Instructional Design Consulting Firm

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Instructional Design Firms Transform Employee Training

It can be a challenge to find the right instructional design consulting firm for your training needs. But it doesn’t have to be. At RTG Solutions Group, we believe employee development is critical to business success. As a top instructional design company, we provide the best training solutions to meet your needs.

Solid instructional design strategy is foundational to a learning culture. Likewise, good training improves employee performance and engagement. As part of our learning and development services, our instructional design approach ensures your training is purposeful and measurable.

We don’t take a cookie-cutter approach to instructional design. In other words, our unique approach targets each client’s unique training needs. In addition, we create learning experiences that align with your goals and objectives. As an instructional design consultant, we understand the importance of developing a tailored training program for your organization.

Choosing the Right Instructional Design Company

When looking for an instructional design consulting firm, it’s essential to consider factors such as the company’s experience, expertise, and approach to training.

Look for a company that has a proven track record of success, and offers a wide range of instructional design services. In addition, an instructional design team should embrace instructional design best practices and demonstrate their ability to create engaging and effective training materials. All these training efforts must align with your organizational goals.

Instructional Design Training Tools

At RTG Solutions Group, we utilize state-of-the-art instructional design training tools to create engaging, professional, and custom training for our clients. We utilize Articulate 360, specifically Rise and Storyline, to develop high-quality eLearning courses tailored to your organization’s needs.

Rise 360 is an innovative tool that allows us to design responsive, interactive, and visually appealing online courses that can be accessed on any device.

Storyline 360, on the other hand, enables us to create highly interactive and immersive learning experiences, complete with custom animations, branching scenarios, and multimedia content.

By leveraging the power of these industry-leading tools, our instructional design consultants can craft training materials that captivate your learners and boost engagement. And importantly, our team effectively delivers the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their roles.

Ensuring a Customized Training Approach

Every organization is unique, which is why it’s essential to work with an instructional design consultant who can develop a customized training program that meets your specific needs.

This may involve conducting a thorough needs analysis, identifying performance gaps, and developing targeted learning objectives. By taking the time to understand your organization’s goals and challenges, an instructional design company can create a tailored training program that drives real results.

Exploring the Instructional Design Process

The instructional design process involves several critical steps.

These include conducting a needs assessment, developing a training plan, creating engaging and interactive learning materials, and evaluating the effectiveness of the training.

We follow instructional design best practices, the latest learning theories, and learning strategies. Throughout this process, an instructional design consultant will work closely with your organization to ensure that your training program is tailored to your specific needs and objectives. Additionally, as an organization, you can provide your employees with engaging, timely, and informative learning content.

Training does NOT have to be boring! Unfortunately, so many companies and employees have become accustomed to dull and mind-numbing trainings. It definitely doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s raise training engagement, expectation, and knowledge retention with customized eLearning training.

We are proud of the results-focused training we develop for our clients. In our streamlined approach, we use the PDCA model for process efficiency and ensure comprehensive training outcomes. To be sure, we are committed to plan, develop, validate, and sustain training within your organization.

PDCA: PLAN

FIRST STEP IN PLANNING: CONDUCT A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The Needs Assessment is a crucial step towards effective training. Unfortunately, it is often over-looked or skipped to save time. As a result, many jump right to curriculum development. However, without a Needs Assessment, budget hits and schedule overruns can result. In the end, the goal of developing effective training is lost.

Our instructional design consulting team assesses your current state of training. We’ll ask several questions.

What’s been working? What hasn’t worked? What is the desired outcome for your training? Where are the gaps and the needs of the organization? Who is the target audience? What type of training methods best match each audience? What is the connection to the organization’s goals? Additionally, how does employee development assist in reaching those goals?

DEVELOP SPECIFICS ON TRAINING ROI

What goals do you plan to achieve with the training? Likewise, how will you measure its performance?

Subsequently, it’s important to develop the ROI in the planning process. Most acknowledge that results matter. In the end, there’s no single approach to measure training ROI. However, it’s best to outline how it will be measured from the start.

There are several factors to consider. These include the goal, current employee knowledge, post-training assessment, and performance results.

DEFINE THE TRAINING DEVELOPMENT BUDGET

As an instructional design consulting firm, we help outline the training costs. Of course, if a budget is already set, that’s great. This will ensure all training is scoped and created within budget.

We caution not to skip the budget step. Equally harmful is waiting until further in the development process. As a result, both will cause schedule delays and cost overruns.

PDCA: DO

DEVELOP PRE-TRAINING EVALUATION

It’s important for instructional design firms to do a pre-training assessment. In this step, the team measures the training effectiveness and employees’ knowledge. This will pinpoint the current skill and knowledge level. The instructional designers outline the assessment approach. Additionally, they identify tasks to complete prior to training.

DEVELOP TASK ANALYSIS

The task analysis outlines each step for a task or job. This captures detailed actions for employees in each role.

Our instructional designers highlight each task in the training. Towards this effort, the team documents each step from beginning to end. The designers do not assume common knowledge for any step. Consequently, it’s essential to clearly outline each step in the task.

DEVELOP TRAINING CURRICULUM

The type of training needed guides the development of curriculum. Examples of training include: product or service, compliance, safety, technical skills, soft skills (also referred to as power skills), cybersecurity, employee orientation, and onboarding.

Instructional designers create training based on how it will be deployed. For example, will the training be on a Learning Management System (LMS) as an eLearning format? Or is it instructor-led? Or, it could be a combination of both. And of course since the Covid pandemic, many organizations have utilized virtual instructor-led training.

In our instructional design consulting approach, we work with our clients to include the most appropriate types of learning for your organization. Additionally, the training can include blended learning, virtual led training, gamification, mobile, AR/VR, and microlearning.

