Training

Training Investing is the Answer

By RICHARD BUCKLES

Train to Retain

Companies’ leaders are often forced to make tough decisions in order to benefit the group as a whole. One such decision includes training options. While it would be easy to let training programs fall by the wayside, it is now even more important to focus on training employees effectively than ever.

Effective training can often help employees understand and accept change rather than to reject it and become dissatisfied with their work. We also know that certain industries are better at training employees effectively than others. According to TNS Employee Insights’ recent global survey, only 52-54% of all manufacturing employees were satisfied with the training they had received compared to 68% of healthcare employees. Manufacturing employees also reported some of the lowest satisfaction levels across all industries with only 62% reporting favorably. This tells us that inadequate training can deeply impact employee’s satisfaction with their employers and should therefore be taken seriously even when the economic climate is not ideal.

RESEARCH & PLANNING

The most important thing to note about training is that it must be thoroughly researched and planned. Throwing a cookie-cutter training program at a problem in order to fix it as soon as possible is unlikely to produce the desired results. This is not to say, however, that pre-designed training is ineffective. It is simply to point out that one must conduct a complete organizational needs assessment before selecting a training method for employees. For example, we know from previous research that showing a video on sensitivity of diversity to fix an intolerance problem will not work. Not only will it not work, it actually tends to make the problem worse. The researchers behind this counterintuitive effect, Frank Dobbin of Harvard, Alexandra Kalev of Berkeley, and Erin Kelly of the University of Minnesota, made a surprising statement regarding their data from 829 companies that diversity training had “no positive effects on the average workplace.” From this, we can see that an assessment of an organization’s needs prior to implementing a training program would allow one to first fully understand the root of the problem, to find out what methods work for the real problem, and to ultimately avoid wasting time and money on training that could actually make the problem worse.

NARROWING OUR FOCUS

The fact is that there are so many useful training methods available to companies that it would be impossible to describe them all. This is where the careful planning and research should come into play for organization leaders. The good news is that there are effective training programs that exist; the bad news is that one must find them or design them which can prove to be costly. While there is a multitude of various options for training one’s employees, there are a few common themes for trends in training for today’s workforce, specifically for organizations that are coping with unplanned changes due to economic difficulty. These include e-training, rapid instructional design (RID), and embedded learning.

E-TRAINING: NEW GROUND E-training is already an extremely popular method that is only going to continue to become more prevalent as technology improves and the cost of online trainings decrease. Another type of training that would be of particular interest for organizations coping with the economic downturn is known as rapid instructional design. RID is a method that allows a company to skip certain steps that would normally appear in a full needs assessment in order to move on to implement the training and get

Times Are Tough: That Doesn’t Mean Proper Training Should Be

Throughout his career, Edward Tamson, senior consultant for TNS Employee Insights, has worked as a Training Director for both very large and medium sized organizations. Tamson shares his expertise on encouraging and developing training programs in this time of economic crisis.

What are the quantifiable benefits of a training program?

TNS Employee Insights also conducted a study in 2011 in which they gathered data from more than 17,000 employees in 21 countries

results faster. An example of this would be if a manager used existing course materials (perhaps e-training) and adapted them to fit the situation at hand by including relevant examples, anecdotes, and exercises. This method is a great alternative to a traditional training development process because it allows one to customize the training to better fit the organization while still cutting down the time it may normally take to design a whole new training program.

EMBEDDED LEARNING

A third option is embedded learning. This kind of training occurs only as needed and it is literally integrated with the work itself. Embedded learning is an option that eliminates hours upon hours of isolated training as well as any extraneous material that may not be especially relevant to the worker at that time. Hard skills are the easiest focus with embedded learning as soft skills are often too subjective and immeasurable to be targeted in this approach. Regardless of what method is utilized within an organization, several critical steps must be taken after the implementation to ensure that the training is effective. Some of these steps include assessing the training’s effectiveness through speaking with employees as well as collecting data and by making a point to follow up on the information provided in training to reinforce behaviors and keep the information fresh in the minds of those who receive it. Reinforcing training information is especially important for maintaining any improvements in soft skills as it tends to involve breaking old habits to form new ones. If consistent reinforcement is not applied, any changes that occurred through training will revert back and the time and money invested will be wasted. Even though this extra step after the fact may take more valuable time, it’s the step that makes all the difference for the long term benefit of the organization. It is with these three major steps, planning, implementing, and maintaining, that an organization will see immense returns on investment even in a time of economic crisis.•

Relevant Keywords

• It must be training thoroughly researched and planned • E-training • Rapid instructional design (RID) • Embedded learning

"Inadequate training can deeply impact employees' satisfaction."

worldwide. The participants were asked to rate their current as well as their former companies. An analysis of high performing organizations found that when a company takes efforts to measure and increase engagement it is recommended 74 percent of the time as a good place to work by its employees. But what truly matters is the quality and variety of the program, which ranges from new hire training or teaching a new concept or platform to specific workgroups, to introducing new technology and systems.

What are the key questions to ask?

Direction: What key business goals need to be addressed? Alignment: How are we tied to key emerging business issues? Policy: What criteria and guidelines are used to make decisions? Operations: What systems and structures are needed? Continuity: How do we ensure relevancy and evolution?