Courses fail when trainees cannot remember and retain information in the long term, no matter how well the teaching and explaining materials and methods are done. Enhancing trainees' capacity to retain learned material so that there is no need for retraining in the future can lower training costs and increase these initiatives’ ROI.
Scientific research related to the forgetting curve has revealed the following results:
- People forget about 50% of the acquired information within one hour after the training session ends.
- People forget about 70% of the acquired information after a full day.
- They forget about 90% of what they learned after one week.
This begs the question, “How can we improve trainees' ability to retain acquired knowledge?”
Training techniques are a major factor in improving the capacity to remember new information. Research has indicated that applying effective learning techniques, practical practice, spaced repetition, and opportunities to apply information in real-world scenarios enhance trainees’ ability to retain and apply knowledge and skills. Interactive elements, simulation exercises, assessments, and follow-up activities can be used to increase information retention and improve long-term training outcomes.
15 effective ways to help trainees retain acquired knowledge
1. Clarify the Training’s Practical Advantages
Trainees should be informed about the training’s advantages and practical applications to motivate them to participate and engage during sessions.
The brain retains information it considers useful. Therefore, it is essential to clarify to employees the purpose of training units and materials and how they can use them in performing their job tasks.
However, using storytelling and case studies is recommended to connect theoretical knowledge with practical application and help employees visualize its outcomes.
2. Peer Learning Techniques
This approach entails pairing employees to facilitate peer learning to address the difficulty of engaging with the trainer during online or in-person courses. Employees can focus and retain information better when a peer trains them on applying a specific skill or idea at work.
3. Break Training into Short Units
Attention spans are currently limited, so complex topics should be explained through shorter sessions. Employees can lose focus and become distracted by personal concerns or other matters unrelated to training.
Training materials can be divided into brief, time-efficient units to help improve trainees' memory. For example, compliance training can be divided into five short sessions, each lasting about 20 minutes. Employees can easily dedicate 20 minutes to training regardless of their workload, which improves information retention. Microlearning techniques can be easily applied using mobile phones, allowing for learning during travel and meeting the needs of remote workers.
4. Boost Course Enjoyment
Many employees view training as a dry and formal process, so using "gamification" techniques to inject some fun into training materials is a good idea.
This technique simply involves incorporating game elements into tasks that demand workers to overcome obstacles and adopt particular behavioral modifications. Adding game elements to any topic in the course will make it more engaging and enjoyable.
5. Information Repetition
Repeating information increases employees’ ability to retain them. Therefore, repeating key topics and skills as frequently as possible during the course is essential.
Repetition strengthens and solidifies the employee's memorization and retention. This can be achieved by linking training units together, summarizing information, and re-explaining it during the course, especially complex topics.
6. Microlearning
Microlearning techniques involve preparing 3- to 5-minute sessions to achieve a specific outcome and help employees reinforce key information.
Microlearning can be applied in formal courses and informal employee skill development initiatives. Information should be presented in brief sections that consider modern attention spans.
7. Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning enhances employees' ability to exchange information and skills and solidifies them long-term. Therefore, it is recommended that conditions be created to encourage employees to collaborate during training sessions covering complex or open topics, allowing them to share opinions and discuss different viewpoints.
For example, this approach can be applied by planning an event outside the workplace and assigning a group of employees to give speeches on specific topics. After that, you can divide the employees into small groups and task them with discussing the presented topics. You might note on a board the conclusions that trainees draw from the speeches, how they plan to apply this knowledge in their daily work tasks, and how they interpret the importance and value of the discussed concepts and data. Collaborative activities help generate various ideas and perspectives and discuss the topics’ details and dimensions.
8. Personalizing the Course
Personalization is essential to clarify employees the courses’ practical applications and encourage them to benefit from them while performing daily tasks.
Training units can be personalized and humanized by using some real employees’ voices and images. This human connection helps increase employees' ability to comprehend and retain information.
9. Assessments
Assessing trainees' performance and training procedures’ effectiveness can enhance employees' information retention.
These assessments include short quizzes that help summarize the acquired information at the end of each training unit. After each training unit, employees must answer multiple-choice questions about topics related to the included information.
Assessments provide immediate feedback that helps employees assess their comprehension of the training material and enables the initiative's managers to ascertain the course's efficacy. Analytical studies’ results can be used to evaluate employee performance in each training session and modify the content when employee test success rates are low.
10. Creating Visually Engaging Content
The course design largely determines its success, which requires diversifying visual elements, using graphics, charts, and interesting colors. These visual elements aim to maintain the trainees' attention throughout the session.
It is preferable to vary the visual elements within a single session as much as possible to alleviate boredom, keep trainees engaged, enhance their enthusiasm and interest in the topic, and increase their ability to retain information.
11. Blended Learning
While some materials should be delivered in person, others need to be explained online. The blended approach can be used to balance between real-world and virtual learning.
Blended learning is recommended to add diversity and vitality to the experience. It ensures that content is delivered in a way that suits the topic and breaks the monotony of traditional learning methods.
The topic can be explained in both ways simultaneously to reinforce information through different styles and help employees understand and retain it.
12. Clarifying the Training Purpose
Employees frequently receive training assignments without clear instructions regarding the objectives and expected results.
It is essential to explain to employees the reasons for conducting the training and its value, importance, and benefits to increase their willingness to participate and engage with the content. Ultimately, this improves their ability to retain the acquired information.
13. Small-Group Training
Sometimes, training can be an individual experience, where each employee takes a unique course and studies modules and resources independently.
However, group training is suitable for certain materials that require sharing ideas and different perspectives among the group.
Collaborative learning can be implemented using a Learning Management System (LMS) with a chat feature that allows employees to communicate and discuss various topics and ideas. Also, in-person group learning can be adapted by assigning employees to complete group projects, work as a team, and share experiences and skills. This method highlights the importance of collaboration and soft skills based on personality types.
Group learning has been proven to help in long-term information retention.
14. Appreciating and Rewarding Employees
Recognition helps motivate employees to learn, and it can be achieved by rewarding and celebrating achievements through company email newsletters.
Encouraging healthy competition and achieving success can enhance employees' information retention. You should not expect employees to engage in learning on their own without motivation and rewards.
Rewards provide employees with an extra incentive to learn and succeed. However, you should ensure that rewards are given for applying information in the workplace since training is about attending sessions and understanding, retaining, and applying information in daily work tasks. Rewards can include electronic tools, flowers, paid vacations, and office supplies.
Rewards help retain information and enhance the employee's status and credibility among their peers.
15. Mental Exercises
Mental exercises strengthen cognitive abilities and improve memory functions, including problem-solving and decision-making exercises.
In Conclusion
The article has presented several effective techniques for improving employees' information retention. Forgetting acquired information is a common issue regardless of the training topic. Therefore, you should do your best to help employees solidify the skills and knowledge they have gained.
