Get Better Value From Your Training in 2015

Most organisations agree that training is an important part of developing people and spend a significant amount on it. How do you know whether you are getting the value from your training budget?

Training needs are typically identified as part of the annual appraisal, when staff and managers think about how they spend the training allowance on something to develop skills and performance. The normal route is to look through catalogues of training courses, but the difficulty is finding something relevant.

In any organisation that values its people, staff development is sacrosanct. Significant pressure is put on managers to make sure staff use their training time, but all too often this turns into an exercise of choosing a course from a catalogue that seems vaguely relevant.

But are these training courses serving the needs of staff or the organisation? The most well-intentioned companies might be getting the worst deal in the way they invest in training by not focusing or integrating training in the right way.

The fact is, most formal training is largely disconnected from day-to-day work. Added to this is the problem that knowledge does not get retained unless it is used, so unless courses are designed to be integrated into work, then the investment is likely wasted.

The best learning is reinforced through hands-on solving of problems. When you have been through the experience of solving a tricky problem, it becomes easier to do it next time. By getting the right support and through repeated practice, you become an expert.

For many people, on-the-job training is the most valuable, but most organisations do not have a way to formally harness it or spread good practice through the organisation.

Here are some suggestions on how you can make staff development better:

• Select training and development that integrates learning into day-to-day work, so that staff have the right tools, at the time they need them.
• Capture good ways of working by formalising into templates to share knowledge and guidance with others.
• When you hire external consultants, build in time for the consultants to ‘teach’ permanent staff – even if it is very informal – experiencing an expert in action can be much more valuable than a training course of limited relevance. Not every consultant will do this, and you must choose carefully, but there could be some great people in your office right now that you could tap into.
• Do not neglect ‘soft skills’ training and coaching. Most people are held back from their career objectives by behaviours and character traits that are hard to define and often not addressed.
• Encourage more positive collaboration between staff to create a culture of learning; when everyone stops to consider what they can offer or learn from colleagues then everyone wins.

If we really value their people then they need to look at identifying more effective ways of using training budgets so that the investment really counts. Tools and methods that improve on-the-job training should be recognised as an essential part of staff development.

Good luck! Have a great holiday break and a productive new year!

The DASH project & task management app helps people learn on-the-job by using output templates. It can be used as follow up to a training course or guidance on a methodology as a practical way to embed the knowledge learned.