Choosing Training that Works

Many business leaders believe education and professional development are important elements in growing their business; however, after investing in training, they are often left wondering why training that should have worked didn’t pan out as intended.

Consider the case of a small company where the CEO decided to send a cross-section of managers to a highly regarded offsite workshop to improve their ability to lead employees. The managers came back enthused and energized; yet in one month’s time the same conflicts returned and the expected outcomes were sidetracked. What happened?

Oftentimes, the disappointing outcome of training can be traced back to essential strategic and tactical considerations that were overlooked or underestimated before and after training took place. The unintended result can be wasted time and resources, and lower productivity.

The following guidelines provide steps for getting the most out of your training investment. This includes how to determine whether training is the appropriate solution to improve business performance, how to select training options with the greatest potential for return on investment, and how to reinforce training to measurably improve short-term and long-term business performance.

Step 1. Identify Business Performance Needs

Even in a down economy, training is an essential tool for increasing your company’s competitiveness and profitability. For example, it may be necessary to gain new knowledge and skills to sell to a different market, take on new positions or operate new technology. In other cases, training is used to address individual or group performance issues, apply new policies and procedures or meet regulatory requirements.

Regardless of the reason for training, the starting point is to establish the connection between your company’s business objectives and strategy and what is actually happening on a daily basis. Some of the questions to ask include:

-What are we trying to accomplish in one year? In two years? In three years?

-Why are these objectives important?

-What do employees need to be doing differently or better to achieve these objectives? Why?

-What is getting in the way of the behaviors that need to happen?

The answers to these questions serve as a frame of reference for focusing on what to address and the urgency of the need. However, it’s vital to go beyond your assumptions. Gain evidence by observing the employees along with interviewing and/ or surveying a combination of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders who are affected by the staffers and/or departments. Not only will fact-finding give you confidence in your decisions, it may lead to new information and insights you hadn’t previously considered.

It’s critical to recognize which issues training cannot fix and deal with them appropriately. Training by itself will not solve problems caused by:

-employee-job mismatch

-insufficient staffing or equipment

-conflicting company goals and priorities

-outdated policies and procedures

-inadequate reward systems

-other business culture issues

Instead, it would be a better use of resources to explore other avenues for addressing these performance gaps. On the other hand, if you’ve determined that training is likely to improve the performance your company needs, you’re ready for the next step.

Step 2: Select Training Options Based Upon Value

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the dazzling array of training possibilities and lose sight of the fact that each choice offers a different level of value to your business.

Weighing the benefits against the costs of customized workshops, off-the-shelf programs, Web-based instruction, college classes, training the trainer, cross-training employees or a combination of these and other approaches comes down to balancing both strategic and tactical considerations on a case-by-case basis. Ask yourself:

-To what degree does this performance issue impact our ability to achieve our most critical business objectives?

-Is the need widespread across our organization, or is it limited to one or two employees?

-Do we need fresh perspectives and new approaches?

-How important to the success of the training is consistency and cultural fit?

-Do we have the expertise and resources to train in-house within the time frame we need?