Guidelines To Design Your Training Plan

Maximizing the impact of your training effort can only be achieved if you develop an effective training plan. If done correctly, this plan will help you identify your training objectives and the training methods best suited to achieve your goals.

Performing an Audience Analysis

For your training activities to be effective, it is critical to understand who your employees are and how they learn. Gathering information about demographics, knowledge, gaps in skills, and learning styles can be achieved through various methods including:

• Conducting surveys
• Interviewing employees
• Interviewing managers to get insights about individual team members
• Looking at gaps in performance such as customer service issues or productivity problems

Take the information you’ve gathered and use it to decide which category of training programs to choose from. Research each course within the chosen category to find out how the instructor facilitates the training session and the tools and techniques that will be used. Finally, take your own ego out of the equation. Your favorite training program or instructor might not be a good fit for your organization. Make sure your decisions about training are based on what works best for your employees. Most importantly, ask yourself if this training program is relevant to your organization and its goals. A highly acclaimed class or method might be a waste of money if it does not benefit your business.

Creating an Impact Assessment

Once the training programs are up and running, it is important to conduct a thorough impact assessment. This way, you will have a method for gathering relevant feedback and, most importantly, a system to plug that feedback into so you can see whether your training efforts are paying off or not. You will also need to gauge the level of positive or negative impact a particular training activity is having on your organization. Here are some questions to ask as you develop an impact assessment plan:

• Is the training being implemented properly and thoroughly?
• Is there a clear line of communication between staff and management before, during, and after the training process?
• Am I taking an honest look at things? You have to be willing to scrutinize and possibly accept hard truths. Rose-colored glasses won’t help here. Your impact assessment is most beneficial if it is honest. If something isn’t working, recognize it, own it, and take action to change it.
• What is the return on investment? You will need to find ways to measure the benefit your organization is getting from training. This can be in the form of increased productivity or faster response time.