Refresher Training: What It Is and How to Use It

Imagine this: you’ve completed a training. It was on a topic that directly relates to your job. You even found it interesting. Then, you walk out of the room and forget most of it within a few days. 

Or, you’re the one presenting the training. It’s well-planned and delivered. You have a full room of engaged people who are interested in the topic because it directly relates to their jobs. Then, they walk out of the room and forget most of it within a few days. 

Or, you’re a manager who sent a team to training. It was interesting, well delivered, and related directly to their jobs. And you still see people making the same mistakes, falling back into old patterns, or being unwilling to try new things. 

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you’re not alone. 

Training takes a lot of time to develop and deliver. But sometimes it can seem like no one gets anything out of it. You might start to wonder why you bother with training at all, especially when it seems like most training doesn’t stick. 

Instead of giving up or simply adding more training, the trick is to reinforce what people have already learned. Let’s see how. 

What is Refresher Training? 

Strategically reinforcing learning is called refresher training, and it’s a great way to help people get the most out of training. Refresher training helps people practice skills they may have forgotten or feel a bit rusty on, especially if they haven’t used them in a long time. This helps those skills become more natural. It’s a little like training your body at the gym! eLearning Industry points out that with refresher training, “the new skills become more automatic and natural, like muscle memory. The employee no longer needs to think so hard about applying what they learned; it starts to become second nature.” Refresher training gives people a low-stakes way to remember and practice what they learned, especially with behavior change or skills development. 

It’s important to realize that refresher training isn’t about adding new training. It supports previous training with scheduled follow-ups to ensure people use new skills and behaviors on the job. It helps people remember more of what they learned so they can apply new skills with confidence. 

What are the Benefits of Refresher Training?

Let’s look at some of the major benefits of refresher training. 

Improve Knowledge and Skill Retention

It’s simple: people don’t retain much of what they learn. Data on training retention show that: 

• 30 days after training, people only retain 12% of what they learned
• A week after training, 90% of new knowledge is forgotten if it hasn’t been implemented

This isn’t a problem with people—or with training, for that matter. It’s more a problem with follow-up, or the lack of it! If people aren’t using new skills—or being reminded to use them—they forget what they learned because they don’t need to know it.

Better Training ROI

It’s really hard to defend a training budget when it seems like no one is learning. One-time professional development training often isn’t enough to create lasting behavior change. People need to hear things more than once and practice them enough to make them second nature. If staff and volunteers only get a series of unrelated trainings, or worse, an annual training day that tries to cram everything in at once, you’re setting them—and your training program—up to fail. Refresher training helps training stick. Data show that “companies with structured training follow-up programs have a 92% higher training ROI.”

Support Employee Retention

If people forget what they learn, it might seem like they don’t want to bother with training at all. But the opposite is true. SHRM reports that “76 percent of employees said they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training.” This is especially true for Gen Z employees, who expect ongoing training to be part of their work culture. Offering more training in the form of refresher content isn’t just about keeping employees engaged with your organization—it’s about keeping them engaged with what they’re learning! 

Build a Culture of Learning

Refresher training makes learning a part of what your organization does. More than that, it becomes part of who your organization is. When you reinforce skills, instead of randomly throwing new information at people for the sake of training, you demonstrate the true value of learning. Over time, you create a culture of learning, no matter what kind of organization you work with.

What Training Should You Refresh — and When? 

Every organization has different training needs, so do what works best for you. What kind of training you need to reinforce, and when, will vary, but here are a few general things to keep in mind. 

What Should You Reinforce? 

• Skills that have adapted over time. Employees may already have core skills, but work changes fast. If there are recent updates in technology or service standards, it’s a good idea to offer refresher training to help employees keep their skills up-to-date.
• Skills that are new to employees. Refresher training for new skills might seem like an odd thing to focus on. As you build a training program, think about how you can make refresher training part of it from the beginning, rather than something you add on later. 
• Skills essential to your organization. If certain skills are necessary for your organization to run well—especially when it comes to serving clients—it’s important to catch problems and uncertainties before they get bigger. Implementing refresher training as soon as you notice people struggling can keep services flowing smoothly. 

When Should You Reinforce Learning?

Timing will vary based on your needs, but here are some questions to help you decide when to reinforce training: 

• Have employees forgotten new information? If people are forgetting things like new policies, procedures, or workflows, it’s time for refresher training.
• Are employees using new skills? If you’re hearing from managers that people aren’t implementing the skills they recently learned, they may need reinforcement. 
• Does an outside agency or organization mandate refresher training? OSHA or your state may require annual training on topics like safety, CPR, or sexual harassment. 
• Have there been significant changes in how something is done? Changes could include new technology, a new workflow, or new service standards. Anytime something’s new, make sure you offer training so staff and volunteers build confidence. 

Who Needs Ongoing Training and Reinforcement? 

Now that you know why and when you should do refresher training, it’s time to think about who needs training (hint—it’s everyone)! 

Employees

Staff are your front line, and employee training is often the main priority because they keep the organization running! And, as we saw earlier, employees want to be trained and work someplace where training is part of the culture. 

Employee Training Tip! Ask what they think they need more training on! Find out which skills feel rusty, or what people want to practice more, and start there. You’ll get good information, and people will be more invested in training if they can initiate what they want to learn. 

