No form of employee training is a one size fits all solution.

Different employees have different learning styles. They interact with the same training content in different ways and walk away with different levels of understanding and sometimes even different takeaways.

Modern elearning solutions address this challenge with custom learning experiences and learning paths. 

That’s perhaps one of the most pressing reasons behind the popularity of elearning solutions in the modern corporate learning and development landscape.

However, when we only think of different learning styles, we are still ignoring a number of differences that employees, as individuals, have.

There is a lot of focus these days on making workplaces more inclusive or different genders, races, and abilities and the truth is, most corporate training programs aren’t developed while keeping inclusion in the workplace in mind.

That needs to change if modern workplaces are truly going to become inclusive. 

If you agree with the notion, you have landed on the right article.

In the following sections, we will be discussing tips that will help you make your corporate training program more inclusive.

Without further delay, let’s jump right into it:

Implement The WCAG-2 Accessibility Requirements

The WCAG-2 accessibility requirements are designed to make all sorts of digital content accessible. In fact, The USA has its own (similar) version of the guidelines known as Section 508 Compliance. 

While Section 508 Compliance is only limited to Federal and Government websites and those websites that are associated with Federal and Government websites, these guidelines, when implemented to training content help make it more inclusive for employees with disabilities.

While implementing these guidelines to your training content may take some work, most of the work can be taken care of by your learning management system, if you have one that is 508 compliant.

The good news is that most leading learning management systems are 508 compliant by default. However, it is better to check that your LMS also offers this ability. 

Create A Training Program That Accounts For Age (And Technical Illiteracy)

Let’s face it, the older generation still struggles with operating technologies, like the LMS. 

At the same time, there are a significant number of businesses that employ a multi-generational workforce. If your organisation is among these, there is a good chance that there is a significant gap between the technical capabilities of your older and younger employees. 

Your training needs to address this gap.

The easiest way to do this is to develop a social learning culture within your organisations. For instance, younger employees can pair up with baby boomers in your workforce.

This mutually beneficial partnership will ensure that those who struggle with technology can seek help from their tech-savvy colleagues. At the same time, the employees from the baby boomer generation can share their wisdom and experience of the learning process with their younger counterparts.

Introduce Inclusive Gamification 

Gamification is a widely-accepted strategy to make training programs more enjoyable, engaging, and effective. 

There are countless surveys and studies that support the positive influence gamification can have on improving the effectiveness of training. 

There are a number of ways to implement gamification and in many cases, the end result is quite complex. Many training programs make use of fictional characters to simplify such concepts for their learners.

If you too are making use of fictional characters, make sure you are employing an inclusive approach. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you need to include characters with disabilities or different skin tones.

Instead, try including animated characters of inanimate objects like fruits, car parts, office supplies, or simply anything else that pops in your mind.

Doing this will not just make your training program feel more inclusive, it will also make it more fun and interactive, both qualities that are promoted with the help of gamification.

Conclusion

Without inclusion being considered in all departments of an organisation, we cannot expect a full transformation of modern workplaces. Employee training, being a subset of the human resource department, should be one of the first places where instances of inclusion become evident.