Training
Not all topics are suitable for just-in-time training, even if your organisation is the ideal fit. Compliance topics are a good example, i.e., a better description for just-in-time health and safety training is probably too late health and safety training. So, identify the topics that work with the just-in-time training approach.
Create a Content Plan
Creating a content plan will help you organise and plan ahead, minimising situations where you have to scramble to prepare training at the last minute. Content plans are also ideal if you are responsible for training learners in different locations and with different needs. For example, you can have one content plan for your team in the UAE and an adapted but slightly different plan for your team in Saudi Arabia.
Content Should be Bite-Sized
Just-in-time training should be quick and easy to complete as well as being available when it is needed most. One of the best ways to make e-learning content quick and easy to complete is to ensure you present the content in bite-sized chunks.
Content Should be Laser Focused
Make sure you keep the content firmly on topic without going off on tangents. Deviating from the topic defeats the purpose of just-in-time training and can negate the benefits as learners skip past the sections they don’t immediately need to know. You are best to restrict the content in your just-in-time training modules to the sections that are absolutely required.
Make Sure Just-in-Time Training Content is Easy to Find
Regularly communicate with your team about the just-in-time training content that is available and make sure the topics and modules are searchable. It is important the content is as easy to find as possible.
Ensure E-Learning Courses are Fully Mobile Responsive
It is essential to make your just-in-time e-learning courses responsive, so they work on mobile devices. Some people might complete the training on a PC or laptop, but it is important you minimise barriers to the training as much as possible. Ensuring learners can use any device they choose helps with this.
Keep the Content Up to Date
You will need to periodically revisit the just-in-time training content you have created to ensure it remains up to date and accurate.
Long-Term Training Strategy
Including just-in-time training in your overall training strategy will deliver long-term benefits for your business. You will raise the skills level across your organisation, and you will have a better understanding of the skills gaps that exist. Therefore, it is a worthwhile investment.
