Now that 2020 is well under way, many of our clients are turning their attention to staff training, and refresher courses in particular. Some are preparing to make big company-wide changes. For others, there’s an annual compliance deadline coming up. Whatever the reason, now is a good time to check your learning materials and ensure your training is up-to-date.

Keep your learning current and relevant

  • Review last year’s materials and update them where necessary to make them current and relevant.
  • Check legal areas, e.g. data protection and food safety – has the law changed since your courses were introduced? Is it about to change?
  • Check your online courses – were they built using Flash? Do you need to convert your elearning to HTML5? Adobe will stop updating and distributing Flash on 31st December this year, by which time all major browsers will have blocked it.
  • Check the content – have any of your processes and procedures changed?
  • Look at your training – does it look old-fashioned? Has your branding been updated? Have your staff uniforms changed? If the materials look like they haven’t been updated since last century, your learners will question if the content is still relevant.

Even if nothing has changed in the past year, at the very least think about updating some of the design, images or language in your materials. Look for examples from recent news stories or make cultural references that your learners are likely to recognise.

Do your learners use scenarios? Don’t tell the same old stories – write new ones so your learners can’t simply repeat the same answer from last year. Here at Ashford, we’re big fans of scenario-based learning – we’d love to help you write new stories to challenge your learners and keep them interested!

Why refresher training is important

Refresher courses allow people to maintain and improve their knowledge or skills, and learn about new developments related to their job. Keeping staff updated helps boost their confidence and morale, and encourages them to stay.

This benefits employers directly by:

  • Increasing efficiency
  • Reducing mistakes
  • Creating a culture of learning
  • Increasing the talent pool
  • Promoting excellence
  • Keeping people safe and within the law

It also helps employers to identify knowledge gaps and training needs.

Topics worth refreshing

Manual Handling - The five principles

Manual handling: one of our series of safety and security elearning courses that are suitable for all types of company or organisation.

Preventing Cyber Attacks

Cyber security: carry out an annual refresher course.

Let's talk about GDPR

Compliance: is your GDPR training up to date?

Health and safety

Carry out regular, ongoing safety training and refresh often to maintain good practice and update knowledge, as well as prevent injuries.

Customer service skills

Re-establish key values and boost motivation.

Cyber security

Carry out an annual refresher course. Include password security and mobile device secure usage.

Social network use

The variety and type of social networks are constantly changing. Make sure you have a clear corporate policy on how staff should use the company name in their social media profiles. Remind everyone that their personal and professional activities overlap and what they say online (and what they’ve said in the past) affects the company’s brand image.

Products and services

Remind everyone (not just sales teams) of the core products and services. Products might change throughout the year or people receive training ahead of a product launch, in which case they might need a reminder.

Compliance training

Keep everyone up-to-date with any changes or updates to regulations.

We can help!

If you need refresher training now, Ashford has a catalogue of ready-to-use elearning modules. We can also customise them to suit your particular company or organisation if you wish.

Alternatively, give us a call to discuss how we can help you update your existing online or printed learning materials. Email info@ashfordgs.com or call us on 01962 624268 to find out more.