In an economic downturn it’s a recognised fact that training is one of the first things to suffer. Why spend money on training when it needs to be invested elsewhere? Although this seems to be common practice, training doesn’t have to be seen as a waste of money. The benefits should always outweigh the cost – providing the foundations are strong first.
So if you’re tired of spending money on training that doesn’t do the job you wanted it to try these 5 tips before you train to get long term changes rather than short term fixes.
1. Look at the symptoms
In most organisations there’s a common frustration that needs to be fixed. This may be something specific like ensuring everyone understands and follows a specific process or something much more generic like improving management skills. If you can easily put your finger on the main frustration in your business, that’s a good place to start.
2. Complete a Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
Even if you know what you want to train, always conduct a TNA. This is the stage that gets missed most often and you’ll regret it in the long run as people will feel more like hostages than learners. There are many ways to conduct a TNA - one of the best ways is to design a questionnaire and then ask people why they completed it the way they did. Always ask people to substantiate their answers as you get a more accurate response.
This is one of those areas that you need to think as short term pain for long term gain. By doing this properly you’ll be able to design your whole annual training calendar and your managers are more likely to buy into the training.
3. Hold a focus group
Get a group of managers / employees together and ask them what 3 things are causing the most frustrations for them at work, and why…and then just listen. You’ll always discover training needs as people will either complain because of a skill gap, or a process problem.
4. Get Feedback
Once you’ve identified the training plan – ask people for feedback. Are they happy with it? How do they plan to use their new skills? How will it benefit the company? And have you missed anything? By going through this process you’ll not only be able to start everyone thinking about how they’re going to use their new skills and transfer them to the workplace but they’re more likely to attend willingly.
5. Personal Development Plan’s (PDP)
PDP’s really do work if used properly. They should be used as a working document and referred to constantly. The development on there doesn’t have to be expensive and may even just be a case of getting involved with different projects at work. The beauty of the PDP is that it puts development firmly onto agenda of conversations with managers.
By Barbara Nixon