A well-trained workforce is vital for the quality and safety of a product, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as other industries with strict regulatory requirements. Being “well-trained” means employees don’t just go through the motions—they truly learn, perform tasks effectively, and retain essential knowledge.
Unfortunately, training is often reduced to a compliance exercise, focused on procedural, “check-the-box” tasks rather than real education. These approaches no longer build the skills and knowledge our employees need. Therefore, training methods in pharma are in desperate need of change.
This article will delve into why employee training is important, how to improve training methods to make the process more effective and sustainable, and share some improvement ideas that you can apply to your training process.
What’s the problem with current training methods in the pharmaceutical industry?
The majority of pharmaceutical companies use traditional training “check a box” approaches such as the over-reliance on classroom training, and the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) “Read and Understand” activity. While these methods help maintain compliance across processes, they fall short in terms of effectiveness, learnability, and long-term retention. In many cases, the focus on compliance overshadows the need for best practices that support truly effective training.
Let’s explore the issues with traditional training methods and why they fall short of effectiveness, as highlighted by scientific research:
- Lack of thorough reading – Employees may not fully engage with training documents.
- The high volume of training assignments – The number of assignments can be daunting for employees.
- Lengthy SOPs – The extended length of SOPs can overwhelm employees and make it difficult to identify key information.
- Lack of message comprehension – Similarly, employees may not fully receive the intended message due to barriers like language, attention, or prior knowledge of the subject. They may also struggle to grasp the critical importance of the information.
- Poor description of tasks - Employees may lose their confidence to effectively perform the task if the training document poorly describes how to perform a task, or if it’s not supported with images, figures, or real examples.
- Evaluation mechanisms - There is no mechanism to evaluate the trainees’ competency before deployment on a job.
- New methodology doubts - When the training is about a new methodology, they may not believe that will work for them or that it is any better than the current practice.
- Fear of increased workload - Employees may also be hesitant to try new methodologies, as it might increase their current workload or cause them inconveniences.
- Lack of resources - The current facility or process design may not support the implementation of new learning. New learning is lost very fast due to the unavailability of opportunities to practice on the ground.
Two impressive studies were conducted that show how and what makes training less effective;
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, discovered by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus
According to the study, memory retention begins to decline within hours of learning and continues to decline over the next few days if reinforcement is not provided. Training methods often used in the pharmaceutical industry, where precise knowledge and skills are vital for maintaining quality standards, do not support long-term retention adequately as traditional training methods are often delivered in a single session.
This rapid fall of information can lead to gaps in employee knowledge and adherence to quality protocols, ultimately affecting product quality and safety. Modernizing employee training with methods such as spaced repetition, where knowledge is revisited over time, can help employees retain essential information and apply it consistently.
“The Learning Pyramid”, a study developed by the National Training Laboratories (NTL) Institute.
This study demonstrates the effectiveness of different learning methods based on retention rates. According to the study, passive methods like lectures or classroom training (5%) and self-reading (10%) result in minimal retention. However, more interactive approaches like demonstration (30%), discussion groups (50%), and hands-on practice (75%) reach higher retention. This pyramid highlights that active participation is key to effective learning and long-term retention.
Lectures (classroom training) and self-reading are the least effective methods of learning
In summary, these studies show us that classroom training, self-reading, and single training without repetition sessions yield less effectiveness in training. When it comes to on-the-job training, the limitation grows and the efficiency inversely decreases. Now let’s brainstorm and ask ourselves the following questions.
How do we expect training to be effective?
What should we do for trainees to retain what they are taught for a long time?
How many of your trainees complete training assignments without really reading them – not to mention understanding them?
The consequences of ineffective training
Regulatory compliance risks
Training programs are very similar in pharmaceutical organizations. You have almost identical formats, methods, and quality metrics to control if the training is given within a defined time to defined roles. In short, almost all (especially procedural) training activities are fundamentally transactional. Employees generally believe that the task/change has very little value. Therefore, they “check the box” for the sake of staying compliant without ensuring that they have learned and retained the necessary knowledge. While assuring short-term compliance, this approach can damage compliance in the long run as employees are not being trained effectively.
Decreased productivity
We all agree that organizations should train their employees on any changes, updates, or new information. The common training practice is for employees to read hundreds of pages of SOPs that are assigned to them. In most cases, there is no post-training assessment that checks whether employees actually understood or retained any of the information. Therefore, employees may check the box without ever reading the SOPs as they often feel this type of activity has no value and is not productive. However, it’s important to note that even reading the SOPs diligently would not prepare employees to complete a task effectively.
Safety and quality concerns
Poor or ineffective training has negative impacts on processes, products, and even your organization. The vast majority of nonconformities, deviations, recalls, and other events are typically caused by several factors. It’s likely to observe that one of the most known root causes is ineffective training.
When employees don’t fully read or understand the information before starting a task, they miss the what, why, and how behind the procedure. This can trigger a chain reaction, beginning with ineffective training and leading to task execution with a high risk of failure. Such failures can escalate into more significant issues, potentially compromising product safety and quality. Without effective quality control steps, these issues may go unnoticed, resulting in a product reaching the market and potentially facing a costly recall.
In summary, a short-term oversight can evolve into a long-term impact if it isn’t identified and corrected promptly through effective actions, including thorough training. Long-term consequences are more costly and require considerable resources—time, labor, and investment—to mitigate the risks.
Physical resources
The limitation behind the “on-the-job training” (OJT) is the focus on procedural execution, where the trainer provides only the most applicable learning where trainees can successfully pass training evaluation. Typically OJTs focus on fundamentals, and how to perform actions in a correct manner. Common mistakes, errors, and rare cases such as unplanned events are out of the loop, therefore they are not fully comfortable and confident to execute these types of actions.
