Conventional 'training' is required to cover essential work-related skills, techniques and knowledge, and much of this section deals with taking a positive progressive approach to this sort of traditional 'training'.
Importantly however, the most effective way to develop people is quite different to conventional skills training, which let's face it most employees regard as a pain in the neck. They'll do it of course, but they won't enjoy it much because it's about work, not about themselves as people. The most effective way to develop people is instead to enable learning and personal development, with all that this implies.
So, as soon as you've covered the basic work-related skills training that is much described in this section - focus on enabling learning and development for people as individuals - which extends the range of development way outside traditional work skills and knowledge, and creates far more exciting, liberating, motivational opportunities - for people and for employers.
Organisations are facing great pressure to change these days - to facilitate and encourage whole-person development and fulfilment - beyond traditional training.
N.B. The UK (consistent with Europe) Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, effective from 1st October 2006, make it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age. This has several implications for training, documents used, and the training of trainers and facilitators. For further guidance about the effects of Age Equality and Discrimination in training and developing people, (and in other aspects of managing people), see the Age Diversity information, which quite naturally relates to the subject of 'whole-person' development, given its connections with diversity and taking proper care of people.
You might not immediately be able to put great new emphasis on 'whole-person development'. Being realistic, corporate attitudes and expectations about what 'training' is and does cannot be changed overnight, and most organisations still see 'training' as being limited to work skills, classrooms and powerpoint presentations. However, if you start imagining and thinking and and talking about concepts and expressions such as:
then you will surely begin to help the organisation (and CEO) to see and accept these newer ideas about what types of 'learning and development' really work best, in terms of developing employees.
See facilitating learning - rather than imposing training for more ideas in the area of whole-person development. And see the section on experiential learning and guide to facilitating experiential learning activities, which contains many of the principles advocated here.
The group selection recruitment/assessment centre design guide also contains extremely relevant information for training and assessment design, especially the need to establish a clear specification (development/assessment criteria) before beginning to design training concepts, content, delivery and methods of assessment, illustrated by this outline process diagram:
| 1. Assess and agree training needs | 2. Create training or development specification | 3. Consider learning styles and personality | 4. Plan training and evaluation | 5. Design materials, methods and deliver training |
| Conduct some sort of
training needs
analysis. This commonly happens in the appraisal process. Involve the people in identifying and agreeing relevant aligned training. Consider organizational values and aspects of integrity and ethics, and spirituality, love and compassion at work as well as skills. Look also at your recruitment processes - there is no point training people if they are not the right people to begin with. Why people leave also helps identify development needs. |
Having identified what
you want to train and develop in people, you must break down the training or
learning requirement into manageable elements. Attach standards or measures or parameters to each element. The 360 degree process and template and the simple training planner (also in pdf format) are useful tools. Revisit the 'skill-sets' and training needs analysis tools - they can help organize and training elements assessment on a large scale. |
People's
learning styles greatly
affect what type of training they will find easiest and most effective. Look
also at personality types. Remember
you are dealing with people, not objects. People have feelings as well as
skills and knowledge. The Erikson model is wonderful for understanding more about this. So is the Johari Window model. Consider the team and the group. Adair's theory helps. So does the Tuckman model. |
Consider
evaluation training effectiveness,
which includes before-and-after measurements. The Kirkpatrick model especially helps you to structure training design. Consider Bloom's theory too, so that you can understand what sort of development you are actually addressing. Consider team activities and exercises. See the self-study program design tips below - the internet offers more opportunities than ever. |
Consider modern innovative methods - see the Businessballs Space for lots of providers and ideas. Presentation is an important aspect to delivery. See also running meetings and workshops. Good writing techniques help with the design of materials. So do the principles of advertising - it's all about meaningful communication. There is a useful training providers selection template on the sales training page, which can be adapted for all sorts of providers and services. |
There are many different training and development methods. On-the-job training, informal training, classroom training, internal training courses, external training courses, on-the-job coaching, life-coaching, mentoring, training assignments and tasks, skills training, product training, technical training, behavioural development training, role-playing and role-play games and exercises, attitudinal training and development, accredited training and learning, distance learning - all part of the training menu, available to use and apply according to individual training needs and organisational training needs.
