Most associations couple training to events: onboarding or a Go-Live. However, ongoing training is an investment in your people and your technology. Whether it’s brushing up on cyber threat prevention, understanding how to manage data, or leveling up AMS skills; it’s important to weave association staff training into your calendar to ingrain it into your organization’s culture. Here are our best tips to create an ongoing association staff training culture.
Insufficient Training Costs Your Organization
Maybe you cover AMS basics during staff onboarding or back at the initial Go-Live; so you assume staff will figure out the rest. That assumption is costing you. From our tech survey assessments, we know that only 62% of staff report receiving AMS training. Moreover, our data is clear: training and its effectiveness matter.
Staff who received moderately or very effective AMS training averaged a 4.0 out of 5 on AMS confidence compared to staff without AMS training’s 2.9. Furthermore, 90% of respondents who received moderate or very effective AMS training felt the system enhanced their productivity whereas only 66% of those without AMS training felt more productive. That nearly 30-point gap represents real productivity for staff, members, and the organization. Even more surprising: ineffective training scored just as low as no training at all. So, if you’re looking to improve productivity, and get the most out of tech investments, train staff and ensure it meets their needs.
Train Once, Forget Fast
Training isn’t a one-time thing. Ebbinghaus’ research on learning retention and his forgetting curve illustrates why one-and-done fails. Without reinforcement, you only retain a third of new information within 24 hours. After a week, you retain just 25%. This explains why one pre-Go-Live training session or one post Go-Live session leaves staff scratching their heads. It’s a good start, but it’s insufficient. Effective programs create ongoing touchpoints (e.g. the 7- and 30-day marks) so knowledge sticks.
In our data, 1-on-1 training was overwhelmingly the most effective format (69% of those who found training effective selected it). However, when asked what would help them going forward, staff cited team-specific training and short videos: two training formats they haven’t experienced as much. This points to a desire for more accessible, ongoing formats to meet their specific ongoing needs.
Ingrain Association Staff Training in Your Culture
It’s easy for training to fall on the backburner with multiple pressing priorities throughout the year and when Go-Live feels like the finish line. Nevertheless, associations can build ongoing structured learning into their natural rhythms by employing these simple tactics.
- Audit your current training. Most platforms include tutorials, certifications, and documentation. Before adding anything new, check what’s already included.
- Market internally. Fewer than half of staff in our assessments even knew SOPs for their AMS existed. Communicate what’s out there. Reshare regularly (remember the forgetting curve?).
- Engage staff. Ask before you build. Find out what’s effective (e.g. 1-1, videos), what formats staff want to see, and the content they want delivered (e.g. deepening proficiency in tools, learning updated workflows after processes change, staying current on compliance requirements, or cross-training so critical knowledge is not held by a single person).
- Separate onboarding from training. Don’t equate new staff orientation with ongoing learning. Onboarding is training to understand how your organization functions. For that, build a structured 30-60-90-day training track. In contrast, ongoing association staff training helps staff continue to deliver as tools, people, and job responsibilities change. It’s continued investment in your people, tools, and your organization.
- Create touchpoints. The organizations that see the best adoption are those that treat training as a phased program, not a one-time event. Plan for day-7 and day-30 follow-up sessions after initial training before Go-Live.
- Capitalize on low-pressure moments. Research on cognitive load and stress suggests that retention is lowest during peak-pressure periods (e.g., conference season, renewal cycle). Moreover, when your organization undergoes constant change, you’re unable to learn effectively. It’s why we suggest using downtime for ongoing association staff training. Staff have the time as well as capacity to absorb and internalize the learnings. Target:
- Post Go-Live/Updates. Reinforce through training before they abandon it and go back to old habits. Take the time as gaps become visible and staff surface practical questions that can be addressed.
- Before or after your annual event season. Cognitive load is highest during peak periods. Schedule ongoing training in the valleys between so it’s absorbed and retained.
- During maintenance mode. This low operational pressure period is the perfect window for deeper training on underused features, cross-training across roles, and upping your cybersecurity.
Train Continuously, Grow Continuously
People and technology do not grow without a continued time investment. Associations that build training into their ongoing calendar, not just their onboarding and implementation plans, see better adoption, higher staff confidence, and stronger operational continuity.
Want help identifying where training gaps are costing your association the most? Contact us to learn how Achurch Consulting can support your team’s training and technology adoption.