Feedback is an essential aspect of delivering effective learning. You want your employees to feel confident and motivated to learn in corporate training. With a structured feedback process, you can achieve that goal effectively.
Feedback allows you to deliver a positive learning experience to your employees and ensures they learn while progressing through the course. If you haven’t used feedback as a tool for effective learning before, this blog is just for you.
The primary objective of a learning and development (L&D) program is to help improve the knowledge and skills of your employees. Here is how a structured feedback process can help you accomplish that objective for your organization.
It is important to understand that feedback should always be a two-way process. While you offer valuable feedback to the employees throughout a course, expect some input from the learners.
Constant feedback for the learners would help reduce discrepancies between their current understanding and the goal of the course. Furthermore, such feedback makes learners feel more engaged in learning.
On the other hand, getting feedback from the learners regarding the training course will help you identify what is working and what needs improvement. Encouraging the learners to share their feedback will help you perfect the training course over time.
If your employees lack the motivation to learn, no amount of training will be enough. Feedback can be a great source of inspiration for learners if you use it correctly. You can encourage your team to complete learning objectives with the right feedback.
Feedback also offers you a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. You can use it to your advantage and adjust the lessons to provide a more personalized learning experience.
When you are constantly working towards improving the quality of learning through regular feedback sessions, it also reflects on the learners. They generally feel motivated to learn as you strive for a better learning environment for all.
Feedback allows you to identify performance indicators. When you conduct a feedback session for a particular L&D course, you get a clear picture of the team's learning progress. If the progress does not align with the goal of the course, you may need to make some adjustments to the program.
Also, the feedback from the team will help you understand which part of the course needs improvement and whether they need more training on a particular chapter. The two-way feedback process can help steer the training program in the right direction.
If your L&D program does not allow the learners to share their feedback about the course, it can impact the learning experience to a great extent. Actively asking your learners to share their feedback makes them feel heard and appreciated.
Almost every learner has some comments (positive or negative) regarding their training programs. You can use it to improve the courses and adjust the training methods to offer better learning experiences.
Also, you should highlight your actions based on feedback from the learners. This will show the team that you value their feedback and encourage them to share their positive and constructive comments more frequently.
Having a proper feedback process gives everyone a platform to share innovative ideas that can improve the training program. Be it the learners or the course design team, they all can contribute to improving the courses.
Since everyone brings a different perspective, regular feedback sessions can be a great way to highlight areas for improvement. All ideas may be useless, but this practice will boost everyone’s brainstorming ability.
Also, when the training module is designed for a particular department, people from that department can offer more valuable feedback than outsiders.
Hopefully, you have understood why feedback is crucial for a practical learning experience. Now, let us explore the measures you should take to utilize feedback more effectively in your L&D program.
In a corporate training environment, you can deliver feedback at the end of a learning module, address it annually, or provide it instantly during a lesson. While they all can be helpful, instant feedback is more effective for learners. When information is shared contextually in immediate response to an action, it helps the learner reinforce knowledge by rectifying mistakes.
It may not serve the purpose if you have conducted back-to-back feedback sessions in a week and suddenly stopped the process. You need to ensure that it is a continuous process, allowing everyone to share their feedback regarding the course. Also, you need to regularly offer feedback to the learners if you want them to engage in the learning process.
You must ensure that your feedback motivates the learners to try again and continue learning rather than give up. Effective feedback is constrictive and positively reinforces the learner. While reinforcement helps you ensure a quality learning experience for the employees, you need to see that it does not create the habit of repeating a behavior among the learners.
As mentioned earlier, you should always allow learners to share their feedback about the course instead of just focusing on the feedback you want to give. You should routinely ask for feedback, even if the learners do not voluntarily share it. Such a review will allow you to improve the learning material. At the same time, continue sharing your feedback with the learners.
It is better to have clear expectations and objectives for a course before rolling it out to your employers. This way, you can easily identify gaps in the learning process and share your feedback with the learners in a structured manner. You can compare the desired result with the output to offer guidance and positive reinforcement through structured feedback.
Feedback plays a pivotal role in the success of delivering a learning and development program. While it allows you to steer the learning flow in the right direction, you can also learn how to improve the training program for effective learning experiences. Also, regular feedback sessions can help you build better rapport with your employees by offering them a platform to share their thoughts about the course.