Training is also available far beyond and outside the classroom. More importantly, training - or learning, to look at it from the trainee's view - is anything offering learning and developmental experience. Training and learning development includes aspects such as: ethics and morality; attitude and behaviour; leadership and determination, as well as skills and knowledge.
Development isn't restricted to training - it's anything that helps a person to grow, in ability, skills, confidence, tolerance, commitment, initiative, inter-personal skills, understanding, self-control, motivation (see the motivation theory section), and more.
If you consider the attributes of really effective people, be they leaders, managers, operators, technicians; any role at all, the important qualities which make good performers special are likely to be attitudinal. Skills and knowledge, and the processes available to people, are no great advantage. What makes people effective and valuable to any organization is their attitude.
Attitude includes qualities that require different training and learning methods. Attitude stems from a person's mind-set, belief system, emotional maturity, self-confidence, and experience. These are the greatest training and development challenges faced, and there are better ways of achieving this sort of change and development than putting people in a classroom, or indeed by delivering most sorts of conventional business or skills training, which people see as a chore.
This is why training and learning must extend far beyond conventional classroom training courses. Be creative, innovative, and open-minded, and you will discover learning in virtually every new experience, whether for yourself, your team, or your organization. If you want to make a difference, think about what really helps people to change.
Many of these methodologies are explained on this website. Explore them and enjoy them, and encourage others to do the same.
All supervisors and managers should enable and provide training and development for their people - training develops people, it improves performance, raises morale; training and developing people increases the health and effectiveness of the organization, and the productivity of the business.
The leader's ethics and behaviour set the standard for their people's, which determines how productively they use their skills and knowledge. Training is nothing without the motivation to apply it effectively. A strong capability to plan and manage skills training, the acquisition of knowledge, and the development of motivation and attitude, largely determines how well people perform in their jobs.
Training - and also enabling learning and personal development - is essential for the organisation. It helps improve quality, customer satisfaction, productivity, morale, management succession, business development and profitability.
As regards conventional work-related training planning, and training itself, these are step-by-step processes - see and download a free training process diagram. More free training tools are available for download at the free training tools and resources page.
See for example the training planner and training/lesson plan calculator tool, which are templates for planning and organising the delivery of job skills training and processes, and transfer of knowledge and policy etc. See also the training induction checklist and planner tool.
Use these tools and processes to ensure that essential work-related skills, techniques, and knowledge are trained, but remember after this to concentrate most of your 'training' efforts and resources on enabling and facilitating meaningful learning and personal development for people. There is no reason to stop at work-related training. Go further to help people grow and develop as people.
Having said this, we do need to start with the essentials, for example induction training for new starters. Induction Training is especially important for new starters. Good induction training ensures new starters are retained, and then settled in quickly and happily to a productive role. Induction training is more than skills training. It's about the basics that seasoned employees all take for granted: what the shifts are; where the notice-board is; what's the routine for holidays, sickness; where's the canteen; what's the dress code; where the toilets are. New employees also need to understand the organisation's mission, goals and philosophy; personnel practices, health and safety rules, and of course the job they're required to do, with clear methods, timescales and expectations.
Managers must ensure induction training is properly planned - an induction training plan must be issued to each new employee, so they and everyone else involved can see what's happening and that everything is included. You must prepare and provide a suitable induction plan for each new starter. Here's a free induction training checklist.
These induction training principles are necessarily focused on the essential skills and knowledge for a new starter to settle in and to begin to do their job. However there is great advantage in beginning to address personal development needs, wishes, opportunities, particular strengths, abilities, talent, etc., during or very soon after the induction process. The sooner the better.
An organisation needs to assess its people's skills training needs - by a variety of methods - and then structure the way that the training and development is to be delivered, and managers and supervisors play a key role in helping this process.
People's personal strengths and capabilities - and aims and desires and special talents (current and dormant) - also need to be assessed, so as to understand, and help the person understand, that the opportunities for their development and achievement in the organisation are not limited by the job role, or the skill-set that the organisation inevitably defines for the person.
As early as possible, let people know that their job role does not define their potential as a person within or outside the organisation, and, subject to organisational policy, look to develop each person in a meaningful relevant way that they will enjoy and seek, as an individual, beyond the job role, and beyond work requirements.
