Before Launching into Training. Address some Key Issues!

Training is vital to your employees’ professional and personal development and to your organization’s mission. To train employees effectively, though, you have to do some homework before you start. Here’s a checklist of questions to answer:

• Have you identified the specific training your employees need? “Internet training,” for example, is vague; “expertise in cutting-edge Web page design” is more concrete.

• Does everyone know what to expect? Employees need to know what they’re going to learn, and how it’s going to be taught. Both employees and supervisors need to understand what’s going to happen in the training sessions.

• Do you and other managers understand your role? When employees return from the training, you’ll need to find ways to let them exercise their new skills. Look for opportunities to help employees sharpen and stretch their knowledge.

• Do employees understand the importance of the training? If they see it as “nice to know,” they won’t be strongly motivated to put their new skills to work. If they understand how their increased knowledge will advance both the company’s goals and their own career prospects, they’ll be more committed to mastering the lessons.

• Do you know how you’ll measure the results of the training? You’ll have a much easier time getting support for your training programs if you can show how they’ll affect the bottom line. Work with trainers as well as your employees to match their new skills with specific objectives like “X percent increase in widgets produced per quarter,” or “Y percent more customers served per hour.”

• Does the rest of the organization know about the training? If your training benefits only your own department, you’ve lost a valuable opportunity. Let everyone in the organization know what your employees have learned and how their new skills can help others in the company