Many training programs simply do not work. Your employees attend a training program, either online or traditional classroom-style and when they return to their jobs, they still are just as ineffective and inefficient as they were before they went to training. Why does this happen? An even more important question is: What can I do about it? In my 32 years of experience as a trainer, instructor, instructional designer, facilitator, training director and owner of a training and development firm, I can answer those questions with a question of my own. What do you want your training to accomplish?
Asking what you want your people to do after they complete their training should be the very first question any qualified trainer should ask you, way before you even consider whether to send your people to a training program. As trainers, we should always seek to conduct a needs analysis for all training programs. A needs analysis is the first and some might say, the most important step in an instructional design model. I have often asked my clients this very question,and often, well over 50% of the time, I receive either a blank stare or an answer similar to, “I want them to do their job better.” As you might have guessed, these are not the answers or the reasons to send your people to training. A good needs analysis will uncover a training need that can be solved by designing a training program that will correct that performance deficiency. You see, many training problems are not really training issues at all and sending your employees to a program to solve a problem that does not exist will never return great training results.
Many “training problems” are actually management problems. I have seen may managers send their people to a training program because they needed “motivation.” Few training programs can deliver on a promise to motivate your people to better performance. The best motivation,of course, comes from within, and lacking self motivation, the best a manager can hope for is to provide a system of rewards and punishments that will keep employees motivated to perform. Bonuses, positive feedback, performance notices, work improvement discussions, salary increase and the like are much better motivators than sending someone to a training class, hoping they will be motivated when they return. Human nature just does not work that way. Skip the training class and invest your money on rewards, bonuses, salary increases and a well-constructed work improvement system and you will find that your motivation issues are greatly reduced.
I have also been the unfortunate instructor who has had to teach a class of “sentees.” “Sentees” are the word I use to describe trainees who arrive at my class saying, “I have no idea what I am doing here, I just know that my boss sent me.” Every time I hear that statement I cringe, because I know what will happen next. These “sentees” will behave badly in class, not pay attention, attempt to disrupt the other students, or merely refuse to participate in the program. Why do they do this? Because they do not feel they need to attend the training, and they want to make everyone suffer because they could either be back on the job doing the “real work” or taking a day off to relax and escape their job. To get the most out of your training and make it work, let your people know why they are taking the training, what you expect them to accomplish from that training and most importantly, how you expect them to apply that training when they return to their job after the training.
If you, as a manager, want your people to be able to use that training when they return to work, it only stands to reason that you must also know what is being taught in that training program. I can think of only a few ways to gain that knowledge. The best way, of course, is to attend the course before your employees do, so you can not only understand what is in the training, but also reinforce it when your people return to the office. If you cannot attend the program, you might be able to obtain the training materials and review them. You could also speak to the instructor and ask about the learning objective for the training. (All good programs will have learning objectives.) You could also speak with former students of the program to gather their perspectives on the training. I strongly recommend that you attend the training. Not only will you fully understand the program and its objectives, you will also show your support and belief in the training. And also, very importantly, you will be able to model the skills you learned for your people. If the boss says one thing and the program says the opposite, which skills do you think your people will use when they are back on the job? I always vote for the person who signs my paycheck.
Finally, if you really want your training to work, be certain you are sending your people to a program that is properly designed and developed by a true training professional. Signs that a training program is a good one are, first, that it has learning objectives, as I mentioned above. It will also have both an evaluation of the training program that the student completes. Trainers call these evaluations “smile sheets” because the ratings are usually pretty nice. Good programs will also be able to provide samples of some of these documents to you if you ask. A well-designed program will also have another type of evaluation in them. This evaluation will test the student’s ability to both recall and apply the training at the end of the program. We all know this type of evaluation from our school days. These tests will evaluate the student’s learning through questions, simulations, role plays, multiple choice questions and the like. Students will receive a score, and more importantly, a way to review and improve upon portions of the test where they did poorly. This remediation should be a large part of all web-based and cbt training programs and can easily be constructed by capable instructional designers.
So there you have it. Make your training programs work by becoming more involved in them as a manager, follow-up on the training and model the skills you want your people to display and only send your associates to programs that are well-designed and solve true performance issues your employee actually displays. While that might sound easy, my experience tells me that most managers will not take those steps to ensure that their training works. Commit to become involved in your employee’s training and I can guarantee that not only will your training work better,but your people will perform better once they return to their jobs. Make your training work by investing a little bit of yourself into it and never again will you waste your training dollars on a program that does not deliver results. You are the most important aspect of your employee’s training. Be involved.