If possible 'top-up' this sort of development through the provision of mentoring and facilitative coaching (drawing out - not putting in), which is very effective in producing excellent people. Mentoring and proper coaching should be used alongside formal structured training anyway, but this type of support can also greatly assist 'whole-person development', especially where the mentor or coach is seen as a role-model for the person's own particular aspirations.
It's important that as a manager you understand yourself well before you coach, or train or mentor others:
Are your own your own skills adequate? Do you need help or training in any important areas necessary to train, coach, mentor others? What is your own style? How do you you communicate? How do you approach tasks? What are your motives? These all affect the way you see and perform see the training, coaching or mentoring role, and the way that you see and relate to the person that your are coaching, or training, or mentoring. Your aim is to help the other person learn and develop - not to create another version of yourself. When you understand yourself, you understand how you will be perceived, how best to communicate, and how best to help others grow and learn and develop.
And it's vital you understand the other person's style and personality too - how they prefer to learn - do they like to read and absorb a lot of detail, do they prefer to be shown, to experience themselves by trial and error? Knowing the other person's preferred learning style helps you deliver the training in the most relevant and helpful way. It helps you design activities and tasks that the other person will be more be more comfortable doing, which ensures a better result, quicker. Various models and tests are available to help understand learning styles - look at the Kolb model. Look at multiple intelligences and the VAK learning model and free learning style tests.
See also the Johari Window model and adapted theory - it's a useful explanation of the importance of open communications and strong mutual understanding among staff in organizations, and for all situations where people work together. It's also a useful model for personal awareness and self-development.
Many organizations face the challenge of developing greater confidence, initiative, solutions-finding, and problem-solving capabilities among their people. Organisations need staff at all levels to be more self-sufficient, resourceful, creative and autonomous. This behaviour enables staff can operate at higher strategic level, which makes their organizations more productive and competitive. People's efforts produce bigger results. It's what all organizations strive to achieve.
However, while conventional skills training gives people new techniques and methods, it won't develop their maturity, belief, or courage, which is so essential for the development of managerial and strategic capabilities.
Again, focus on developing the person, not the skills.
Try to see things from the person's (your people's) point of view. Provide learning and experiences that they'd like for their own personal interest, development and fulfilment. Performance and capability are ultimately dependent on people's attitude and emotional maturity. Help them to achieve what they want on a personal level, and this provides a platform for trust, 'emotional contracting' with the organisation, and subsequent skills/process/knowledge development relevant to managing higher responsibilities, roles and teams.
Participative workshops work well in beginning this type of attitudinal development. Involve people right from the start. Focus on what they want. You could also use a personal development questionnaire to begin to set the scene and provide examples of 'alternative' learning opportunities. It starts with the person, not the skills. It's about attitude and emotional maturity. The Emotional Intelligence principles and methodologies fit very well with modern approaches to developing people's belief, maturity and attitude.
When people develop confidence, integrity, emotionally, they automatically become more proactive, solutions-focused, responsive, etc., which across a whole team has a cumulative effect. Johari is a useful model too. So many people at work are simply 'going through the motions', acting in a 'conforming' state, often because they feel insecure, lack confidence to do what they think is right, or are nervous about being bold, whereas boldness is absolutely required for self-sufficiency, initiative, greater responsibility; in fact all of the behaviours that organizations strive to encourage.
You can't 'teach' boldness - people have to experience things which enable them to feel bolder, to take risks, and to want to take risks.
This means the rewards must be there too, or people have no reason to stick their necks out. And not just the prospect of financial reward. More importantly the Herzberg-type motivators - real extra responsibility, recognition, and involvement in new successful and interesting projects. This is the fuel of people's growth and change.
The same basic principles apply to designing self-study programs as to any other sort of training design.
The internet enables self-study learning and development programs to be more useful, empowering and cost-effective than ever before.
The only limits are those you imagine. Be creative and innovative. Look on the web for ideas and self-study and self-development resources, methods, groups, and technologies. There are many.
This website is effectively a self-study program. It's not a particularly conventional one, nor an accredited or measurable one. Like any sort of learning it will appeal to some people but not others.
The growing Businessballs Space contains many other different innovative, interesting and excellent ideas, providers, and free resources.
