Another rejection from your client: Unfortunately, no time for an intensive training session? Many trainers sense the growing tendency of HR professionals to be reluctant to "lose" their employees for a whole day or even longer for training sessions. The simple solution: Micro-sessions. We will explain what the idea behind it is.

The Challenge: Little Work Absence, but a High Learning Effect

"I would like to further train my employees, but a whole day of work absence in one go is already a lot. Can't we solve this differently?"

Perhaps you have already heard a similar argument from your (potential) client. In the past, two or three days of training were hardly a problem for companies. Today, HR professionals complain about the high work absence even for a single day. Reasons for this can be limited personnel resources or other considerations to use as little regular working time for training as possible.

This is the general sentiment that trainers experience daily: It is not the financial costs that are the problem, but the time constraints.

And you know from your experience that training is often only truly effective when participants engage with the content over the long term. And of course, time constraints in training fundamentally mean less income. To guarantee a well-running business in the future, you need a solution for how to reassure your clients regarding work absence while still earning well.

The Solution: Short and Focused Micro-sessions

You can call it what you want – the principle is strikingly simple: Offer short in-person trainings where you bundle the most important content for participants. Emphasizing on "path" – you then shift the subsequent training into a multi-week online support! This way, you hit three birds with one stone:

1. The work absence of your participants remains minimal – most employers can manage a half day of absence.

2. The learning effect stays at least as high, and is often even greater, as the transfer phase is significantly extended.

3. Your revenue even increases because you can train twice as many participants in one day – one group in the morning and another in the afternoon. You will also charge for the online support every time, even if you only need to create it once.

Of course, the employees also need to devote working time to continue learning in the online support model. However, for the employer, a work absence of 20 hours is easier to tolerate if it stretches over several weeks than if it is bundled into 2-3 days.

One more tip: Choose a catchy name to convince your clients of the overall concept! A marketing-appropriate buzzword will give your training the final touch. Here are a few examples for inspiration:

• Micro-session

• Focus Training

• Short and Effective

• 4h Power Seminars …

A Method That Fits: Microlearning

"Short and focused" – this principle works just as well on a smaller scale. Also design your online content so that your participants do not have to invest much time. Present your training to your client with the argument that you apply the same principle in both the kickoff event and in the online support. This creates credibility and trust. More about it in our blog post "Microlearning: 3 Rules for Creating Learning Nuggets".

Example: A Micro-session as a Kick-Off Event

Let’s assume you used to give two-day workshops where the first half day was planned for warming up and introducing the topic. The rest of the time, you worked intensively with your participants on the topic and sent them back to their work life with a good feeling at the end of the second day:

In traditional 2-day trainings, the main part of the workshop takes place at the end of the first day and on the second day.

This is how you can transform your 2-day workshops into a micro-session:

1. Start with a kickoff event lasting about 4 hours. Here you get to know your participants personally and discuss the topic and the approach of your training together with them.

2. Then follow several weeks in which participants take part in an online training that you have developed in advance. Give them an estimate of how much time they should plan weekly for it and let them choose when and where they can allocate this time – without it affecting their daily work.

3. Ideally, you conclude your training with another in-person event. Convince your client of this additional work absence with the argument that participants are better motivated to take the time for online content during the self-learning phase due to this clear ending.

4. Alternatively, you can offer a personal (phone) conversation with each participant as a conclusion – which you will of course charge accordingly. This method is particularly suitable for soft skill trainings. And your participant can again choose when they have time for the concluding conversation.

   
   
   
   

   

With a micro-session, you shift a large part of the content into online support.

One more tip: Prepare for your customer's possible concerns and convince them of your concept! In the following table, you will see customer objections on the left and how you can counter these objections on the right:

| What your customer says | What you can respond with || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ || "I can't afford a complete day of work absence at once." | You don’t have to. With my new concept of micro-sessions, your employees can do a half day of training and complete other important tasks for the rest of the day. The subsequent in-depth exercises take place in an online support spread over several weeks. || "Do my employees really need the online support then?" | Yes, they do. I can spread out my training, but not leave out essential content. Only with online support is the transfer secured and the training truly effective. || "Then I would prefer to only book the online support and not have any work absence at all." | I would advise against that. I can significantly limit the in-person time, but the personal connection in the form of a live meeting is important to establish a certain obligation and motivation for the self-learning phase. |

... All right, these arguments are convincing – with the mix of in-person events and online training, your customer benefits the most.

The Concept Behind It: Blended Learning

The micro-session method is only truly meaningful and sustainably effective when combined with online support. This combination of in-person training and online-driven self-learning phase is called blended learning. With blended learning, you interlink two learning methods in such a way that all parties involved achieve the maximum benefit.

Of course, you can adjust your blended learning model individually to your own demands or the wishes of your clients. For example, start directly with an online introduction and hold your four-hour kickoff two weeks later with in-depth content. Just try out what works best for you!

Start straight away with the concept "Short and Focused" and take 10 minutes now to think about the possibility of micro-sessions for your training. The following questions will help you in making a decision:

• What would be the advantages you could achieve with the micro-session method? Note down bullet points.

• What would you need to do to work with micro-sessions? Note down bullet points.

• What is the next step to start with micro-session? Schedule a date for it in your calendar!