I was speaking to two enterprise salespersons recently as we explored why the engagement & learning is typically broken workshops and conferences.

Although I am a firm believer that every moment is a learning opportunity about oneself as well as the world around us…BUT let’s face it, we are inundated with emails, digital content, and marketing in general. So most companies struggle to win the “hearts and minds” of their employees. Even harder is winning that of the partners that you need to grow the business.

Most companies know that:

1. Better trained employees and partners = Better bottom line.
2. A more diverse employee base and teams result in better business outcomes.
3. Employees are increasingly disengaged and less loyal. In fact, according to a 2014 Gallup poll, 51% of U.S. employees are disengaged.

So many companies continue to spend a LOT of money on e-learning, external and internal training, roadshows, workshops, kick-off meetings etc. Yet many organisations struggle to understand if their training is effective.

Here’s 4 signs that your training sucks. It sucks because:

1. It’s not measurable

It’s critical that you have a goal of what your average participant’s knowledge level should be. Start with baselining what your participants know before they begin the specific training. Then assess again after the training. And then compare what each participant knows and doesn’t know, and then deciding what action to take next.

Ideally you’re not just measuring conceptual knowledge, but how your participants internalise the knowledge and demonstrate it in action.

2. It’s not reinforced

Training shouldn’t be a ONE Big Bang-set-and-forget approach. People’s mind are overwhelmed with information, and you should follow up a few months to see if the key points have been turned from learning concept into action.

3. It’s not updated

Typically training materials becomes outdated very quickly, especially for product training for innovative companies, or highly competitive industries. It’s really vital in these scenarios to make sure your training is up-to-date. For example, you wouldn’t want your salespeople to find out that a new competitor is on the scene from a customer, now would you!

4. It’s not memorable

Let’s face it. Most training falls into a spectrum — boring on one side and fun. Consumer marketers have realised that people don’t buy products, they buy the experiences they can create because of the product.

Why should training be any different? It can be both fun AND meaningful.

So let’s not throw money down the drain by continuing with boring presentations.

I’ll finish this blog with how most people experience fun as you start thinking of how you can reinvent your training investment:

• When they solve problems
• When they are exploring
• When they are surprised (and delighted)
• When they win something
• When they get recognised for something

Theresa Lim is CEO & Founder of Play2Lead — a multiple award-winning gamified and social audience engagement platform that helps companies and their agencies increase customer and employee engagement at live events and online.