You will find many other self-development offerings on the internet if you tap into relevant communities and portals.
As ever consider what you seek to achieve, before you design how to achieve it.
Know yourself, and help trainees and learners to know themselves. Then it is easier to decide how and what will help best.
To help you structure and design and assess learning, read the training design and evaluation materials on this page and elsewhere on the website, for example the Kirpatrick evaluation and design model, the learning styles and multiple intelligence theories, and the Bloom learning domains taxonomy model.
The group selection recruitment and assessment centre guide is also relevant. Assessment and development are tightly connected.
To help you understand yourself read the materials relating to personality and motivation, such as Erikson's theory, the personality styles theories, and the ideas of Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor, etc.
Designing a good self-study program should if possible always involve the students.
Involving people from the beginning increases ideas, relevance and commitment.
Linking mentoring with objectives and project tasks or activities is a highly productive and effective modern method of training and developing people in organizations, especially for staff in teams and departments, and for developing organizations themselves. The approach builds on management by objectives (MBO's) principles, but is more participative, voluntary and inclusive. By comparison, MBO's are a 'one-way street'; isolated and individually separate, prescribed along a single-channel towards a task focus. Well-facilitated 'activity focused mentoring' is consensual, team-orientated, with a personal development and team building focus, across multiple organizational interfaces, particularly to and between management/subordinate/peer levels. Activity focused mentoring methods also help develop systems (not IT and processes, but overall systems: ie., how an organization works), organizations, management and communications, in an open, dynamic, organic, three-dimensional way. The activity-mentoring approach uses several integrated techniques which produce more reliable and relevant training and learning outputs, in terms of individual skills, attitudinal development, and direct job and organizational performance improvement. The approach is facilitative rather than prescriptive, and broadly features:
The process works on several different levels: individual, team, task, organisational and strategic. Activity focused mentoring also gives strong outputs in skills, behaviour and job priority areas, as well as being strongly motivational and where necessary resolving conflict and attitudinal issues.
Mentoring can be provided in various ways and programmes take a variety of shapes. Mentoring can be external, where the mentoring is essentially provided by external people, or an internal activity, using mentors within the organisation.
Due to the relative newness of mentoring as a formal organised process, and because mentoring programmes are so varied, statistics as to general costs and returns across industry are not easy to find. Here however are general cost indicators for a program essentially delivered by internally appointed mentors.
The main elements of a mentoring programme that carry quantifiable cost would be:
Rather than simply give the answers, the mentor's role should be to help the 'mentoree' find the answers for him/herself. While giving the answers is usually better than giving no help at all, helping the mentoree to find the answers for him/herself provides far more effective mentoring, because the process enables so much more for the mentoree in terms of experience of learning. Give someone the answers and they learn only the answers; instead mentors need to facilitate the experience of discovery and learning. The mentor should therefore focus mentoring effort and expectations (of the person being mentored especially, and the organisation) on helping and guiding the mentoree to find the answers and develop solutions of his/her own.
Accordingly, many of the principles of mentoring are common to those of proper coaching, which are particularly prominent within life coaching. You should also refer to aspects of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and Sharon Drew Morgen's Facilitative Questioning methodology.
Mentors need to be facilitators and coaches, not tutors or trainers. Mentorees need simply to open their minds to the guidance and facilitative methods of the mentor. The mentor should not normally (unless in the case of emergency) provide the answers for the mentoree; instead a mentor should ask the right questions (facilitative, guiding, interpretive, non-judgemental) that guide the mentoree towards finding the answers for him/herself.
If a mentor tells a mentoree what to do, then the mentoree becomes like the mentor, which is not right nor sustainable, and does not help the mentoree to find his/her own true self.
The mentor's role is to help the mentoree to find his/her own true self; to experience their own attempts, failures and successes, and by so doing, to develop his/her own natural strengths and potential.
We can see parallels in the relationship between a parents and a child. If a parent imposes his or her ways, methods and thinking upon a child, the child becomes a clone of the parent, and in some cases then falsifies his or her own true self to please and replicate the model projected by the parent. The true self might never appear, or when it begins to, a crisis of confidence and purpose occurs as the person tries to find and liberate his or her true self.
When we mentor people, or when we raise children, we should try to help them develop as individuals according to their natural selves, and their own wishes, not ours.