Another limitation is critical areas and equipment usage. The equipment is always in use and not possible to take it out of service for training purposes. Furthermore, most organizations have no additional equipment or area for training use due to the high cost.
Ways to improve employee training
We’ve acknowledged the current training problems and the consequences of ineffective training. Now let’s discuss some potential ideas for improving employee training:
Improve the quality of training materials
(making them easier to read, better design, and more visual)
We all know that “Read and understand” assignments are not the ideal method for training, however almost all organizations use this method as it’s easy to prepare the assignment and the fastest way to complete it.
If we keep relying on these methods, let’s make them easier to read, better designed, and incorporate more visuals. In this way, we can enhance their effectiveness and help ensure employees retain the information they’ve just read. The feedback and support of trainees can help you to design training materials that will be more effective.
Incorporating interactive content into a “read and understand” course
If you want to take a step further to improve training materials, you can create interactive content instead of plain text for “Read and understand” assignments. Interactive training content can also consist of an interactive summary or quiz. These allow employees to recall the information and apply what they learned based on the training content.
70-20-10 Model: Blended learning method
This model allows individuals to learn 70% of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20% from interactions with others, and 10% from formal educational events. With a blended learning method, trainees get guidance and support from the trainer, while also accessing online resources and tools with flexible, self-paced learning options.
Competency-based learning: Hands-on experiences with social learning opportunities
Competency-based training provides a structured approach that focuses on developing specific skills, knowledge, and behaviors essential for a specific role. And you will be able to avoid employees from excessive or irrelevant training requirements.
Recommended learning: Boost your team's skills and close learning gaps effectively with Scilife’s competency tracking. Watch the full webinar to see how!
The importance of social learning
The best way to learn something is to learn from others by sharing knowledge and experiences that may not be covered in traditional training materials. Today, this practice evolves by sharing and learning through discussion forums, virtual communities, and knowledge-sharing platforms such as the Scilife Academy, our continuous learning hub for life sciences professionals.
Adopting mentorship and coaching programs into a competency-based training approach takes the learning journey to the next level but also nurtures a culture of knowledge exchange within the organization of pharmaceutical companies.
Adaptive learning platforms, augmented reality solutions, and virtual reality
Learning management systems (LMS) are the foundational technology platform for any employee training program in the pharma industry. They help manage training content, track learner progress, and generate detailed reports on the effectiveness of training programs that are still necessary for competency-based training programs. Adaptive learning platforms, augmented reality solutions, and virtual reality simulations are useful technologies that can further strengthen a competency-based learning program within a pharmaceutical company.
Adaptive learning platforms
Adaptive learning platforms allow for a flexible learning experience centered on where the employee is in terms of knowledge, confidence, and experience. These tools are dynamic, adjusting the content based on the learner’s progress, allowing users to move quickly through concepts they are familiar with, and reinforcing concepts they are struggling to grasp. Adaptive learning platforms can be integrated with many common LMS solutions and support competency-based learning programs by allowing learners to identify and focus on gaps between their existing knowledge and skills and continually assess their progress toward achieving the defined outcomes for a specific competency or learning area.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality AR and virtual reality VR are often used interchangeably but are different. VR places users in a completely virtual environment by creating a realistic scenario that is different from the space they are in, on the contrary AR adds digital elements, visual or auditory information to real-life environments, what a user already sees in their physical environment, usually through goggles or glasses with transparent lenses that can overlay computer-generated images across the user’s visual field that a learner can interact with. AR has significant potential to assist users in performing procedural tasks.
Virtual reality
VR-based training environments offer a huge opportunity to simulate an actual environment and provide an auto-guided immersive training platform that solves all the problems we’ve discussed. VR as a training mode offers several advantages over traditional training in pharma including:
- Practice options: Once the right way to perform a task is explained, VR offers endless practice opportunities in a risk and pressure-free environment, without any equipment downtime, environmental contamination, or material wastage. Also, it allows trainees to practice and reach competency at their own pace.
- Instant correction: VR can immediately point out errors, demonstrate the correct procedure, and directions for correction, and provide opportunities for additional practice until trainees are perfect on the task.
- Auto-guided training: VR-based training does not need a human trainer to communicate the message or evaluate the performance post-training. The entire program is auto-guided with a final evaluation of training results. This allows participants to take this training at their own convenience without waiting for any trainer.
- Better understanding: Visualization of mistakes or error situations and their impact on the product and patients offers a deeper understanding of the ‘why’ behind each process and practice.
- Better knowledge retention: Since VR training works on audio-visuals, demonstrations, and practice options, it boosts knowledge retention several times higher than traditional training.
- Better employee engagement: Participants enjoy the whole experience and are able to get aligned to the communicated message, and the overall performance improves, which results in better employee engagement.
- Better efficiency: The end result is increased efficiency of training, reduction of overall training expenses, reduction of human errors and related regulatory requirements.
Conclusion
Improvement in training systems is a necessity in today’s pharma industry. You should move beyond a checkbox exercise and adopt training methods and tools that truly add value. Recently, regulatory authorities have shown a clear shift in this direction. Even though new technologies like VR have not been adopted in pharma industries, it has been tested in many industries. We believe that using modern technologies such as VR will be an invaluable component of a new paradigm of training. It will benefit employees, organizations, and—most importantly—the patients.
At Scilife, we're here to help you streamline training management with the best tools and methodologies. Our training management software centralizes your organization’s training resources in one convenient place, allowing you to effortlessly add external or internal links to documents, quizzes, and learning materials.
