Every organization must have a regular training and development plan for establishing qualifications and improving the competencies of employees. Selecting the appropriate training course requires a clear understanding of the competencies, knowledge and qualifications that make up a training package (ATS, 2011). Before I delve into the discourse per se, let me quickly explain what is meant by training course. A course is a structured form of vocational education and training that is used to develop specific skills in an employee. A certification course usually follows a process designed to promote learning. When the course is accredited by a state or territory training authority, its completion will lead to a qualification (ATS, 2011). My concern in this piece is not about a course is certified or not but how you can know how to identify the right developmental training for you and grab the opportunity for your personal and organizational growth. Of course, if you need the course for promotion or even presentations before an authority, you need to consider registered programs that are worth presenting to them.
It is understandable why any business would want to puts its workforce through training. From increasing their product knowledge and business acumen to becoming better communicators and problem solvers, the potential plus points of training are vast. However, one of the biggest problems with upskilling employees is the poor return on investment from both a financial and effort perspective. Training can be an extremely expensive exercise, where members of staff don’t actually remember much information. A great deal of money is wasted and personnel are left none the wiser (Wranx, 2015).
Any company delving into training and development of its workforce should first learn how to properly identify and assess training needs. This is the single most important thing that helps executives to address the gaps between the existing training and training which will be required in the future (Pajaron, 2015).In choosing a training course, here are some crucial factors to consider:
What are the objectives of the training?
Or, what do you want your staff to learn? First of all, try to identify gaps in your workforces’ knowledge or find out what areas they struggle with most. From there, you can establish what is required from training and the learning outcomes expected. Not only does this enable you to focus your attention on the training options that could deliver the best returns, it also ensures no time, effort, money or resources will be wasted (Wranx, 2015). The objectives of a training session divide it into three major areas. They are:
Industry-related needs: Those are quite simple, but it can still be challenging to narrow them down when formulating your training program. There surely exist certain pieces of industry knowledge that employees should have. This need essentially derives from how the organization fits into the industry. For example, a manufacturing group which creates parts for high-tech appliances may require the knowledge about where those parts go, what kind of appliances they structure, and how the manufacturing of those appliances coordinated by other companies affects the industry as a whole. When assessing this need, know how to differentiate what needs to be known from what would be nice to know (Pajaron, 2015).
Job-related needs: Job related needs are those that relate directly to jobs which are part of the organization. How to look for job-related needs? By researching whether there’s training available for certain jobs. If not, organizations might create a complete training program for a job. The purpose of job-related needs is to improve the final output of the job itself. It can be building an error-free part for a technological appliance or a completed call with a customer. The key is to identify which aspects of the job belong to executive positions and which ones are related to on-the-job training (Parajon, 2015).
Task-related needs: A task-related need usually comes in the form of a requirement in a particular part or output within a job or job family. Just consider your own job – it’s a combination of different tasks and processes that create your job on a daily to yearly basis. This is something that all jobs share. Sometimes one or more aspects of a job aren’t working and affect the overall productivity of a worker. Consider this example – a customer service representative performs well in sales and customer satisfaction, but when it comes to data inputs into the CRM system, they’re pretty hopeless. This problem might affect contact with the customers or even the number of closed sales (Parajon, 2015).
Who will be receiving the training?
Sales staff will have very different personalities to call-center representatives, so it is important to understand individual personalities and how they might respond to your choice of training program.In addition to their preferred learning style, you will also need to think about how certain members of staff accept and retain information. Younger employees will no doubt enjoy e-learning more than classroom-based teaching, whereas the older generation might prefer traditional methods such as on-the-job (Wranx, 2015).
What is your budget?
Budget constraints is a key issue for countless companies wanting to send staff on training courses, which means this could affect the type of teaching or tuition available. However, the phrase “speculate to accumulate” speaks volumes here. A lot will depend on your initial objectives and the employees receiving training, but if you manage to choose the right solution, your spending should pale into insignificance to the results generated. But while these questions can help you identify appropriate themes and topics as well as the staff members deserving of training, you will still need to choose the right teaching techniques and learning environments (Wranx, 2015).
How many people will receive training?
Only having a handful of employees makes training much easier, as it can be personalized to unique requirements. Having said that, this also makes things more expensive, as bespoke solutions could be required. Challenges exist for big workplaces too, as each and every employee will be different. Group training courses might be advantageous from a budget point of view, but this outlay might not yield the desired effect of training (Wranx, 2015). All these variables must be considered in order to be able to determine the best form of training for you and your set-up.
References
ATS (2011). Choosing the Right Training and Development for Employees. Retrieved from https://www.appliedtrainingsolutions.com.au/choosing-the-right-training-and-development-for-employees/
Pajaron, T (2015). How to Identify Training Needs at your Organization. Retrieved from https://trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-and-planning/how-to-identify-training-needs-at-your-organization/?utm_content=cpdc
Wranx (2015). Finding the Right Training Service for your Employees. Retrieved from https://blog.wranx.com/finding-the-right-training-service-for-your-employees
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