There are very many ways to design a mentoring programme, whether within an organization, or as a service or help that you provide personally to others.
Here are some questions that you should ask yourself. The answers will move you closer to what you seek to achieve:
What parameters and aims have you set for the mentoring activity?
What will your mentoring programme or service look and feel like?
What must it achieve and for whom?
What are your timescales?
How will the mentoring programme or activity be resourced and managed and measured?
What type of design and planning approach works best for you? (It makes sense to use a design and planning approach that works for you.)
What are your main skills and style and how might these influence the programme design?
What methods (phone, face-to-face, email, etc) of communication and feedback are available to you, and what communications methods do your 'customers' need and prefer?
What outputs and effects do you want the programme to produce for you, and for the people being mentored?
How might you build these core aims, and the implied values and principles, into your programme design?
How can you best measure and agree that these outputs - especially the agreed expectations of the people being mentored - are being met.
How can you best help people in matters for which you need to refer them elsewhere?
What skills, processes, tools, experience, knowledge, style do you think you will need that you do not currently have?
What do your 'customers' indicate that they want in terms of content, method and style or mentoring - in other words what does your 'target market' need?, and what parts of those requirements are you naturally best able to meet?
Mentoring is potentially an infinite demand upon the mentor so you need to have a clear idea of the extent of your mentoring 'offering'.
Establishing clear visible parameters enables proper agreement of mutual expectations.
These tips apply essentially to traditional work-related training - for the transfer of necessary job- or work-related skills or knowledge.
These tips do not apply automatically to other forms of enabling personal development and facilitating learning, which by their nature involve much wider and various development methods and experiences.
When planning training think about:
When you you give skills training to someone use this simple five-step approach:
Creating and using progress charts are helpful, and are essential for anything complex - if you can't measure it you can't manage it. It's essential to use other training tools too for planning, measuring, assessing, recording and following up on the person's training.
Breaking skills down into easily digestible elements enables you to plan and manage the training activities much more effectively. Training people in stages, when you can build up each skill, and then an entire role, from a series of elements, keeps things controlled, relaxed and always achievable in the mind of the trainee.
Establishing a relevant 'skill set' is essential for assessing and prioritising training for any role. It is not sufficient simply to assess against a job description, as this does not reflect skills, only responsibilities, which are different. Establishing a 'behaviour set' is also very useful, but is a more difficult area to assess and develop.
More information and guidance about working with 'Skill-Sets' and 'Behaviour Sets', and assessment and training planning see training evaluation, and performance appraisals, and other related linked articles on this site. Using Skill-Sets to measure individual's skills and competencies is the first stage in producing a training needs analysis for individuals, a group, and a whole organisation. You can see and download a free Skill-Set tool and Training Needs Analysis tool the free resources page.
This will not however go beyond the basic work-related job skills and attributes development areas. These tools deal merely with basic work training, and not with more important whole person development, for which more sophisticated questioning, mentoring and learning facilitation methods need to be used.
Psychometric tests (and even graphology - handwriting analysis) are also extremely useful for training and developing people, as well as recruitment, which is the more common use. Psychometric testing produces reliable assessments which are by their nature objective, rather than subjective, as tends to be with your own personal judgement. Your organisation may already use systems of one sort or another, so seek advice. See the section on psychometrics. Some of these systems and tools are extremely useful in facilitating whole-person learning and development.
Some tips to make training (and learning, coaching, mentoring) more enjoyable and effective:
Induction training tips:
As a manager, supervisor, or an organisation, helping your people to develop is the greatest contribution you can make to their well-being. Do it to your utmost and you will be rewarded many times over through greater productivity, efficiency, environment and all-round job-satisfaction.
Remember also to strive for your own personal self-development at all times - these days we have more opportunity and resource available than ever to increase our skills, knowledge and self-awareness. Make use of it all.
As an employer or manager, take the time to recognise and thank employees for successfully (or unsuccessfully) completing training and development courses, projects or challenges. Receiving recognition is a powerful motivator and stimulant towards further training and personal development. And yet the opportunity to acknowledge people's achievements is often overlooked. A simple letter of congratulations, or a mention in a company magazine or newsletter is all that it takes to give people a huge boost. Here's a simple sample letter of congratulations for completing training and development. Letters of recognition and congratulations are appropriate from line managers, and higher up the organisation especially. An individual signed letter of congratulations from the MD or CEO is a hugely motivational event in most employee's lives. People's valiant failures deserve recognition too, and often help the person to keep positive, and keep striving to succeed in the future.
