Globalized operations can deliver a number of benefits to manufacturing companies, ranging from labor costs to materials and shipping expenses. To maximize these benefits, your business needs the right tools and protocols in place to keep those operations in line with company policies and industry regulations.
Employee training often goes hand-in-hand with expanding workforces across international borders. Translated or localized eLearning modules provide a cost-effective strategy to deliver the learning and development needed for international employees to excel. To position international training for success, consider prioritizing the following four focus areas in your global training programs.
1. Comprehensive translation and localization for training modules
Poor content translations can lead to a reduced quality of training, as well as misinterpretations that create unnecessary safety and compliance risks. Manufacturing businesses should look for a translation partner with proven experience in working with both eLearning content and manufacturing clients.
Your business should also seek out a language service provider (LSP) capable of providing localization services for your eLearning content. Text-based translations are an important element of successful compliance training for international workers. However, localization—of both the text and other visual elements in the module—is key to optimizing learning, engagement, and retention of the training information, while also ensuring that the content is culturally appropriate for its audience.
2. Support throughout the full compliance training lifecycle
Compliance training is an ongoing process. As local regulations and company manufacturing policies change, your training modules must also adapt and keep employees informed on the latest protocols and expectations.
eLearning modules should reflect this by rolling out continued updates to existing training content and deploying new modules to address new compliance considerations as needed. eLearning modules may also be supported by supplementary training resources also requiring translation and localization to maximize information retention among your global workforce.
3. Flexible, scalable course delivery to workers around the globe
Every new eLearning module or updates to existing training materials must be quickly translated across each of the languages represented in your workforce. Your LSP should be capable of managing tight turnarounds to quickly deploy training at scale. This supports your own ability to maintain agile manufacturing processes, and minimize downtime and performance downgrades due to delays in training.
Your business should also look for an LSP that can support the flexible deployment of eLearning modules to a wide range of devices, along with 24/7 access to maximize accessibility for your manufacturing workforce. The easier it is to deploy training, the more effective and valuable these efforts will be to your business.
4. A translation partner that can work within your eLearning authoring platform
The files and platforms used to author eLearning modules are often complex, requiring specialized knowledge of those software solutions. Your translation partner should be capable of working with your preferred authoring platform to export and import translated content. Don’t choose your authoring platform based on the capabilities and limitations of your translation partner. Instead, find an LSP that can work with your preferred authoring tool.
The right translation partner makes all the difference in deploying accurate, engaging compliance training modules to your global manufacturing workforce. Contact us today to see how we can help.