DEVELOP SCORM COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENT

Is your training in an e-learning format, hosted on your organization’s LMS? If so, the instructional design team will ensure the training meets SCORM requirements. SCORM compliant training modules ensure that the training meets standards for any LMS. If your organization looks to change LMS platforms in the future, SCORM compliant training will run on the new system.

PDCA: DO

DEVELOP PRE-TRAINING EVALUATION

It’s important for instructional design firms to do a pre-training assessment. In this step, the team measures the training effectiveness and employees’ knowledge. This will pinpoint the current skill and knowledge level. The instructional designers outline the assessment approach. Additionally, they identify tasks to complete prior to training.

DEVELOP TASK ANALYSIS

The task analysis outlines each step for a task or job. This captures detailed actions for employees in each role. Our instructional designers highlight each task in the training. Towards this effort, the team documents each step from beginning to end. The designers do not assume common knowledge for any step. Consequently, it’s essential to clearly outline each step in the task.

DEVELOP TRAINING CURRICULUM

The type of training needed guides the development of curriculum. Examples of training include: product or service, compliance, safety, technical skills, soft skills (also referred to as power skills), cybersecurity, employee orientation, and onboarding.

Instructional designers create training based on how it will be deployed. For example, will the training be on a Learning Management System (LMS) as an eLearning format? Or is it instructor-led? Or, it could be a combination of both. In our instructional design consulting approach, we work with our clients to include the most appropriate types of learning for your organization. Additionally, the training can include blended learning, virtual led training, gamification, mobile, AR/VR, and microlearning.

DEVELOP SCORM COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENT

Is your training in an eLearning format, hosted on your organization’s LMS? If so, the instructional design team will ensure the training meets SCORM requirements. SCORM compliant training modules ensure that the training meets standards for any LMS. If your organization looks to change LMS platforms in the future, SCORM compliant training will run on the new system.

PDCA: CHECK

PERFORM SCORM COMPLIANCE TESTING

It’s important to verify each learner receives eLearning training. As part of the testing, the team tracks training results. Testing also confirms training compatibility with the LMS. As part of our instructional design consulting services, we make sure all training is SCORM compliant.

VALIDATE TRAINING ADOPTION

The type of training determines the approach to measure effectiveness. As well, employee adoption is important. Therefore, the goal is that employees understand and embrace the knowledge and skills. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to measure performance. The training team assesses how well employees support the training. As a result, the training effectiveness relates to the rate of adoption.

PERFORM TRAINING SURVEYS

For the most part, employees are honest in their feedback. Surveys are helpful to gather this information. In this effort, employees provide important insight into the training. As well, they offer solid suggestions to improve the training. In addition, employees like that their opinion is valued.

MONITOR, ADJUST AND CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE TRAINING CONTENT

After training is developed, the work does not end. A culture of continuous improvement ensures that training and methods are regularly reviewed and refined. Instructional design companies should continue to evaluate how to improve the training. As an example, how can we adjust the training to increase adoption? Likewise, there are always opportunities to improve training efforts.

PDCA: ACT

PERFORM LMS MAINTENANCE

Like any software-based system, your organization’s LMS needs regular maintenance. These efforts include software updates. This ensures the LMS is running with current eLearning training strategies. As part of our instructional design consulting efforts, we collaborate with your administrator or LMS vendor. We’ll confirm that all new curriculum is operating as it should.

RUN LEARNING KPI REPORTS

The instructional design team runs KPI reports outlined in the development phase. As part of this effort, the KPIs should be linked to the organization’s goals. Likewise, KPI reports should evaluate several metrics. Some of the metrics include:

  • Activity pass/fail rate
  • Average test score
  • Training completion percentage rate
  • Job role competency rate
  • Compliance and certification percentage rate
  • Average time to completion
  • Knowledge retention and application
  • Operational effectiveness measures
  • Employee performance
  • Number of learners trained
  • Learner satisfaction

MEASURE TRAINING ROI ACTUALS

In the Plan phase, the instructional design team identified the ROI for the project. To emphasize, this is the pay-off. At this juncture, the team compares the cost of training to the ROI. With training complete, the team now measures the ROI to the actual data results.

CONDUCT POST-TRAINING EVALUATION

Surveys are helpful to evaluate training from the learners’ perspective. Additionally, it’s also important to gauge the success of the overall training project. There are several questions to ask. Did the training meet the desired outcomes? Did the training fill the knowledge and skill gaps? How effective was the ROI? Did the training create learner engagement? Were you able to connect the training to the organization’s goals and objectives? These are a few data points to review as part of the post-training evaluation.

REVIEW AND UPDATE TRAINING AS NEEDED

As your organization evolves, it’s important to ensure that your training materials remain relevant and up-to-date. Review and update training content periodically to align with any changes in organizational goals, industry standards, or employee needs. Collaborating with an instructional design firm ensures that your training materials are always current and effective.

INVESTING IN YOUR EMPLOYEES’ SUCCESS

Ultimately, investing in an instructional design consulting firm is an investment in your employees’ success. By partnering with a company that specializes in creating engaging and effective training materials, you can ensure that your employees have the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their roles and contribute to your organization’s overall success.

Conclusion

There are many instructional design companies your organization could work with. We believe our strategic approach to develop measurable, result-based, and impactful employee training is effective.

At RTG Solutions Group, we pride ourselves on delivering customized training solutions that meet your organization’s unique needs, ensuring your employees are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their roles. Contact us today to help you create an effective employee training strategy!

“A vision cannot be realized without the ability to execute.”

Khris K. Bhattan
President, RTG Solutions Group
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