Are you training your learners to ignore their training?
As unintuitive as that may sound, I propose that’s exactly what happens sometimes. Here are some ways I’ve observed this in the past. Time to be honest – have you seen this in your context too?
Information Overload
One of the most common mistakes I see is overwhelming learners with too much content. When training materials are overly detailed or lengthy, learners can start to feel like they’re just getting a "data dump." This often leads them to disengage and skim through the material without absorbing the key messages. Eventually, they come to view training as a checkbox exercise rather than something meaningful or applicable.
Lack of Contextualisation
If training fails to connect directly to real-world tasks or the learners' actual roles, it feels disconnected and impractical. Learners often ignore training that doesn’t seem useful or applicable to their day-to-day work. When training doesn’t provide the "why" behind the learning—explaining how it will benefit them or improve their performance—they’re more likely to check out.
Poorly Timed Interventions
Delivering training at the wrong time can also train learners to ignore it. If employees are made to complete a course months before they need to apply the skills, they are highly likely to forget most of what they learned by the time they actually need it.
Ineffective Delivery Methods
Dull, monotonous content (think: long, text-heavy slides or unengaging voice-overs) can lead learners to mentally check out. If training consistently fails to grab their attention or engage them in meaningful ways, they start to develop a habit of zoning out whenever a new course is assigned. Unfortunately, the course delivery method (eLearning) is often to blame, rather than the design of the eLearning course itself.
Failure to Reinforce Learning
Training that doesn’t include follow-up, nudges, or opportunities to apply new knowledge in the workplace can leave learners with the impression that it's "one and done." Without reinforcement, learners quickly forget what they’ve learned and come to see training as a short-term requirement rather than a long-term behaviour change. Even worse, if they don’t see others, especially leaders, putting the new behaviours in place, they assume that no -one else in their team or department is actually taking the training seriously, so they can feel free to ‘ignore’ it too.
The Result: A "Tick-the-Box" Mentality
When learners are exposed to poorly designed or irrelevant training repeatedly, they start to approach every new course with the mindset of simply “getting it done.” This "tick-the-box" mentality is a signal that they’ve been trained to ignore the true purpose of training: improving skills, changing behaviours, and therefore driving performance.
How to Break the Cycle
To avoid this, it’s essential to:
Create Relevant, Engaging Content:
Make sure the training is tailored to the learners' roles and real-world challenges. Use interactive elements, scenarios, and examples that resonate with their daily work. Break up information presentations with snippets exemplifying how that information works in a relevant context. Reassure those subject-matter experts that you will be delivering all of their ‘content’ – just in a more innovative, and more digestible way.
As an example, in this training, we took the initial request (“Here’s 23 pages of content that staff need to know”) and re-worked it to become a “Day in the life of” experience, and the learners needed to take the information snippets provided all throughout the module to help their digital avatar make good choices throughout their day.

Deliver Just-in-Time Training:
Offer training when learners need it most—right before they’re expected to apply new skills. This makes the training feel more practical and valuable. This is especially relevant during on-boarding. I’ve seen 6-week programmes where the learner never gets to sit at their actual desk or talk to an actual customer. How much are they realistically expected to remember by the time they get to week 7? A better option – Give them real-world practice all the way through to keep the momentum for learning their role at an all-time high.
Reinforce Learning:
Use follow-up nudges, reminders, and opportunities to practice the new skills to solidify learning and emphasise its importance. Most importantly, get team leaders and other social influencers (“champions”) on board to demonstrate the target behaviours, and develop some healthy peer pressure to actually apply the training to the ‘real world’.
In some recent projects we’ve worked on, what this looks like may be posters for the walls as reminders, or wallet-cards for learners to carry with them for reference. It could also be a series of discussion cards provided for team leaders to use in meetings with their teams.
Vary the Format:
Switch up the delivery methods to keep learners engaged. Combine eLearning with live sessions, microlearning, and practical applications to provide variety and maintain interest.
If we’re not careful, our training risks becoming the noise learners tune out. But when we flip the script with thoughtful design and timing, we transform training into a powerful tool that actually sticks.