How to Pick Classes for Your Training Program

Our class catalog is packed with over 100 live virtual training options, covering everything from leadership and communication to DEIB and performance management. But with so many options, how do you choose the right classes for your team’s needs? This guide will walk you through the process of navigating our catalog and selecting classes that align with your goals.

1) Identify Your Audience

Most organizations start by identifying a target audience for the training. This could be a broad group, such as All Employees, or a more specific subset based on level (Individual Contributors, New Managers, Experienced Managers) or role/team (Revenue Team, Operations Department).

2) Identify Skill Gaps

Consider the unique needs of each training population and identify 2–3 key focus areas. To determine these priorities, you can gather insights from engagement surveys, performance appraisal data, or by reflecting on key questions such as:

• Which two capabilities are most critical to the audience doing their job well?
• Which two capabilities does your audience struggle with the most?
• Which two capabilities differentiate the best leaders/employees in your organization? 

Clearly defining skill gaps will help you filter the catalog more effectively and select classes that drive meaningful impact.

3) Explore our Pre-Designed Programs or Design Your Own Journey

Hone’s class catalog is designed for easy navigation, helping you quickly find classes that align with your learning priorities.

• Filter by Focus Areas: Use the catalog filters to explore classes by specific skills, such as change management, motivation, or teamwork.
• Search by Keywords: Prefer to search directly? Enter keywords like coaching, time management, or feedback in the search bar to locate relevant classes.

Match Your Audience Level: Use the audience filter to find classes tailored to individual contributors, managers, or senior leaders.

Hone Hot Tip!: Leverage Hone’s AI Class Finder tool for personalized recommendations. Be specific with your prompts to get the best results, such as:

• I need classes to help our sales associates improve their customer service skills
• I need classes to recommend to our aspiring leaders to improve their influencing skills
• I need classes to help managers create a safe and inclusive work environment

4) Build Your Program on the Platform

Consider bundling classes to create a learning path that builds progressively. A well-designed learning journey helps reinforce key concepts over time and ensures learners develop skills in a logical sequence.

How to Structure a Learning Journey:

1. Start with Foundations – Begin with introductory classes that establish core concepts.
   Example: A new manager track focused on helping leaders move from managing themselves to managing others might start with “Increase Your Self-Awareness & Lead with Impact” or “Build High Trust Relationships”
2. Build on Key Skills – Follow with classes that develop key skills and deepen understanding.
   Example: After building foundational knowledge, new managers might take “The Coach Approach” or “Give Feedback That Lands.”
3. Apply and Expand – Conclude with classes that integrate learning and drive real-world application.
   Example: To reinforce and apply their skills, managers may take “Lead Highly Effective 1:1s” or “Build a Thriving Team Culture” as a capstone. 

We recommend including 4–6 classes in a learning journey to ensure a comprehensive, yet manageable, development path.

Hone Hot Tip! Use Hone’s recommended program tracks as a starting point, then customize them to fit your organization’s needs.

5) Case Study

A small nonprofit organization sought to build training programs for their people leaders and individual contributors. They began by identifying the critical skills needed across the organization and mapped these to Hone’s class catalog using targeted keywords.

Based on their goals for each level of leadership, they selected their priority classes and incorporated additional courses to create well-rounded programs.

For their leadership program, they prioritized courses like time management, giving feedback, and communicating across teams to support the development of high-performing teams. However, they recognized that the program was missing foundational content on building trusting teams, so they added these courses at the beginning of the program to ensure a strong foundation before diving into other topics. 

For their individual contributors, they focused on courses to help employees effectively manage projects and manage up and across the organization. They also mirrored the manager program by adding a relationship-building course and included a course on leveraging strengths to empower individual contributors in taking on more responsibility in the project planning process.

By aligning their class selection with organizational priorities and filling in foundational gaps, they created well-rounded learning journeys for both leaders and individual contributors.

6) Add Hone AI Lessons & Practice Sessions to Membership Programs

Drive continuous learning across your organization by adding Hone AI Lessons and Practice sessions to Membership programs.

Now, you can combine the best of Hone’s live and AI-powered learning, giving employees multiple ways to build and reinforce skills over time.

How it works:

• When creating a program, select “Membership + AI.”
• Choose the live classes and AI Lessons and Practice sessions you want to add to your program, set a completion date, and add learners to the program.
• Once learners are added, they’ll get nudges to enroll in the program and complete the live and AI sessions by the due date.
• Track learner progress with real-time insights on starts, completions, and ratings.

By combining live and AI-led sessions, your learners can:

• Prep for live classes with a quick runthrough of frameworks and concepts, so they can get the most out of their time with a live, expert coach.
• Reinforce what they learn in live classes with always-on AI-powered Lessons and Practice sessions.
• Get infinite practice time in a safe, judgment-free space with personalized feedback.

7) Additional Resources

Hone also provides admins with additional asynchronous resources for admins to help build programs. You can access best practices and strategies straight from our Learning Strategists below:

• The Manager Training Playbook
  • Give your managers the glow-up they deserve. This playbook is your step-by-step guide to designing a modern, high-impact development program that really works.
• The L&D Playbook for Soft Skills Development
  • Get the tools and insights you need to diagnose these gaps, secure buy-in for upskilling, and learn from peers who have conquered these challenges.
• 10 Proven Strategies for Teaching Today's Most Important Skills
  • With more than 200,000 hours of learning under our belt, our team is ready to spill the beans on how to make learning experiences that actually improve performance.
• Learning Program Launch & Promotion Workbook
  • This workbook will help you plan and promote an effective learning program. These tools will make sure your program is a success!

8) Need Extra Support?

If you have any questions, please reach out to support@honehq.com or your Customer Account Manager for more information or assistance regarding class selection.