In part one of this series we uncovered five tips for making your training successful before you hire a training provider. Hopefully, that information was helpful to identify the kind of provider that is right for you. In this second post, we are going to explore five best practices for making the training a success after you’ve hired them. Let’s take a look:
1. Make your training provider your partner
Once you hire a training provider, take the time to be intentional about building your business relationship. Make them an insider and continue to treat your trainer that way so you can work as partners, adapting to the changing needs of the organization and refining the training content as needed. Ideally, they’ll be your long term training partner and can develop into a valuable resource. When you work well together, it’s much easier to for the trainer to act as an ambassador of your company, be engaged in their work, and successful in their role.
2. Give a clear reason for training
Establish and communicate to your employees a clear reason for the training, and make it relevant to your participants. The reason for the training should be more than satisfying an HR or compliance requirement. Creating a relatable “why” is incredibly impactful and sends a more meaningful message to your participants. If your employees understand the reasoning behind it, the training is viewed as more important – not just to the organization, but to them personally. Participants will be more interested, and the experience will be more valuable to them when they understand how the training will serve to enhance some aspect of their performance and/or work life.
3. Train the right people
Who should receive training, and why, is an important question to consider. Just because you’re experiencing issues with one division of the organization does not necessarily mean that the training should be isolated to that group. On the contrary, addressing the same issue company-wide is a smart way to prevent the problem from surfacing again and demonstrates that the training is not being administered as a punishment when things go wrong, but as the standard for everyone. Additionally, integrating individuals from different departments of the company is an excellent way to create a stronger bond between divisions and adds perspective, while helping to break down silos.
4. Don’t rush the training
We all know that employees are pressed for time. However, while rushing through a slide presentation that simply imparts dry information may be short, it’s not nearly as effective as an engaging, and possibly longer session that offers people a chance to ask questions, learn from each other, and look at content from multiple perspectives. Speeding through content sacrifices the quality of the experience and takes away from the perceived importance of the message. Instead, consider narrowing the content or dividing it into multiple sessions to preserve the learning method and positive results while accommodating scheduling constraints, particularly when a full day of training is not feasible.
5. Build off your training
Training is a way to communicate standards and help employees learn what is expected of them through an experiential process. Training, though, is not an end in itself. It’s what you do with it that makes all the difference. Effective training should serve as a springboard for behavior change, but it is no replacement for effective management. If training is recommended to address specific behavior or performance issues, it should not replace needed coaching and counseling by managers.To leverage the benefits of the training, leaders should be able to expand on the training content in the context of performance expectations and provide on-going feedback beyond the training experience.