(name, home address, date)
Dear ..........
My warmest congratulations to you on your completion of your ............... training course/programme on (date).
Your achievement (of ...... qualification/accreditation) is richly deserved, and serves a great example for others to follow.
I encourage you to continue to strive towards further personal development.
Best wishes, etc.
(name, home address, date)
Dear ..............
I realise that your recent failure to achieve/complete ................................ qualification/course will have been a disappointment to you.
However, I wanted to let you know that I was greatly impressed by your efforts and attitude in approaching your challenges, and I have every faith that you will succeed on your next attempt.
The lessons we learn from our failures are often even more valuable than the experience we gain from our successes.
Keep up your excellent efforts.
Best wishes, etc
Here's a simple process for training and developing management and leadership skills, and any other skills and abilities besides. Use your own tools and processes where they exist and are effective. Various tools are available on the free resources section to help with this process, or from the links below.
Refer also to the coaching and development process diagram.
Training and development can be achieved through very many different methods - use as many as you need to and which suit the individuals and the group. Refer to the Kolb learning styles ideas - different people are suited to different forms of training and learning.
Exercises that involve managing project teams towards agreed specific outcomes are ideal for developing management and leadership ability. Start with small projects, then increase project size, complexity and timescales as the trainee's abilities grow. Here are examples of other types of training and development. Training need not be expensive, although some obviously is; much of this training and development is free; the only requirements are imagination, commitment and a solid process to manage and acknowledge the development. The list is not exhaustive; the trainer and trainees will have lots more ideas:
Training people, especially graduates, young rising stars and new recruits, is commonly linked to the veiled promise of or allusion to management opportunity. But what happens when the organisation is unable to offer a management promotion at the end of the training programme? This is a familiar pattern and challenge in many organisations. How can you encourage people into a management development programmes, with no assurance of a promotion into management at the end of it?
The problem lies in the mismatched expectations at the outset: the trainee hopes (which develops into an expectation) for promotion. The organisation cannot (quite rightly) guarantee that a management job will be offered. No wonder that it often ends in tears, and what should have been (and actually still is) a positive experience, namely the learning and experience achieved, turns into a crisis for HR to diffuse, because the trainee feels let down and disappointed.
Here's a different way to approach management development:
First, come back a few stages and consider the values, beliefs and real nature of the emotional, spiritual and personal development that these people (the management trainees) might need and respond to most. Then you'll find it easier to define an honest set of expectations on each side (the graduates and the employer).
If the 'training' is positioned as a possible step towards a management promotion, people will become focused on the wrong expectations and aims, and when, as most of them will do, people fail to achieve a promotion they will feel they have failed, and the experience turns sour.
Better to design the 'learning' as a 'significant personal development experience' in its own right, with absolutely no promise of a job or a promotion at the end of it. That way everyone's (employer and employees) expectations match openly and honestly, and people are all focused on enjoying and benefiting from the learning as the central aim, rather than continually hoping that the management job happens, or in the case of the employer and program manager, preparing to defend and appease folks at the end when there's no job.
Added to which, by defining and designing the programme as personal development, enrichment, experience, life-learning, etc (there are many highly appealing and worthy ways to specify and describe a programme like this) - and not being afraid of doing so - you will attract the right sort of people into it; ie., the more emotionally mature and positive ones, who want to do it for the learning and experience, rather than purely for the chance of a promotion into management.
The irony of course is that students who respond to a learning and personal enrichment opportunity per se, with no guarantees or allusions to management promotion, will be the best management candidates of all.
Look at and understand the broad organizational context and business environment: the type, size, scale, spread, geography, logistics, etc., of the business or organization. This includes where and when people work (which influences how and when training can be delivered). Look also at the skills requirements for the people in the business in general terms as would influence training significance and dependence - factors which suggest high dependence on training are things like: fast-changing business (IT, business services, healthcare, etc), significant customer service activities, new and growing businesses, strong health and safety implications (chemicals, hazardous areas, transport, utilities). Note that all businesses have a high dependence on training, but in certain businesses training need is higher than others - change (in the business or the market) is the key factor which drives training need.
