At the 2017 NAA Education Conference and Exposition, Shawn Reynolds, Director of Training at Morgan Communities, shared some absolutely great tips on increasing engagement and retention when training our teams.  Here are a few notes that really grabbed me:

63% of people remember stories in their training, only 5% remember statistics!  I will admit that sharing a statistic in a blog about how people don't remember statistics is a bit ironic, but we'll hope that you are in that 5% today!  Regardless, Shawn stressed that when sharing stories in your training process, it is important that you give them names, even if they are made up, as that will help the students connect more with the content and retain.

When learning, students will retain 40% of what they see and hear, but will retain 90% of what they see, hear, and do!  Tying training in with role playing or some other active approach is critical to retention!

Video, Video, and more Video.  Shawn stressed the importance and effectiveness of video within your training process, and she said the best videos are the ones you make yourself that include your team.

Finally, Shawn noted that it takes on average 5 weeks to fill an on-site position, so why go through all that effort to bring someone in, only to provide mediocre training?