What's your strategy to train employees with external resources?

1 Assess your training needs

Before you start looking for external resources, you need to identify your training goals and gaps. What skills, knowledge, or behaviors do you want your employees to learn or improve? How will you measure their progress and impact? What are the current strengths and weaknesses of your employees in relation to your goals? You can use various methods to assess your training needs, such as surveys, interviews, observations, performance reviews, or feedback. Based on your assessment, you can prioritize the most urgent and relevant training topics and align them with your business objectives and strategy.

2 Find and evaluate external resources

Once you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your training, you can start searching for external resources that match your criteria. There are many options available, depending on your budget, time frame, and learning preferences. For example, you can enroll your employees in online courses from reputable platforms, such as Coursera, Udemy, or LinkedIn Learning, that offer a wide range of topics and formats. You can also invite experts, mentors, or consultants to deliver webinars, workshops, or coaching sessions for your employees. Alternatively, you can encourage your employees to access free or low-cost resources, such as podcasts, books, blogs, or industry associations, that provide valuable insights and tips. Whatever external resources you choose, make sure you evaluate their quality, credibility, relevance, and suitability for your training needs and audience.

3 Integrate external resources with internal training

External resources can complement and enhance your internal training, but they should not replace it entirely. You still need to provide your employees with guidance, support, and feedback throughout their learning journey. You can do this by integrating external resources with your internal training activities, such as orientation, onboarding, mentoring, or peer learning. For example, you can assign external resources as pre-work or post-work for your internal training sessions, or use them as case studies, examples, or references. You can also create a learning plan or a curriculum that combines external and internal resources and tracks your employees' progress and achievements. Additionally, you can foster a learning culture in your organization by encouraging your employees to share their learnings and experiences from external resources with their colleagues and managers.

4 Customize external resources for your context

External resources may not always fit your specific context, needs, or expectations. Sometimes, you may need to adapt or modify them to make them more relevant, engaging, or effective for your employees. For example, you can add your own examples, scenarios, or questions to external resources to illustrate how they apply to your industry, organization, or role. You can also supplement external resources with your own materials, such as handouts, worksheets, or quizzes, to reinforce the key points and assess the learning outcomes. Furthermore, you can tailor external resources to your employees' learning styles, preferences, and levels, by offering them different options, formats, or modes of delivery.

5 Review and update external resources regularly

External resources are not static or fixed. They may change, evolve, or become obsolete over time, depending on the trends, developments, or innovations in your field or sector. Therefore, you need to review and update your external resources regularly to ensure they are still current, accurate, and useful for your training purposes. You can do this by checking the dates, sources, and updates of your external resources, and comparing them with the latest information and best practices. You can also solicit feedback from your employees, trainers, or experts on the quality and relevance of your external resources, and make adjustments or improvements accordingly. By keeping your external resources up to date, you can provide your employees with the most valuable and effective learning opportunities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?