An employer asked the DOL about this situation:

Employees are offered an optional training course on a computer application they use to do their work. Everyone is already trained on the basics and has enough skills to perform their duties. But the optional course provides advanced knowledge, which lets them work more efficiently.

The training includes online courses employees are expected to take at home on their own time. Most of the employees taking the course are nonexempt — do they need to be paid for what they do at home?

The DOL’s answer: Yes.

Time spent attending training doesn’t have to be paid if all of these criteria are met:

• the training occurs outside the employee’s normal working hours
• attendance is voluntary
• the information learned is not directly related to an employee’s job, and
• the employee doesn’t do any work during the session.

In this example, the training was directly related to how employees did their jobs — it helped them perform their work more easily — so the time had to be paid.

About 33% of employee training is now conducted online, according to research by the American Society for Training and Development. In 2001, the figure was around 11%.

The reasons companies are moving to e-learning:

• the high costs of hiring a consultant or paying an outside instructor to lead sessions
• reluctance to make employees miss work for training, and
• an influx of young employees who are more comfortable using technology to learn than their predecessors.

As job security becomes harder to come by, more employees cite job training as a desired benefit (read more on that here). For many companies, online programs could be an affordable avenue to deliver training.

What online training do you offer? Let us know in the comments section below.

Almost 40% of employees say they’d consider changing jobs if it meant their new employer gave them access to more up-to-date computers, smartphones and other devices, according to a recent national survey by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Also, 37% said they’d switch companies for better training that helps keep them skilled in the latest technology.

Keeping current with technology is also a way to get the most from employees — 80% said that’s key for their productivity, and 78% said it helps them stay creative and innovative.

The bottom line: Companies may want to conduct a cost/benefit analysis to see if springing for more modern equipment could be a wise investment that boosts retention and increases employees’ potential.

In addition to courses on networking and programming, IT students pursuing masters’ degrees at Potsdam Univerisity near Berlin will be taught another important skill: flirting.

The course will include topics such as writing romantic e-mails and text messages, impressing people at parties, and coping with rejection. It’s part of a new group of courses designed to improve techies’ social skills and get them ready for the working world.

The university seems bent on removing the “computer geek” stigma from the IT field. Potsdam’s IT students will also take course on topics like body language, public speaking and presentation skills.

Almost a quarter (23%) of employees don’t pay attention to benefits changes at their company, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey.

Communicating changes effectively is essential for showing employees the total value of their benefits. Missing or ignoring announcements can end up costing employees money — for example, if they miss their chance to sign up during open enrollment.

One solution: Distribute information through multiple avenues, rather than just sending an e-mail. For example, you can ask managers to keep their employees up to date about their benefits through in-person meetings.

A lot, actually, says a study reported in this month’s Harvard Business Review. The authors claim that successful players of online video games need many of the same skills as successful business leaders.

Sound crazy? Here are some of the similarities they point out:

• Quick decisions — Leaders and gamers both need to think on their feet.
• Risk and reward — Some amount of risk is necessary to win, but unnecessary risk only leads to bad news.
• Revolving leadership — In most new video games, participants play in teams, and different players need to step up to the plate at different times.

Does this mean companies should start asking about gaming experience when they interview? Personally, we’d still prefer candidates with actual leadership experience in real life.

But the study does point out some interesting possibilities for employee training. For example, 135 team leaders at IBM were asked to play an online role playing game. Afterward, almost half said the game helped improve their real-world leadership skills.

Tired of giving presentations that turn into slumber parties? HR has to do a lot of important presenting and training. But let’s face it, no matter how important employment law issues and leadership coaching are, it’s hard to keep the attention of supervisors who don’t want to be there in the first place.

Tech tools like PowerPoint can help. But too often they’re used poorly and end up sinking the show. Next time you have to present, avoid Death by PowerPoint by following these tips:

1. Stick to 10 slides. When you finish designing the show, look over all of them and decide which ones to keep. The easiest way to keep people from falling asleep is take up as little time as possible. Use the time you save to beef up your Q+A session. Those are more engaging, and often more valuable, than the presentation itself.

2. Use a big font. You don’t want people to spend more time reading than they do listening. All you need to show are some key words and phrases. Also, make sure people in the back can see what you put up.

3. Pictures are worth more than words. When you’re dealing with topics like harassment, discrimination and leadership, your lessons will be more memorable if you hit the audience’s emotions. So remove some of your text in favor of images that convey whatever emotion is most appropriate.

Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Co. is planning to launch its own “corporate YouTube” site, where employees can access training videos and other informative content.

Basically, it’s like a section of the company’s intranet, but instead of reading through the text of a handbook, employees get the info in visual form. The videos are hosted on the company’s internal site and password-protected so only employees can access them.

The idea is that it boosts productivity, because people learn better visually than by reading. And the videos are made by employees throughout the company, so it’s a great way to share information with peers.

Another advantage is that, these days, this kind of project doesn’t take that big an investment. The videos can be hosted for free on YouTube (nothing sensitive or confidential, though, of course). And the videos themselves don’t have to be big budget productions. With instructional material, often just some kind of slideshow with audio over top will do the trick.

It’s not just for employees, either. A corporate YouTube site is also a good way to introduce the company to new customers and potential employees.

As part of an ongoing series, we’ll have practicing HR managers present real problems they faced and how they solved them.

Our supervisors simply weren’t retaining all of their training. We’d hold a training session and things would get better – for a little while. Then they’d would fall back into their regular routine.

There had to be a way we could remind supervisors of their training without always having to hold more sessions.

Previously, management passed out a lot of documents to reinforce what was discussed, but the paperwork was excessive and managers often put it off to the side. Knowing our methods weren’t perfect, we listened when a supervisor came to us with a suggestion.

Round the clock training

The idea: Use screensavers to display training info on supervisors’ computers. Using an off-the-shelf program, the slideshow screensavers were easy to create and install.

Now, what we discuss in training is reinforced around the clock whenever a screensaver kicks on. The slides are often taken directly from the last training session.

Supervisors absorb, and even enjoy, the reminders that appear while they’re filling out paperwork or eating lunch at their desks. Plus, employees love suggesting things to include in the screensaver.

(Tim McBride, process manager, Solid State Stamping, Inc., Temecula, CA)

It’s one of the latest trends in management training: the use of computerized simulations for giving instruction or testing skills. There are a lot of vendors out there offering the service. Here are some of the big ones:

Capsim – offers products for both business schools and corporate customers, focusing on executives and managers.

Manage for Growth – makes simulations for general business management, as well as for specific functional areas, like sales and finance.

Forio – also sells simulation development software that lets customers build their own simulations.

With most vendors, you can either buy pre-made simulations or work with them to create customized modules. Typically, the simulations present hypothetical scenarios, ask the managers to make a decision, and then show the likely business results of those decisions.

Samsung recently adopted the software as a way to quickly train high-potential employees in leadership skills. The employees are put into small teams that perform simulations of a variety of management duties. You can more about the company’s efforts here.

The software isn’t cheap, especially if you go the customized route. But it’s a good way to get a lot of learning done in a little time. Rather than tell managers, “In this situation, do this,” they can learn by (almost) doing, which helps for making the lessons stick.