Everything You Need to Know About Refresher Training

In our fast-paced lives, juggling the demands of work and home can sometimes lead to forgetfulness. It’s a natural part of how our brains function – they tend to let go of information we don’t frequently use while retaining knowledge we engage with regularly.

That’s where the concept of refresher training comes in. It involves providing employees with opportunities to revisit and reinforce their existing knowledge and skills regularly. These brief, focused training sessions serve as memory joggers, helping employees stay up-to-date, boost their confidence, reduce errors, and ultimately enhance the overall efficiency of your business.

Think of it to keep your mind sharp and your abilities finely tuned. By offering these occasional refreshers, you’re empowering your workforce to perform at their best, ensuring they are well-prepared and productive.

What is Refresher Training?

Refresher courses are training programs designed to revisit and reinforce essential knowledge and skills. It’s commonly used in compliance and safety training, where employees need periodic retraining to stay up-to-date with regulations and procedures. These online refresher courses serve as reminders, helping employees retain and apply what they’ve learned, especially when dealing with complex organizational rules and processes. They ensure that vital information remains accessible and that employees can continue to perform their jobs effectively while staying compliant with changing requirements. Online refresher courses are like periodic tune-ups, ensuring your team is always at the top of their game.

Why Do Employees Need Refresher Training?

When it comes to training and learning, more than one-time instruction is needed. It is valid for complex subjects or processes that require time to grasp fully. People tend to forget much of what they’ve learned shortly after instruction, and their knowledge continues to fade. Studies suggest that learners can forget up to 89% of what they’ve learned within a month, emphasizing the need for refresher training refresher.

It is a valuable tool to ensure employees remember and apply what they’ve learned. It’s essential for maintaining compliance with regulations, company best practices, and critical procedures. Failure to comply can lead to employee mistakes, and in severe cases, it can result in sanctions or penalties from external regulatory authorities. It helps keep everyone sharp and informed.

Few Steps That Influence Organizations to Invest in Refresher Training

Many benefits accrue to both employees and the organization, such as:

Reducing Errors Through Ongoing Training

Employees are less likely to make mistakes when their knowledge remains up-to-date and well-practiced. This steady reinforcement of skills ensures they can perform tasks accurately, avoiding guesswork and errors.

Increase Employee Confidence to Empower Your Workforce

Regular training fosters confidence and competence among employees. As they make fewer mistakes and encounter fewer challenges, their job satisfaction and overall performance improve, benefiting employees and customers.

Fuel Productivity and Efficiency Through Training

Confidence and assurance in one’s abilities translate into higher productivity and efficiency. Employees who stay at the top of their game can consistently enhance their work and accomplish tasks more efficiently.

Ensure Adherence to Rules and Regulations

Training Refresher reinforces compliance by providing employees with frequent reminders of best practices, guidelines, and updates on new regulations and policies. It helps maintain a culture of adherence to essential rules and standards.

Detect Knowledge Gaps for Improvement

They are adding fun quizzes or assessments into refresher training aids in assessing employees’ understanding of various topics. Consistent struggles in a specific area can guide future training sessions, addressing areas where employees need the most help.

Empower Employees to Excel Continuously

A robust refresher training program offers employees opportunities for continuous skill development. It not only boosts motivation and a desire to learn but also enables proficient employees to mentor others, enhancing their communication and leadership abilities.

Cultivate a Positive Learning Environment

Refresher training instills a positive learning culture within the organization, encouraging employees to advance their skills and knowledge. It demonstrates the organization’s commitment to professional development, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Few Methods to Implement Refresher Training Online with an LMS

In this section, we’ll guide you through creating a basic refresher course, focusing on the modern and effective online training approach. We’ve outlined a few steps to ensure your employees derive maximum benefits from refresher courses. Online training is the preferred method due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency.

Let’s delve into these steps to ensure a successful refresher training experience for your employees.

Step 1. Select Suitable Training Objectives and Methods

First, it’s essential to establish the purpose and frequency of your refresher training. The objectives should be specific to your organization, focusing on what employees need to achieve, such as adhering to safety standards in the chemical manufacturing industry. Identifying your target audience and their unique requirements is the next step. Determine which training methods, such as online, blended, or hands-on, would best cater to their needs. Additionally, consider the optimal timing for training sessions and craft comprehensive training materials by analyzing knowledge gaps.

Step 2. Choose Fresh Content to Design Engaging Learning Activities

In this step, whether you have existing training materials or not, it’s crucial to assess and select the most relevant content for your training refresher. If you have previous materials, review them to determine what to keep, remove, or add. This evaluation will guide the creation of your online course, helping you decide on visuals, interactions, and the course structure. If you need to possess existing materials, gather information from research and subject matter experts. Focus on delivering precise, must-know information.

Step 3. Craft Microlearning Courses with a Versatile Authoring Tool

Now, it’s time to create the content for your online course. To do this, you’ll need an eLearning authoring tool. With various options available, research to find the one that fits your needs. If you lack content development experience and want to create professional training courses quickly, consider using the Paradiso authoring tool. It’s user-friendly, allowing you to convert PowerPoint presentations into engaging online courses, build interactive quizzes, simulate dialogues for soft skills training, produce impactful tutorial videos, and create microlearning courses in minutes.

Step4. Inspire Learner Engagement through Clear Communication

Mandatory refresh training can often demotivate employees, but it doesn’t have to. It’s essential to communicate the reasons behind refresher training in advance. Consider using emails, messages, or meetings to set expectations, clarify the purpose, and highlight the benefits for individuals and the organization. When employees understand why the training is essential and how it can improve their skills and job performance, they are more likely to engage willingly. Good communication fosters enthusiasm and encourages employee participation.

Step 5. Assess Training Progress for Continuous Improvement

After finalizing and testing your refresher training content, it’s time to determine how to deliver it to your employees. The most convenient method is through a learning management system (LMS). An LMS automates various aspects of training, such as scheduling, invitations, registration, and tracking results. Choose a user-friendly LMS that provides seamless access to training, supports mobile learning, incorporates gamification, and integrates with your existing technology for an optimal learning experience. Make it easy for your employees to access and engage with the training material.

Step 6. Provide refresher courses To Increase Training Efficacy

With Paradiso LMS’s mobile app, you can access training from any device. Robust analytics and reporting help track performance and pinpoint improvements. Ready to start? Schedule a demo today!

Simplify refresh training with a learning management system (LMS). An LMS automates scheduling, inviting participants, registration, and tracking results. For a user-friendly LMS, consider Paradiso. It makes putting courses online easy with recurring enrollment. Set intervals for automatic re-enrollment and monitor progress.