Assess and analyse how training and development is organized and the way that training is prioritised. Think about improvements to training organization and planning that would benefit the organisation.
Review the business strategy/positioning/mission/plans (and HR strategy if any exists) as these statements will help you to establish the central business aims. Training should all be traceable back to these business aims, however often it isn't - instead it's often arbitrary and isolated.
Assess how the training relates to the business aims, and how the effectiveness of the training in moving the business towards these aims is measured. Often training isn't measured at all - it needs to be.
Look at the details and overview of what training is planned for the people in the business. The training department or HR department should have this information. There should be a clear written training plan, including training aims, methods, relevance and outputs connected to the wider aims of the business.
Look also at how training relates to and is influenced by appraisals and career development; also recruitment, and general ongoing skills/behavioural assessment. There should be process links between these activities, particularly recruitment and appraisals, and training planning. Detailed training needs should be driven substantially by staff appraisals. (It goes without saying that there should be consistent processes and application of staff appraisals, and that these should use suitable job performance measures that are current and relevant to the operations and aims of the business.)
Look particularly at management training and development. The bigger the business, generally the bigger the dependence on management training and development.
Look at new starter induction training - it's critical and typically a common failing in situations where anything higher than a low percentage of new starters leave soon after joining.
Look for the relationships between training, qualifications, job grades and pay/reward levels - these activities and structures must be linked, and the connections should be visible to and understood by all staff.
Look especially at staff turnover (% per annum of total staff is the key indicator), exit interviews, customer satisfaction surveys, staff satisfaction surveys (if they exist) for other indicators as to staff development and motivational needs and thereby, training deficiencies.
Look for any market research or competitor analysis data which will indicate business shortcomings and weaknesses, which will imply staff training needs, obviously in areas of the most important areas of competitive weakness in relation to the business positioning and strategy.
Look to see if there is director training and development - many directors have never been trained for their roles, and often hide from and resist any effort to remedy these weaknesses.
Base training recommendations and changes on improving training effectiveness in terms of:
Measuring training hours per person as an average across the organization, typically per year, is often a useful training and development KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of the training function - more training acronyms here. If you can't measure it you can't manage it, the saying goes.
The degree of difficulty in measuring training time per person depends on what you define as training: training time per person on training courses is relatively easy to measure, but on-the-job coaching, informal mentoring, personal reading and learning - these are less quantifiable - you'd normally need to get this data from the employees via a survey or other special report.
It is possible to manage 'training time per person' aims and data via annual appraisals, when training past and future could be quantified - this could be a relatively simple add-on to whatever appraisal system you are using currently, and could relatively easily be cascaded via managers.
Your previous year's total training course time - ie., 'person-days' spent on training courses - divided by number of employees in the organization is an easy start point. This will give you the average training course time per employee, and if you have no other benchmarks is as good a start point as any. Then perhaps agree a sensible target uplift on this, assuming the training requirement is linked to organisational aims and personal development, rather than training for the sake of it just to increase the hours per person. You can make this calculation for a team, a job grade, a department or a whole organization.
You could also survey the managers as to their estimate of how much on-the-job-coaching they provided per person as an average during a week. This gives another benchmark, albeit it an estimate, for which you can target an uplift and then monitor via managers reporting back every month or quarter. Remind managers to include, and if possible to categorise all the different sorts of training and coaching that takes place, as they will tend to forget or ignore certain types, for example; job cover, training at meetings, taking on new tasks and responsibilities, delegated tasks, shadowing, etc. Training comes in various forms - if you are measuring it make sure you don't underestimate the level of activity.
These guidelines essentially deal with conventional work skills training and development. Remember that beyond this, issues of personal development and learning, for life, not just work, are the most significant areas of personal development to focus on.
