4 Important Steps Every Organization Should Consider when Implementing a Training Program

Many organizations wonder why they have low-performance levels from their employees and teams. We have been speaking a lot about this issue in the past few articles. In the last article, we also spoke about the ideal way an organization should go about hiring their employees. We were saying that the traditional CV and Cover Letter is pretty much obsolete at this point. In the past, too many recruiters put a lot of emphasis on years of experience, education, special skills, etc. In that article, we spoke about how attitude and willingness far outweigh all. Now, we will talk about how do we do this practically? These days, everything is a YouTube or Google search away – but still, it is important that the organization highly consider designing a training program that can help train and keep the employees up to date with their skills or learning new ones as the job (and the world) evolves. Below are 4 important steps to consider when designing an effective training program:

1. Assess Training Needs:

Determine what is needed in your organization and what type of specific skills or training you would want your staff to have. Consider personal development and task-specific skills to be possible training programs. Be open to adding training programs as you go along and as the need arises (Management Sciences for Health, 2014).

2. Defining Learning Objectives:

By providing learning objectives you are not only clarifying to the person taking the training what they should expect to achieve of this course, but you are also giving them something by which to measure their outcomes of the course (Management Sciences for Health, 2014).

3. Creation and Implementation of the Training Program:

Management should decide whether to have an internal online portal where all the training is kept; or they should hire a coach to give specific seminars and other forms of retreats, or perhaps they can implement some form of the academic route where they pay or reimburse for parts of a course in a university or college of some sort; or they can have a combination of any or all of the four options (Management Sciences for Health, 2014).

4. Providing Physical Materials:

Whatever training program the organization decides to go with, they should provide physical documentation, such as worksheets, workbooks, or anything of that nature. Whether it is to prove that training has been done, or at least, to give something tangible to the employee to hold on to saying that they have done and completed the course (this can come in a form of a certificate or something like that) (McNamara, n.d.).

Now, once you have put together the whole course, I would like to add 3 more important tips that can dramatically increase the efficiency of the training program (Baer, 2018).

1. Micro:

Keeping things short, simple and to the point seems to be the smarter way to go about things these days. People want tidbits, their patience levels are not as high as it used to be. Today people like short videos, short exercises. Break down the material into bite-sized portions.

2. Mobile:

The training should be accessible from every platform especially mobile. This way it allows the person to do the training on the commute to and from work or at the comforts of their living room couch – whatever they decide. Being mobile allows them to be flexible and take the training at their comfort level.

3. Memorable:

Make it fun, enjoyable, inspirational, or a combination of all the above. We want people to have a pleasant experience that they will actually remember the material that they are learning. Making it enjoyable and pleasant helps the person attain the material they have learned.

Yermi Kurkus

References:

Baer, S. (2018). Four Elements Of Effective Employee Training. Forbes Online Magazine. Retrieved: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/04/04/four-elements-of-effective-employee-training/#56afcea61818

Management Sciences for Health, (2014). Designing and Implementing Training Programs. In Management Sciences for Health. Retrieved from http://www.msh.org/sites/msh.org/files/mds3-ch52-training-mar2012.pdf

McNamara, C. (n.d.). Complete Guidelines to Design Your Training Plan. Retrieved from: http://managementhelp.org/training/systematic/guidelines-to-design-training.htm