Types of Training Needs: What Are They?

One of the best actions you can take to improve your business is to improve your training programs. But when we say training programs, we don't just mean onboarding resources. While onboarding is one vital aspect of user education, you should also provide ongoing learning opportunities for all groups of users. These users could be customers, gig workers, employees, partners or anyone who uses your products. 

But with all these different types of users comes multiple types of training needs. For instance, the resources you share with your employees may not be relevant to your customers and vice versa. You need different types of training programs to provide the right education for each type of user.

However, learning management systems provide a much more convenient alternative to creating separate training programs for every different training need. An LMS allows you to manage all types of learning content in a centralized location and easily customize each learner's experience.

What's Training?

We've been using the word "training" a lot so far — but what is training? The term is simple enough to understand, but it's often used in very different contexts. To some people, training means employee onboarding. To others, it means teaching customers how to use new product features. Both of these examples are true, and so are many others. In business terms, training is a broad word that refers to any opportunities for teaching new skills to a relevant group or developing their product knowledge. 

Types of Training

Technical Training

Technical training is one variety of training a learning management system can facilitate. There are multiple types of technical training, but in general, technical training develops skills related to the design, development, implementation, operation, maintenance, and support of a technology product. 

A training course offered by a SaaS company that teaches customers how to use a complex feature is one example of technical training. Another type of technical training is a troubleshooting guide that helps customers solve issues with their technology products without needing to contact customer support.

Technical training is one of the most important kinds of training. Technology products are often complicated and most have a challenging learning process. Some users may be savvy enough to learn how to use new software with little trouble — but the majority will need some help. SaaS companies are at especially high risk of customer churn if they fail to offer adequate technical training. Using a learning management system to improve training can help you deliver value to customers faster, so they don't churn.

Quality Training

Quality training is a specific type of training that is usually only applicable to employees. Employees learn how to test products for problems or inconsistencies in a quality training program. Any of the tasks you'd typically associate with quality assurance fall within the category of quality training.

However, there are some other varieties of quality training as well. For example, some quality training courses teach employees how to investigate the effectiveness of the procedures used during product production. Others teach them how to evaluate less concrete metrics, like morale at the company. Quality training might not be the first type of training to spring to mind when the subject comes up, but it's critical in many industries.

Skills Training

Any courses or other training materials that teach employees work-related skills are considered skills training. However, the best skills training programs go beyond simply teaching employees the basic practical skills they need to accomplish everyday tasks. High-quality skills training programs focus on a personalized approach that helps employees develop the skills necessary to succeed in their careers now and in the future.

Skills training is valuable throughout an employee's entire journey with your company. You can use skills training to:

• Equip new employees with the skills they'll need to perform their jobs well
• Help experienced employees develop new skills as they advance in their careers.
• Train new and old employees alike to use new procedures or tools that the company adopts.

These are just a few examples of how skills training can benefit your employees.

Soft Skills

Soft skills training is a slightly different kind of skills training. Unlike hard skills, soft skills are not tangible technical proficiencies. They're harder to define, but you can consider them interpersonal skills. Teamwork, communication and leadership are all soft skills.

It's easy to fixate on hard skills because they're so much easier to measure. Training your employees to use a new tool pays off directly and quickly when employees are more productive. The benefits of training soft skills aren't as immediately apparent. 

However, neglecting soft skills can actually stunt the business's growth. Soft skills are critical for tasks that depend on the employee's ability to communicate or problem solve, like sales and customer service. A great example of soft skills training is a course or seminar that teaches sales representatives how to develop better negotiation skills.

Team Training

Team training is a type of training that focuses on using teams to help employees improve at their jobs and function more effectively as team members. It's not the same as team building, which analyzes how a team works and determines how the team could improve productivity. Team training is also not the same as cooperative learning, a type of team-based learning used in academic settings, not professional ones.

Manager Training

Manager training is a broad term for a branch of professional training that addresses various management-related skills. For example, management training might include courses that help learners develop better leadership or conflict resolution skills.

Training is essential to a successful business, and management training is no exception. Your teams can't function effectively without successful managers leading them. However, successful managers don't just happen — they're the result of talented and dedicated employees who have been given the resources to hone their skills and excel. Manager training is the bridge that helps promising employees develop the leadership skills they need to move into a manager position. 

Manager training can also benefit experienced managers, not just new ones. Any good leader will tell you it's important always to remain open to growth and opportunities for learning. Manager training can help managers continue to improve throughout their entire leadership careers. Moreover, management best practices are continually evolving; ongoing management development training can help your organization's managers maintain their skills and learn about the newest management techniques. 

Safety Training

Safety training is another crucial type of training to offer at your organization. A safe work environment is impossible unless you properly educate all your employees regarding workplace safety. Safety training is notorious for being somewhat dull, so it's even more important to provide engaging resources for safety training.

Safety training is vital for every employee. However, additional training is necessary for employees pursuing workplace safety as a career path. Advanced safety training provides more in-depth knowledge about workplace safety regulations, procedures, responses and more.

You can use a learning management system to provide engaging and convenient safety training. An LMS can enable employees to access customized safety training resources online anytime it's convenient for them. Retention can improve significantly when employees consume training content in small chunks instead of being forced to sit through a long video or meeting.

Training Needs Analysis: What is It?

Clearly, training programs come in all shapes and sizes. It would be a real challenge for an organization to succeed at addressing every kind of training at once. Instead, it's better to analyze which areas of your company need training resources most urgently and begin by focusing your efforts there. A great way to establish this evaluation is with a training needs analysis report.

The standard components of training need analysis reports (TNA reports) include data that tells you which areas of your business could benefit most from improved learning and development opportunities. This data makes it possible to create an informed strategy that ultimately results in a successful training program.

Don't underestimate the importance of training needs analysis. A training needs analysis report helps you identify the gaps in your education strategy. It's a thorough assessment of your employees' or customers' current levels of knowledge or proficiency compared to your goals. By recognizing the areas where your customers and employees are not as knowledgeable or proficient as you'd like, you can pinpoint exactly where to focus your training efforts.

Some essential questions to consider during your analysis process are:

• Which employees or customers need training the most?
• What types of training do they need?
• What types of training programs are required to provide that training?
• What resources will creating and maintaining that training program require?

Questions like these can help you determine where your organization's most significant knowledge gaps lie so you can address them promptly and effectively with better training resources. Once you've determined your area of focus using a training needs analysis report, you can use a learning management system like Northpass to upgrade your training content in that area.