Why Does Online Training Fail?

Justin

Hey, everyone, welcome back to Safety Instruct Insights in our series, where we talk about all things online training, safety, just a variety of topics. And so I’m Justin Plutino and this is, of course, Daniel Wilder, the president, CEO, of Safety Instruct. And so, Daniel, what’s on the agenda today is the topic of why does online training fail? So let’s get into that and kind of tear it apart.

Daniel

Definitely. And, you know, this is always that question that everybody brings up. You know, if you go ask someone, you know, what do you think about online training? They can pretty much always start with a wonderful horror story, right? It’s never a, let me tell you about this great experience. No, it’s always well, this sucked, this was bad or I didn’t like doing it this way. And, you know, I used to always take that approach of, well, online training fails because of access or cost or content, and which was a really nice corporate answer to the question. But what I actually started, you know, when I really started to dive a little bit more into it and get perspective from people, I actually discovered that the root cause, if you will catch a keyword, is the lack of human connection. At the endow, so online training is failing right now for the vast majority of people because there’s no human connection anymore and that’s what that that student is craving. That’s what they need to actually understand the topic or the information that’s being presented.

Justin

Especially in the time right now with COVID-19, I feel like a lot of people, even before COVID-19 didn’t like online training, just from what you just said, it’s lacking some of that human element, human connection. And so now more so than ever since they have
no other option that they have to go on online training. I think we provide a very good
human connective customer experience with that. When you do contact us, you’re getting a real person. At the other end of the line, we answer questions. We have our chat, our chat function on our website. We have our ticket support items. So that way we can get questions answered. But no, I would agree with you on that. I would say that we try to, as a company on the whole, add in that human element because it can be intimidating for somebody when they’re first coming on to all my training. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s very overwhelming initially. And that’s why it’s important to have, you know, a liaison to help them with that transition period or any sort of questions they have.

Daniel

You’re exactly correct. You know, part of that is keeping that managed element into the process. But it’s also how is the training being delivered? And that’s where the other value of using video comes into play. You know, a lot of people always try to
justify saying, oh, well, you know, this kind of training is more interactive. Well, that’s that is helpful. But if you’re not using videos, you’re not showing real people in a process, then the value just isn’t going to be there. She’s going to be a glorified PowerPoint that if you’re lucky and if you’re not lucky, it’s going to be a narrated PowerPoint. That Tutor.

Justin

Yeah. Microsoft or something like that.

Daniel

Exactly. Yeah, I’m sure that they are going to.

Justin

Oh yeah. Everyone knows who that is, but yeah.

Daniel

But it’s, that’s really what it comes down to and that’s why so many people just have this bad taste in their mouth of the day. Yes. Supports a big part of it for sure, especially for a lot of these companies now that are either having to go back to the wheelhouse and try online training again because they don’t have a choice or maybe even training for the first time. And it can be a very frustrating process. So, the support by real people is a critical part of that. But the other side of that, too, is what are you actually training them on? What is the actual content of the curriculum? And when you don’t have video and more importantly than that, when you don’t have real workers. Right. You’ve seen it right. That person that steps with a forklift, you know, whether or not they’ve done that ten times or a thousand times. And it’s I mean, it’s just second nature, right? Yes. When you show someone doing that how to operate something safely and it’s something that, you know, they’ve done for fifteen years, that just comes across better. Right. And that student, they can relate to that. They can I don’t want to say feel it, but that’s really what it comes down to. And that comprehension actually will stay with them. You want to focus on the retention of a topic and that student walking away, you know, really grasping what that course material is about. They need to see that person. They need to see that connection in that process.

Justin

Couldn’t agree more, man, it’s lead by example, essentially when we’re toddlers, that’s how we learn, you know, kind of stick it in your mouth and see what happens. It’s the same thing in the work process, in my opinion. You lead by watching other people and you learn by that and so are video based curriculum allows the end user or your students or whatever to see what that example actually looks like in real time versus a PowerPoint and trying to articulate that and communicate that to your students or the people you’re trying to train safely, they can actually see the real-life example and it really resonates with them better than not so perfect example there. We’re going to try to keep this a little short a condensed because we know everyone has very busy schedules that we just want to talk briefly about why online training fails and some solutions for and some think we covered those areas. And to summarize this all, we have our free six essentials. I think you have referred to it as a six pack for the holidays. There you go. You know, six pack of essential courses are absolutely free. Guys, you just have to DM us and we will validate that you’re a real person because God knows how many bots are out there on special social media. And so, we’ll get you access to those three essential core series. You don’t have to talk to us. You don’t want to. We would appreciate it if you do, though. If you want to have a free, quick 30-minute chat, 50-minute chat, free consultation session, you just want to ask the question. We’re available for that. But to get you guys registered for GST and either Daniel or myself or in the comments, however, you want to do it and please share this with people that you think might need our special series. And if there’s a specific course that you guys will have access to for free, I’m sure we can accommodate you with that. Outside of our essential series shop, our library, there’s a list on our website. You can definitely check that out. If not, ask us for the list and we’ll give that to you. We have multiple courses, all video based, and they’re at our fingertips ready for you to utilize. So, I think I covered pretty much everything on this. Daniel, can you think of anything else that think there would be?

Daniel

You know, other questions or other experiences that may be where you’ve had online training? They’ll definitely share those. We’d love to hear feedback there, especially on ways that you feel like you should see online training improving. You know, it’s an evolution. It’s a continued process. So, it’s something we’re continuing to do as well.

Justin

Just like fitness, go to the gym and just have one size fits all you learn as you go, I mean, I’ve been working out for over 15 years and people teach me new stuff all the time. So, with that being said, thanks for sticking around everyone and share this with anyone you think might benefit. And Daniel and I, we’ll see you next time.

Daniel

See you guys.