Now that we’re a few months into 2017, we’ve all (hopefully) made progress on some New Year’s resolutions and are looking ahead to the rest of the year. 2017, like the last several years, will be a year of technological advances, many of which will affect how organizations conduct their employee training and development. Here are some trends we expect to see incorporated into employee training strategies this year.

Online training

With constant advances in technology, employee training, like most things, is becoming a digital experience. We’ve been saying this for years and it’s finally coming true: Just about everything is online now. Online learning has been on the rise for years and will continue to rise. The rise is due, in part, to convenience and ease of access—employees can take courses and tests and become certified with the click of the mouse. But when you factor in the ability to easily track progress and the cost savings on personnel resources and materials like paper, online training is more or less a no-brainer. In fact, many corporate leaders will tell you that, once you’ve made the switch from in-house to online training, you’ll wonder why you didn’t make the move sooner.

Gamification

The use of “gaming” elements to engage learners is known as gamification and it’s become one of the fastest-growing trends in employee training. When game-based learning is offered, the thrill of competition is added to the learning experience, resulting in an interactive experience that rewards the end result (in this case, knowledge retention). Simply put, gamification turns learning into a game that makes the experience more “fun” for employees.

Online onboarding and orientation

Just as more and more companies are training their employees online, many companies are converting their traditional in-person employee orientation to an online platform. We all know that getting off to a good start is crucial to a new employee’s long-term success at your company, so why not invest the time and resources to ensure that your onboarding process shapes that good start? Online orientation empowers employees by allowing them to review the materials when it’s convenient for them, while also communicating from day one that you value their time and their overall well-being.

Frequent performance reviews

If you’re investing all this time training your employees, doesn’t it make sense to conduct regular performance reviews to make sure the training is working?

Thanks in part to social media, today’s professionals are accustomed to instant feedback. The younger generations especially are unwilling to wait an entire year to hear what they’re doing well and where they need to improve. Furthermore, regular performance reviews will give you a better picture of what’s really going on with your employees than one annual review will. These reviews don’t have to last long—and they can be informal. You can just check in from time to time to see how your employees are doing, and then make small adjustments that will prevent big problems in the future. It’s up to you how regular you want these meetings to be (quarterly, monthly, weekly), but once a year just isn’t enough anymore.

Employee wellness programs

While not exactly related to training, employee wellness programs encourage employees to focus on their physical, emotional, and financial health. And the better a person feels, the better he or she will handle on-the-job stress and upcoming deadlines. Employee wellness programs lead to increased productivity and engagement in the workplace so they’re a win-win for everyone. If your company doesn’t offer an employee wellness program, it’s time to start thinking about creating one. You can start by focusing on physical fitness, and then slowly incorporate other elements like stress management, money management, spending habits, and smoking cessation.

Have you noticed any other employee training trends? Comment below to tell us what you think is going to happen this year.

New Employee Training Trends in 2017