Human resources managers and learning experts: How do you choose suitable trainers for further education? Once the goal of a training session is established, a suitable trainer can be sought. Whether in-house or external, a good training concept is mainly one thing: sustainably successful. Find out now how to recognize such a concept!
Is it hard to find good trainers?
New goals in human resources mean new measures: Once it becomes clear that internal training should be expanded or changed, a question forms in your mind: How do I find the right trainer? There are formally different offers, but as a human resources manager, you should initially answer a few questions when choosing the trainer:
In-house or external?
In-house trainers seem to be the "safe" option for many companies – and the easier one. However, in-house solutions often turn out to be a stopgap because external trainers do not have enough attachment to the company. External trainers, on the other hand, are often better trained and bring more experience. Thus, the question often arises: What is the more important criterion?
Company attachment or a high spectrum of experience?
The spectrum of experiences and especially the content is a point that many human resources managers underestimate when choosing a trainer. A long-time external trainer and their team usually have invested several years in the development of content. This focus on content is often not possible with an in-house trainer.
What are our criteria for a trainer?
You should ask yourself this question before starting concrete negotiations. Not only must the price be right: From the substantive orientation to methods to personal charisma – the list of criteria is long.
Some qualities a trainer and coach must definitely have: Infectious enthusiasm is an absolute must! Expertise must of course not be lacking, but this is much harder to measure: The trainer's experience is an indicator, but not a guarantee for excellent further education.
What goals does my company pursue with further training?
Therefore, first clarify what goals your company has that should be achieved through the training. Probably a specific aspect should be promoted – leading to greater success for employees or managers in the long term.
Long-term success: Sustainability is a quality criterion of further education
One of the most important criteria for new trainers or coaches is the sustainability of learning success. Direct improvements during the training or shortly thereafter are indeed a great experience for trainers and participants. However, if a few months later hardly any changes are noticeable, the training was not worthwhile for the company.
How do I recognize a sustainable training concept? We at blink.it are in contact with trainers and coaches daily and have come to know several training concepts over the years. Therefore, we have summarized for you the most important criteria for sustainably successful training:
Checklist: You can recognize a sustainable training concept by this
Personal connection between trainer/coach and participants
High practical component with clear calls to action
Opportunity for exchange with other learners
Incorporating personal experiences in daily work
Regularly activating the training content over weeks or months
Short, focused learning units in microlearning format
Inclusion of all relevant groups of people
Maybe this classification is enough for you when selecting the next trainer or coach for your company. To make the individual points clearer, we will explain them briefly again:
1. Personal connection between trainer/coach and participant
A didactically meaningful training is aligned with the learning objectives and competencies of the participants. Therefore, it is important that the trainer can understand the challenges from the perspective of the participants and motivates them to go beyond themselves.
Info: Do you want to make your online course even more motivating? Then find out now how to impress with the first content: More motivation in the online course – Why the first content matters
2. High proportion of exercises with clear calls to action
Practice makes perfect – as old as this saying is, the true kernel shows in many further educations. A high number of exercises alone is not enough – the call to action must be clear and evident so that the participant can implement the theory in practice.
3. Opportunity for exchange with other participants
In general, the trainer or coach should offer a good mix of different learning forms. Social learning (the exchange with others) should not be neglected. Find out more about the different learning forms in the Think-Read-Talk-Do model: How does learning with the TRDT model work?
4. Incorporating personal experiences in daily work
The intertwining of training and daily work is essential: After all, the participant should implement what they have learned in their job. A training session is good if it is always clear how what is learned is helpful in practice.
5. Regularly activating the training content over months
This point is also crucial for the success of a training session – and is often neglected. Even in school, we learn that "cramming" is not sustainable at all and that we should not learn for an exam, but for our long-term memory. We need to bring up and practice new content repeatedly – this applies to adults even more than to children.
6. Short, focused learning units in microlearning format
This aspect applies equally to adults as it does to children: Our attention span decreases sharply after just a few minutes. Moreover, we are generally more willing to invest five minutes daily than to spend a whole hour once a week – and the effect is higher with such short, focused learning units!
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7. Involvement of all relevant groups of people
A final point that HR personnel and trainers should not neglect for a fully successful training: It is best to consider together who has contact points with the contents of the training within the company (or even outside!). Involve managers and ensure that no one feels excluded.
Successfully moving into the future with digital competencies
In addition to these seven criteria for a good training concept, the topic of digital competence is an important approach in the initial conversation with the trainer. Because you do not recognize good training merely by the existence of digital methods!
Trainers should also fit the orientation of the company. After all, further education is strongly forward-looking and should also be up to date. A classic face-to-face trainer with methods from the last century may be very well-versed in their field – however, such a concept probably no longer meets the expectations of the participants. Content remains, but people change, and with them, so do methods.
But wait! That does not mean that a good trainer should automatically pursue a purely online concept. Under this assumption, we would someday not need any human training anymore. A good trainer recognizes the demands of the company and offers both online AND offline methods depending on the situation.
From classic in-person trainer to “blended trainer”
There are various blended learning models that you can use to combine online and offline training in your company: Depending on the starting situation and goals of the company, a “blended trainer” offers some in-person events (e.g., individual coaching or classic seminars) and some online impulses that participants can work on independently.
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Blended learning for companies
Find out now in the free guide how to develop a process for blended learning for your company! With many expert tips from practice.
To the corporate guide for blended learning
The above-mentioned goal of sustainability of training can be beautifully fulfilled by you or the trainer or coach with blended learning: Thus, short, focused learning units in in-person training are difficult; online they work perfectly. Also, the regular activation of training content can be best implemented online. Personal relationships between trainer and participants, however, work best in person.
The central benefits of blended learning for your company:
Increased learning effect
Increased measurability
Lower work absenteeism
Location-independent learning
High transfer to daily work
In addition to the criteria from the checklist for a sustainable training concept, you can recognize a professional blended trainer by additional competencies:
Checklist Part 2: What distinguishes a good blended trainer
A flexible concept that is adapted to the requirements of your company
Selected methods that contribute to the learning goals of the participants
A learning-friendly and experimental atmosphere in further training
A wide repertoire of both online and offline didactics (depending on the training format)
The technical requirements are adapted to the participants of the further training
Questions for trainers and coaches during the introduction
You have now learned some criteria for a sustainable training concept and competencies of a good blended trainer. But how can you recognize whether a trainer or coach meets these requirements? We will show you possible questions you can ask in the initial conversation to fulfill the mentioned criteria!
| This criterion you want to ask the trainer or coach | These questions you can ask || -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Personal connection between trainer/coach and participant | If I have follow-up questions about a content as a participant, how and when can I contact you? What does your getting-to-know phase look like? || High proportion of exercises with clear calls to action | Could you show me an example of an exercise? How do you ensure that the participants perform the exercises correctly? || Opportunity for exchange with other learners | How high is the proportion of group or tandem work? How will the participants be in contact with each other? || Incorporating personal experiences in daily work | Have you offered the course just like this before? How will this differ now? Suppose I have an experience at work as a participant: How can I incorporate this into the further training? || Regularly activating training content over weeks and months | How long does the training last in total? How often should participants engage with the content? || Short, focused learning units | How much time should participants allocate for the entire training – and how much time at once? Could you show me an example of a typical (online) learning unit? || Involvement of all relevant groups of people | I know a person XY who is also interested in the training. How could this person participate in the training? |
Do you want to design further training measures in your company sustainably and effectively? With the blink.it platform, you can create your first online course in just a few minutes – and sustainably share your knowledge with the entire team. Schedule your personal demo appointment now and learn more about blink.it!
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