Event Types: A Guide to Internal Training Events

Helping your employees reach their full potential requires ongoing learning and development. As companies develop new products, invest in new tools, and tap into new markets, corporate training events become mission-critical.

By investing in training, organizations prove to their employees that they’re willing to invest in them and their continued success. And that’s a big deal because, according to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workplace Learning Report, a whopping 94% of employees would stay with a company longer just because it invested in helping them learn. On top of this, LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report found that employees who feel cared about are 3.2 times more likely to be happy at work and 3.7 times more likely to recommend working for their company.

Add it all up, and there’s a lot to like about corporate training.

Although the benefits of training speak for themselves, organizations have options for how they deliver these types of events. Generally speaking, businesses can outsource training or facilitate it themselves.

What is an internal training event?

An internal or corporate training event is a session designed and delivered by and for employees to educate on workplace practices and role-specific skills. Organizations can also use internal training to orient and onboard new hires.

Although some internal training events occur as single sessions, others are recurring (e.g., once a quarter) as part of a larger learning initiative. According to a recent report by The Balance, internal training sessions tend to be more effective than external ones because they encourage knowledge-sharing between employees in the context of where the learnings will be applied — within the company.

What are some different types of training events?

Internal training events can take place in-person, and you can also administer them in virtual and hybrid formats. Additionally, training can be practical across many different topics, including the following:

• Sales kick-offs
• Product training
• Security training
• New-hire orientation
• Compliance training
• Leadership development
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) training
• Technical training
• Soft skills training
• New manager training

Who goes to internal training events?

Internal training events are full of people who work for the organization. Who attends each event depends on what type of event it is. For example, you’ll typically find the following people at each type of training event:

• New hires at onboarding training
• Salespeople at sales trainings
• Managers and executives at leadership training
• All employees at DE&I training, security training, and internal product launches

What do companies hope to get out of providing employee trainings?

Companies host internal training events to increase employee engagement and ensure they have the skills and information to do their best work. Additionally, companies use training events to build community and drive employee retention.

What do attendees hope to get out of participating in training events?

Attendees attend these events to learn how to do their jobs more effectively and develop new skills. Sometimes, this involves learning about new technologies and best practices. In other cases, it entails learning about the importance of DE&I or new cybersecurity vulnerabilities they need to be aware of. Whatever the training session’s purpose, employees hope to leave with some actionable takeaways that will enable them to succeed.

Examples of internal training events

Sessions on new-hire training, sales training, and security training are pretty self-evident. Let’s briefly examine some other ways organizations use training to build stronger, more successful teams.

Conflict Resolution

Even the most cohesive teams encounter conflict now and again. When conflicts occur, productivity grinds to a halt, and employees become disengaged. The results can get pretty dire depending on how long the conflict drags on. Enter conflict resolution training, which teaches employees ways to overcome impasses and identify conflicts as they’re brewing — rather than when they’ve become severe problems that slow the team down.

Time Management

According to the American Psychological Association, 79% of workers have experienced work-related stress within the past month. Many workers feel they have too much on their plates, and there are only so many hours in the day. This is where time management training can be beneficial. With an effective program, your team can learn strategies to juggle multiple projects without missing deadlines.

Tips For a Successful Training Event

Are you planning your next internal training session? If so, keep these training session tips in mind to ensure it’s a high-impact event that makes your company stronger than ever before:

• Understand the problem. Before designing your training event, consider what problem you are trying to solve with the training. Is there a business metric you are trying to move the needle on?
• Provide a balanced mix of learning modalities. Nobody learns through one-way information dumps. Consider how you can include social and experiential learning opportunities like group activities and discussions into your training event.
• Articulate clear learning objectives. Let people know what they will be able to do differently after leaving the training. What are they going to take away from it?
• Make things fun. Incorporating playfulness helps people relax and be more receptive to new information. Make sure that however you include play, you keep it relevant and appropriate for the training context.
• Create engaging content. When applicable, incorporate dynamic slide decks, videos, polls, and other types of content. This helps keep folks more engaged throughout the session and will also give them something to reference to reinforce what they’ve learned.
• Choose a setting that makes sense. If the purpose of your training is to teach your GTM team how to use a new product, a park in the middle of the city probably isn’t the right venue. Consider why you’re bringing people together (virtually or in-person), then determine the best setting to facilitate the learning you want to deliver.
• Get feedback and iterate for next time. Once your training session is over, ask attendees what they thought about it and what areas they would improve upon for next time. Use this information to iterate and build better training events over time.

Put On a High-impact Training Event With Bizzabo

As a purpose-built event management software solution, Bizzabo can help your organization run and manage engaging training programs for all your employees, wherever they are. Reach a large audience faster by broadcasting your trainers live to multiple employee offices for a one-to-many approach or create more immersive training experiences by designing off-site in-person training events.

Simply put, Bizzabo makes internal training events more accessible than ever before. Request a demo of our Event Experience OS today to learn more about how you can make the most of your next internal training session.