How long should employee training be?

Shorter.

I don’t need to know your industry, your company’s mission statement or the type of training you’re delivering. I can almost guarantee it’s too long.

Today’s workplace is about doing more with less—less time, fewer resources, more distractions. Employees simply don’t have time for extra stuff. That includes lengthy training sessions. They still need the knowledge and skills to do their jobs well, especially as AI and automation reshape work. But the solution isn’t just shorter training. It’s smarter training that fits within the employee experience—the right content, at the right time, in the right way. And most importantly, it can’t waste people’s time.

So, how long should training be?

That’s the wrong question.

There’s no magic number because every job, team and company is different. Instead, we should be talking about how to make learning a seamless part of every employee’s day. 

To get this right, you must start by getting to know the job. When and where do people have time to focus on development? Take a grocery store associate, for example. They’re scheduled for just enough hours to get the job done. They can’t step away for a 30-minute course. But they might have five minutes to commit to additional tasks during a typical shift. How can you make the most of those five minutes – without disrupting the operation?

Five minutes might not sound like much, but it adds up fast. If a full-time associate works five shifts a week, 52 weeks a year, that adds up to more than 21 hours of training a year. That’s likely more than they’re getting now via traditional methods like classroom and computer-based training. 

The trick is making every minute count. Every interaction is an opportunity to add value. If you’re not adding value, employees won’t engage. By advancing your data capabilities, you can personalize each learning experience to focus on an individual’s strengths and challenges. One day, you may introduce a new topic through a video in your mobile learning app. The next, you might reinforce a skill with which the person is struggling. Later in the week, you might nudge their manager to check in and see how their performance is progressing. 

So, all training should be five minutes?

No, there’s still a place for longer training sessions, workshops or multi-day programs. But those should be the exception, not the rule when it comes to workplace learning. If you’re asking people to dedicate hours to their development, make sure it’s the best way to help them learn—not just the easiest way to deliver lots of information or the most familiar option for your stakeholders.

When you do go long, you also need a plan to reinforce that training. If people sit in a classroom or stare at a screen for hours, they’re not going to remember most of the information. Ongoing reinforcement activities can fit snugly into the busy workflow and ensure knowledge stays fresh. 

At Axonify, we use scenario-based questions to make learning stick. By leveraging spaced repetition and retrieval practice, we help employees build both competence and confidence so they’re ready to apply their knowledge exactly when they need it. These quick, daily activities take just a few minutes and make those longer training sessions worth the investment. In fact, employees answer over one billion questions in Axonify every year!

So, shorter is always better?

Yes! 

Why waste people’s time? Design training as if every second counts—because it does. Ditch the learning objective slide and dive right into the info people need to know to get the job done. After all, we have more tools than ever to help people learn what they need, when they need it. We don’t have to cram everything into a course.

Instead, you can provide on-demand resources accessible on mobile devices. You can use AI-powered digital assistants to answer questions in the flow of work. You can post QR codes at workstations to trigger job aids for real-time performance support.

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The goal is to balance what people need to remember with what they can look up as needed. This blended approach naturally makes training shorter, simpler to consume and easier to remember. People can only take in and retain so much information at once. Instead of fighting human nature, design training that aligns with how people learn and do their jobs.

The average Axonify session is just 5 minutes and 48 seconds. Our technology helps organizations seamlessly fit learning into the workflow, but they control the content and timing of each session. By leveraging these tools, companies are maximizing the small pockets of time employees have during their workdays to deliver targeted, right-fit support.

Yes, sometimes people still complete 30-minute online courses or attend hour-long classroom sessions. But they’re also reinforcing skills through practice activities, accessing on-demand resources and refreshing their knowledge with quick microlearning videos. It all balances out to just under six minutes per session.

Everyone’s busy. But everyone has six minutes.

JD Dillon, Chief Learning Architect

JD Dillon became an expert on frontline training and enablement over two decades working in operations and talent development with dynamic organizations, including Disney, Kaplan and AMC. A respected author and speaker in the workplace learning community, JD also continues to apply his passion for helping frontline employees around the world do their best work every day in his role as Axonify's Chief Learning Architect.

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