Tricks to help improve training

Before looking at tricks that will help ensure the training process in your organization is successful lets talk about why training is even required in a business environment. The ultimate goal of any training program is to produce competent employees who can safely, effectively and efficiently perform the tasks required to meet your business requirements.

Training is also an essential tool that ensures your staff are kept up-to-date with the changes that are taking place in the world today. As your company implements new technology in the work environment, training will also be needed to make sure your employees have the knowledge and skills to take advantage of these new tools.

And finally, training is an integral part of ensuring the workforce meet both today's and tomorrow's business requirements. And here is where we link the training efforts to the organization's succession planning efforts.

Now that we've reviewed a few training fundamentals how can we ensure that the training provided returns the maximum benefits to the organization? Yes, that's right - we're talking about ROI or Return On Investment. And yes, training is considered an investment in most successful organizations.

Does this sound familiar? A subordinate is sent to a training programme but when they return their performance doesn't seem to have improved. Sending people to training programmes is not enough -- managers need to maximize the impact of training their subordinates receive! Any supervisor can help maximize the impact of an employee's training by following these simple guidelines:

Before the Training Programme:
• Explain to the employee why they were selected for the training programme and discuss the anticipated benefits for your department or division. This "preview" helps the employee focus on what is expected of them after the training programme finishes.

• Ask the employee to describe the benefits they expect to receive from the programme. Having the employee focus on their personal expectations prior to the start of training can increase the learning potential of any programme.

• Explain to the staff what is expected from them in terms of punctuality, attendance and participation in the training programme.

• If more than one employee is being sent to a training programme, introduce them to each other so they feel comfortable with their fellow participants.

• Ensure the employee understand how the training programme will benefit both their current job performance while improving their advancement potential.

During the Training Programme:
• For extended training programmes, have the participants brief their managers as the course progresses. This can be done via telephone or fax when face-to-face meetings are impossible. These briefings "force" the participant to evaluate the material on a daily basis, thereby enhancing their learning outcome.

• Managers should discuss any problems or uncertainties that arise in order to help participants identify examples of how the material can be applied on the job.

• If the participants are required to complete an interim assignment the manager should get personnel that are not attending the course involved. This will maximize the amount of individuals who benefit from the course.

After the Training Programme:
• Meet with course participants to review (1) what they learned, (2) how will they use the new knowledge in their day-to-day work, (3) suggestions they have for improving the course, and (4) who else should attend the course.

• Ask the employees for suggested company improvements based on the material they learned during the training programme. Managers must be willing to implement these suggestions on a trial basis and ensure the employee is involved with the implementation and evaluation process.

Remembering these simple tricks will improve your organization's training ROI while making sure the performance of your workforce will continue to improve. Finally, I want to emphasize again, these tricks are not designed only for the HR staff -- improving the training process is everyone's business!