Developing an employee training manual can either be simple or complicated depending on the amount of information that you want to put in it. Manuals are, of course, designed to assist trainees in their training, but they can also be used to address common questions or simply offer additional information on critical lessons.
Furthermore, manuals can also be used to tie together all of the various aspects of the training program, thereby giving trainees a general idea of what their training is meant to achieve. The presence of such information eliminates the tendency of employees to second-guess their trainers, and at the same time, increase motivation for their training. So if your company wants to
create its own employee training manual then here’s what you need to know about the process.
How to Develop a Training Manual
Creating an employee training manual involves several steps. The more sophisticated you want your manual to be, the more steps you will have to follow. However, if you’re content with just the bare essentials then the following steps will suffice:
1. Complete A Front End Analysis – The first stage in creating a training manual involves listing the objectives and tasks that will be taught all throughout the training program. Basically, this is the part where the table of contents is written down and edited.
2. Divide Each Content Into Modules – The next step is to group the contents of the training program into modules. Each module is basically one chapter of the entire course, and should be structured in such a way as to prevent confusion among trainees.
3. Select a Style for Your Manual – The style of your manual determines how it presents its contents and information. A couple of good examples of popular manual templates include those used by the American Psychological Association and the Chicago Manual of Style.
4. Create the Actual Manual – This is the part where several drafts are written for the training manual. This phase usually takes a lot of time and rewriting. It also often involves shortening unnecessary long modules, so as to make the manual more concise and easier to read.
5. Editing and Binding the Manual – Once the manual has been edited, assessed and approved, it will be bound and released to the trainees.
Why is an Employee Training Manual Important?
Aside from helping employees learn about their organization, training manuals are also important because they describe most your company’s training and development policies. They can, for example, describe to your personnel the possible rewards and incentives that will result from undergoing training. They can also recommend additional resources for your personnel to look at, such as
specific training and development articles or case studies for example.
Furthermore, manuals can also be used to describe to trainees how their training will affect their job functions and salaries in the near future. If your training program features tools like
employee training tracking software for example, then the manual can also describe their role in their training. So all things considered, an employee training manual plays a very big role in the development of any employee training plan template.
