How to Make Training More Engaging (9 Tactics)

By
Amy Vidor
Learning and Development Evangelist at Synthesia

Create engaging training videos in 160+ languages.

Nothing frustrates me quite as much as bad training. You know the kind where you're thinking to yourself, "this is a waste of my time." Maybe the content is generic or the facilitation is less than inspiring.

Whatever the reason, you disengage. And your brain goes from actively processing information to its default mode, which is daydreaming. Information goes in one ear and out the other. Your working memory isn't transferring to long-term memory, which means you're not retaining anything.

What makes training engaging?

Engaging training is thought-provoking. It challenges you to think.

Think about it this way, when you describe someone as engaging, what are you really saying? You're saying the person is captivating or perhaps animated. They draw you in.

The same is true for training that is engaging, it invites you to participate. But participation isn’t sufficient. You can take an action, like responding to a poll or clicking a hotspot, without really thinking.

Engagement is about what's going through someone's head as they take the action. It's about cognition. And that doesn't stop when the training ends. It continues when they apply what they've learned at work.

The research behind engaging training

• Chunked content reduces cognitive overload. Short, focused segments help learners process and retain information before moving on.
• Active retrieval beats passive review. Prompting learners to recall and apply information drives stronger retention.
• Adding clicks, choices, or interactions to a course doesn't improve learning, unless those moments require real cognitive effort.

9 tactics for more engaging training

If I'm facilitating a small workshop my approach to designing for engagement will look different than if I'm creating a training video for hundreds of account executives.

I can tailor the workshop to the audience, and during the session check in with people, using their names to ask if they have questions or something to add. As a facilitator, I know how to dig deeper to get to second order discussions, and how to pivot when something isn’t landing.

None of that is possible when I’m designing a training video. I have to anticipate what I could be competing with — whether that’s someone watching the video on a treadmill or the subway ride home, or something else competing for their attention (looking at you, TikTok).

That’s why you have to modify your approach to engagement based on the training medium. Here are 9 tactics to try.

1. Open with purpose

It's tempting to provide exposition when you start any training. (Professors are notorious at doing this during lectures.) But you need to get right to the point. Set the expectations for the training, what will people walk away with?

2. Show what's at stake

After you've identified the purpose, show what's at stake. I call this the so what. Why should someone spend their precious time in this training? The so what should be measurable, for the business and for the employee. For instance: "This training will help you reduce customer cancellations by giving you a script and strategy to deescalate upset customers." This is your time to market the training. Be convincing.

3. Weave in real examples

Keep attention by preparing several real examples (this also reinforces the so what). You can collect these during your needs analysis, and use an LLM to spot patterns. In a live session, you could be prepared with these examples in case a discussion question falls flat, or in an async session, you could use the examples to prompt reflection. The goal of these examples is for employees to be able to relate.

Storytelling as an engagement tactic

When we listen to someone tell a story that we see ourselves in, our brain syncs with the speaker's. This is called neural coupling. The stronger the neural coupling, the deeper our comprehension, according to research from Princeton.

4. Design challenging scenarios

Scenario-based learning gives employees the opportunity to make complex decisions in a risk-free environment. Good scenarios are nuanced. Offer multiple paths that appear to be correct at the surface. If the scenario resolves too easily, then no one is learning. Design for this tension.

5. Ask questions that require judgment

Depending on where you were educated, you may feel pressure to ask questions that are easily answered. You don't want people to be discouraged from raising their hand or responding to a prompt, so perhaps you start with softball questions. But then build towards questions that spark debate.

6. Create opportunities for peer learning

Some of the most effective training is designed around peers sharing knowledge. That can be entire sessions, like a "lunch and learn" or a postmortem after a product launch. It can also be a “pair and share” in a breakout room or even reflection prompts in a course (where you can see what others have shared before you).

A note on breakout rooms

Peer learning is most successful when it's designed with some structure. Research shows that unstructured breakout rooms can cause anxiety, leading people to turn off their cameras and disengage. The same is true for other peer learning. A light structure goes a long way.

7. Do less, change more

Identify one behavioral change you want to make with the training and design around it. Nothing else. Say you work in manufacturing and run a monthly training series. This month, after speaking with team leads, you learn there's one issue that keeps coming up. You design a five-minute training to correct the behavior. It’s so important that it's the only topic you cover this month.

8. Personalize at scale

One of the hardest parts of learning design has always been personalization at scale. Yet it's one of the most effective engagement tactics. With AI tools, you can more sustainably design for personalization at scale. Small touches, like a regional example or acknowledgement of cultural, regulatory, or competitive differences, go a long way.

9. Deliver learning in the flow of work

Learning in the flow of work is getting employees the information they need, when they need it. That means a sales rep preparing for a call in their CRM can find training resources right there, without switching tools. If you can put training where employees are already working, you're making it easy for them to opt in.

Applying the tactics

If you've already designed a training but aren't getting the engagement you want, here are a few examples of how to apply the tactics to improve the experience.

Compliance training
Training format: eLearning course
Engagement problem: Learners are clicking through a phishing course and completing the required assessments, but the number of employees clicking on phishing emails has not gone down according to IT.

Tactic to try: Redesign the course around a real phishing email (ask IT for an example). Show the consequences of responding to the email, like financial loss to the company or IP theft.

Onboarding
Training format: Knowledge hub
Engagement problem: New hires have access to an onboarding hub with decks, videos, an org chart, a benefits overview, and more. They're overwhelmed and don't know where to start.

Tactic to try: Keep the knowledge hub as a source of truth, but don't make it the only training source. Consider microlearnings on key topics distributed across a new hire's first few weeks. Prioritize time-sensitive information like electing benefits or setting up payroll. Host 15- or 30-minute office hours each week for new hires across cohorts to opt into if they have questions or want to build their network.

Safety training
Training format: In-person session
Engagement problem: Workers arrive at a new site and are given live safety training with nothing to reference once they're on site.

Tactic to try: Send a short training video the day before workers arrive covering what to expect and key things to remember. Make it accessible on site, whether via a QR code they can scan on their phones or as a printed document.

Sales enablement
Training format: Deck
Engagement problem: Reps receive a monthly deck covering product updates. The deck is meant to be both the training and something they can repurpose for customer calls, but they struggle to retain the updates.

Tactic to try: Make sure each deck includes a "so what" slide for each update. Why does the customer care, and how are you selling it? Include a real example.

How to measure if training is engaging

If you've invested the time in redesigning your training, you probably want to know if it's actually more engaging.

There are three signals you can look for:

• Attention: Are employees completing the training or dropping off at a certain point?
• Thinking: Are employees responding immediately to questions in live sessions, or are they pausing, reflecting, and explaining their answers? In async content, is everyone selecting the same answer, or do responses vary?
• Application: Is the behavioral outcome you identified in the needs analysis changing? Look at the business metric.

No matter the training format, the question is the same: is the training changing how people behave?

This can also help you identify a training to start with. If there's a training that isn't driving impact, pick one engagement tactic I've shared and redesign around it.