Managers

Because they work directly with employees, managers are often the first to spot whether training is working. They can see whether new skills and behaviors are actually being implemented on the ground. So train managers on how to track training—especially if they’re the ones recommending training for their teams!

Manager Training Tip! Many people are thrust into management roles with little preparation—and often with no actual training. Setting up a program that teaches people how to be good managers—and reinforcing it often—can help them build skills and confidence, which ultimately leads to happier, more productive teams. Niche Academy has a series of tutorials on management best practices, giving you a ready-made suite of training materials right out of the box! 

Volunteers

Dedicated volunteers are often overlooked. But most mission-driven organizations couldn’t run without them. Train volunteers at least as often and as in-depth as staff! And as with staff, consider what your volunteers do, what they need to know, and what changes might prompt a need for refresher training. 

Volunteer Training Tip! It can be hard to get volunteers in one place at the same time. Online, asynchronous training solves this problem by bringing content to them!

Focus on Behavior — Not Just Reminders

Remember—refresher training isn’t just about providing more training for the heck of it! That goes against adult learning principles, which tell us that adults come to instruction with previous knowledge and experience and want to develop skills that directly impact their work.

So refresher training shouldn’t just be a reminder about what people should have learned. That just adds an extra layer of training that ends up wasting everyone’s time and risks turning people away from training altogether! 

Instead, focus refresher training (and all training) on skills and behavior changes that you can see and measure. Refresher training helps solidify behaviors—how to answer a phone call, write a donor letter, onboard a new client, do data entry—that employees use every day. 

One way to keep refresher training fresh is to mix up how you deliver it. Get creative! There are lots of ways you can offer training: 

• Formal courses
• Case studies
• In-person training 
• Webinars
• Job aids
• Mentorships

Choose what works for your organization to keep people engaged. Variety works! Training Industry notes that “By employing a mix of reinforcing techniques—from refreshers to coaching, to application, to self-reflection—organizations can dramatically boost knowledge retention rates over weeks and months following an initial learning session.”

Tip! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’ll say it again—or, we’ll let another Training Industry article say it for us: “For true behavior change to occur, learners need more than a one-time event”! 

How to Plan, Deliver, and Track Refresher Training

Refresher training involves planning, delivering, and tracking training. Let’s look at some details. 

How to Plan Refresher Training

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of why you should use refresher training, what you should use it for, and who should be trained. But how do you make it part of an overall training plan? 

Since learning starts fading right away, you should plan refresher training early. Ideally, you’ll plan a refresher session alongside the initial training so you can launch it within a few days of the first training. 

One way to do this is to think about how refresher training supports the initial training session. When you’re delivering initial training, think about the main objectives. Then, consider how you can reinforce those objectives in the weeks, months, and years after the initial training. eLearning Industry says “the key is spacing sessions across regular intervals, using varying formats, mixing reinforcing content with retrieval and assessment, supporting the transfer of skills into workflows, and sustaining momentum—without overloading learners.”

Planning from the start helps you be proactive and specific about what you want to reinforce and when—so you’re not scrambling when people seem to forget the initial training. In fact, if you plan carefully, they won’t forget the initial training!  

How an LMS Can Support Training Reinforcement

A good LMS is your secret weapon in refresher training. eLearning Industry notes that “Learning Management Systems (LMSs) can be invaluable for managing and automating elements of the reinforcement learning process after training in a corporate context.”

A good LMS lets you design, deliver, assign, and track learning all in one place. It lets you set specific learning pathways so you can personalize experiences based on who you’re training and what you’re training on. 

And you can add educational content in the form of activities, reflections, and quizzes that give people a chance to practice in a safe space and further reinforce learning. Embedding engagement in training is essential, because data show that “employees who interact with training content (e.g., quizzes, discussions) are 90% more likely to retain information.”

Plus, delivering training through an LMS means you don’t have to rely on getting everyone in the same room, for the same training, at the same time, which often costs more, can be a logistical hassle, and runs the risk of training people on things they don’t need or already know. 

The organizational elements of an LMS, particularly in the areas of tracking learner progress, also increase training retention and completion—so learners stick with you, and the content sticks with them. Data show that “LMS (Learning Management System) usage increases training retention by 35% due to better tracking and organization. 50% of organizations with a modern LMS report a 40% higher training completion rate.” 

If you’re worried about LMS costs, don’t be. While an LMS may seem like a big initial investment, it doesn’t have to be—and it can pay for itself within a year according to data on training retention. 

Make Reinforcement Part of Your Training Program

Over the long term, incorporating refresher training into your overall training program plan and using educational tools like an LMS to organize, assign, and track training creates a culture of learning. 

Training Magazine points out that “Training information often goes in one of two directions: it can become a permanent part of the routine or fade out in importance.” One way around this is to make refresher training a built-in part of your training program from the start. Any training program is better than no training program, but they also note that “training is only worth as much as its concepts are used. If you, as a leader, don’t follow up and reinforce the learning that happens during training, your investment is likely to be in vain.” And that can lead to a stagnant program, stagnation in your organization, and loss of training funds.

By thinking about what needs reinforcement (based on behaviors you want to see change), who needs it, and when to deliver it, you can create a truly robust training program that becomes not only a permanent part of what you do—but a core part of who you are as an organization.