Effective Communication for Training Purposes

The introductory slide of the presentation is aimed at grabbing the attention of the audience and showing them what the speech is going to be about. Hence, the introduction is titled “The Importance of Employee Training,” which demonstrates the purpose of the further information to the listeners. There are not many bullet points on the first slide (as well as on the following ones) so as not to overwhelm the audience with numerous lists that they are likely to forget by the end of the session. Hence, the first slide prepares the listeners for what they are about to learn. Such points as employees as the most significant component of the organization and the importance of their job satisfaction are emphasized. Further bullet points state that employee training is an effective way of increasing employee satisfaction and organizations’ profits.

The attention grabber is in the first sentence of the speaker notes section. It starts with a direct address to the listeners, who are corporate trainers. Some of them may be experienced and may have held a variety of presentations, whereas others may have only started working in this field. That is why it is of utmost importance to unite all listeners by the same focus. To do so, the purpose of the presentation is stated clearly and precisely, and the enumeration of the following pieces of information is given.

The introductory slide was created with the prediction of the audience’s awareness of the topic and with the consideration of their chief concerns. Namely, the listeners are interested in enhancing the productivity of presentations they give to the organization’s employees. The learning style of the audience was also taken into account when creating the presentation. Specifically, it is expected that the listeners are predominantly visual and auditory learners. With this idea in mind, the selected presentation style contains clear shapes and colors with the inclusion of pictures. However, the images used for making slides more attractive are not too bright and do not distract the audience from the main information.

The introduction also contains key takeaway concepts and prepares the listeners to receive information about these. On slides 2-5, supporting points to the key concepts are provided. Slide 6, the concluding one, summarizes the key takeaways and invites the listeners to share their opinions and ask questions about the presented material. At the end of the introductory slide, a transition is made between the data presented on it and the information that will be given on the following slides.

Transitions between slides are highly important elements of a successful presentation since they enable the speaker to make connections between separate pieces of data. Rather than making the audience feel that each slide has a different purpose and a different story, with the help of transitions, the speaker can make an invisible storyline that will guide the whole presentation and keep the listeners’ attention till the end.

It is crucial to make smooth transitions between separate pieces of information but, at the same time, to ensure the listeners’ understanding of different ideas expressed in the presentation. At the end of each slide, the speaker lets the audience know what they are going to hear in the next part. By doing so, the lecturer grabs the listeners’ attention and makes connections between the slides and between each slide and the goals expressed in the introduction.

The presentation is structured with a clear preview, view, and review. The preview is given on the introductory slide, which dwells on the topic and goals of the presentation. The view is given in slides 2-5, which provide a detailed explanation of the information offered. To make this process more transparent and accessible, each slide has a clear title containing the core idea of what information is contained in it. Therefore, the view part of the presentation is composed of such elements as the types of training methods, lecture as a presentation method, challenges and opportunities of game-based corporate training, and effective tips for corporate trainers.

The review part is presented on the last slide, which is the conclusion. Here, the reiteration of the main points is made, as well as the invitation for dialogue is expressed. By the end of the presentation, the audience may develop some interesting questions or may have some concerns about the information they have heard. It is important to let every listener express their impressions and thoughts. However, the presenter should also keep track of time, so it is a good idea to set a limit for the question-and-answer section and announce it to the audience.

An important component of a successful presentation is supporting the ideas with relevant and reliable sources of information. For this purpose, a variety of sources has been utilized to prepare the presentation speech. Specifically, scholarly articles, books, and internet articles were used to compose the reference list. All of the sources are relevant and have been published within the past five years. Scholarly articles by Hanaysha and Tahir (2016), Osborne and Hammoud (2017), and Raheja (2015) come from journals focused on investigations in the areas of management, business, and behavioral sciences. The authors’ analyses of employee engagement and training methods allowed preparing the slides on the significance of employee training in modern organizations. The article by Raheja (2015) was utilized when synthesizing information on the types of training methods.

The book by Noe (2017) allowed singling out the benefits and limitations of a lecture as a presentation method. What is more, the approaches to minimizing the disadvantages were enumerated. The article by Larson (2019) and the book chapter by Grossman, Heyne, and Salas (2015) were utilized when creating the slide on game-based learning and its success in modern organizations’ selection of learning methods and approaches.

Along with scholarly sources, the use of Internet articles and blogs in the preparation of the presentation cannot be overestimated. Modern problems require modern solutions, and what can be more relevant when analyzing effective employee training than pieces of advice given by speakers and experienced trainers? Internet sources by Mallee (2018), Petersen (2018), and Stack (2015) were helpful when preparing the slide with suggestions on how to make successful presentations. Frequently, the simple language of such non-scholarly articles is more useful to include in a presentation than a range of scholarly analyzes that the audience will not be able to understand properly. That is why the selection of materials when preparing a presentation should be versatile. Not only should the presenter ensure the relevance of the sources, but he or she should also strive to utilize literature of various genres to provide the highest level of the audience’s understanding of the material given.

The visual organization of the slides is another crucial point to consider. When the listeners are offered a lengthy presentation that is too monotonous and boring or too bright and informative, the result will be the same: they will not grasp the main ideas and will not remember anything from the presentation. Furthermore, after such lectures, employees are not likely to join training activities in the future since they will expect their time to be wasted again without any particular professional development. Therefore, the material presented in the analyzed piece is concentrated on only several key points and arranged neatly and pleasantly. At the end of the presenter’s speech, each employee involved in the meeting will have an opportunity to share their key concerns or ask additional questions, which will increase their interest in future presentations and other types of training.

The explanation of the presentation makes it evident that the speaker took efforts to utilize the engaging, relevant, and useful material. The audience’s interests and concerns were taken into account as the principal goal of the presentation. The introduction prepared the listeners for what they were about to find out, and further slides referred back to the main points expressed in the beginning. The concluding slide summed up what had been mentioned and encouraged the audience to participate in the discussion of their training session. If corporate trainers make use of the tips given in the presentation, they are likely to engage employees in corporate education and achieve the highest levels of job satisfaction. What is more, the employees are expected to work better and gain more profits for their organization.

Reference List

Grossman, R., Heyne, K. and Salas, E. (2015) ‘Game- and simulation-based approaches to training’, in Kreiger, K., Passmore, J., dos Santos, N. R. and Malvezzi, S. (eds.) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of training, development and performance improvement. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 205-223.

Hanaysha, J. and Tahir, P. R. (2016) ‘Examining the effects of employee empowerment, teamwork, and employee training on job satisfaction’, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 219, pp. 272-282.

Larson, K. (2019) ‘Serious games and gamification in the corporate training environment: a literature review’, TechTrends, 64, pp. 319-328.

Mallee, N. (2018) Increase success with presentation skills training for employees. Web.

Noe, R. A. (2017) Employee training and development. 7th edn. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Osborne, S. and Hammoud, M. S. (2017) ‘Effective employee engagement in the workplace’, International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), pp. 50-67.

Petersen, M. (2018) Tips for effective corporate training: information is not instruction. Web.

Raheja, K. (2015) ‘Methods of training and development’, Innovative Journal of Business and Management, 4(2), pp. 35-41.

Stack, L. (2015) Top 10 time tips for trainers. Web.