To plan traditional training of work skills and capabilities that links to organizational performance improvement you must first identify the organizational performance needs, gaps, and priorities. These are examples of typical training drivers which give rise to training needs. It is rare to use all of these aspects in determining training needs - select the ones which are most appropriate to your own situation, the drivers which will produce the most productive and cost-effective results, in terms of business performance and people-development:
Generally conflict would stem from the values and priorities of directors, managers and staff involved, and the aims and processes of the different HR functions. Here are some subject headings that serve as a checklist to see that the aims and priorities of HR/Training align optimally with those of other departments (the list is not exhaustive but should enable the main points of potential misalignment to be addressed):
In many training and teaching situations it is not possible to identify and assemble groups of delegates whose needs, experience and ability levels closely match each other.
Groups will therefore often comprise of trainees and learners who have different levels of experience, and/or abilities, styles, expectations, needs, aims, etc.
This places additional demands on the training provider/facilitators to ensure that the needs of all delegates are met, while not causing any frustration or boredom for delegates who already know or possess certain parts of the information and abilities (or think they do) that the teaching seeks to transfer.
As such it is often helpful for trainers and delegates to acknowledge and accept this situation at the beginning of the course or training session, with the purpose of reducing potential frustrations and negative reactions and effects as far as possible.
Here is a suggested introductory statement, which aims to achieve a commitment to understand the needs of others. You will notice that the statement is designed to appeal to the mature and responsible nature that exists in virtually all people. The challenge is to tap into this at the outset, in order to set a positive constructive atmosphere and standard of behaviour for the training. Adapt it to suit your own situation.
This special training introduction is additional to any other introduction that you'll be using to outline the training aims, domestic arrangements, fire-drill, etc.
The statement or an adapted version can also be included within the introduction section of training course notes and manuals.
Example training introduction for groups of mixed abilities and needs:
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Training Introduction - Please help to make this course/session as positive and helpful for all delegates While every effort has been made to design this course/session to appeal to the needs of all delegates, it is almost inevitable that each of you will have slightly (and in some cases significantly) different past experiences, levels of ability and knowledge, personal skills and styles, and needs and expectations. Therefore during this course/session some of the learning might already be known or familiar to you. Please bear in mind that this will not be the case for all of your fellow delegates. We are all different. As such we would greatly appreciate your cooperation, tolerance and awareness as to the needs of others on this course. If you find yourself thinking that you've 'heard at all before' please take a few moments to think: Have you really 'heard it all before', or are you overlaying your own experiences onto some new ideas? This is not an unusual reaction among very capable people when confronting new ideas, so first it's good to test your initial reaction - it would be a pity to miss out. If you are convinced that the training is covering an area that you know well please then consider how to make the best of this situation. If you know the area well, look for opportunities to make constructive suggestions and to provide helpful examples to the group. Trainers and facilitators have a tough job to do and will generally appreciate constructive help and participation from senior or experienced members of the group. If you find yourself completing exercises much quicker than your fellow delegates, look to help others, especially if the trainer or facilitator is working alone with a large group, and especially if other members are struggling. If you find yourself knowing the answers to lots of the questions that arise during the training, consider if less experienced delegates will benefit from working out the answers for themselves, with some prompting from you if helpful. Nobody ever learned much from answering an easy question, but we learn a lot from helping someone else who finds a question difficult. Delegates who help the group as well as learn new things for themselves, invariably get the most from training courses. Thank you in anticipation of your understanding and contribution towards making this a helpful session for everyone. |
Adapt this training course introduction to suit the situation. It is more relevant to mixed groups of delegates from different experience and skills backgrounds than to groups which have been selected according to closely matching needs and ability levels.
This sort of statement can be included at the beginning of course notes, or given as a separate handout (as a sort of philosophical scene-setter), and/or explained and discussed verbally with the group.
In any event it's good also to seek agreement from the group that the concept of making the most constructive use of time and everyone's ability to contribute, is the right and proper approach.
The message to training course delegates is effectively: that learning new things is an enjoyable rewarding part of life and personal development, and so too is helping others to do the same.
See the Businessballs Space featuring many interesting providers and their content.
And the wide range of personal development and learning resources on this site, including:
Erik Erikson's life-stages theory
Experiential Learning - and guide to facilitating experiential learning activities
Kirkpatrick's learning evaluation model
Bloom's Taxonomy of learning domains
Age Diversity and Discrimination
Assertiveness and building self-confidence
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Stress causes and stress relief
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) principles and tools
The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
Businessballs personal development main site (if you are not already there)
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