A Training Pro’s Guide To Training ROI
If you’re a training and development pro, you know it’s tough to show training ROI because it’s tough to set training goals in the first place, much less hit them.
Completion rates for web-based courses are often in the single digits, and never anywhere close to 100%; not for academic training, or for corporate programs. You’d think people would want to develop new skills to make themselves better, more effective, and more successful at whatever they do. And they probably do. But they’ve got busy schedules and deadlines, priorities, and for better or worse that makes training — no matter how valuable it might be — second fiddle.
What you need is an organized way to set the goals of your training initiative, motivate your learners, track their progress, and keep them from relapsing once they’re done.
Having that would be a win for everyone. The company, the learners, and you.
Maybe this will help.
Here’s 7 critical steps to successfully launching and managing a training initiative.
Step #1 — Get Started Right: Needs Assessment
Choosing the right training program means assessing the gaps in the employees’ current knowledge, skills, and abilities. And understanding how filling those gaps will impact the company’s goals.
Without a clear understanding of those two things, you may choose a program that can’t hit the company’s needs, or fails to address employees’ training needs. Or both.
Employees could end up training in topics that don’t address the business goals, or that they’re already familiar with, that aren’t applicable to their field, or are too advanced.
All of which would be a big waste of time, opportunity, and money.
Step #2 — Communicate and Motivate
Generating buy-in is essential. It’s critical to get employees, teams, and managers excited about upcoming training, even though everybody already has their plates full.
Every member of the organization needs to get excited about the opportunity it presents to improve the product and service, to reach revenue or growth goals, or to attain compliance.
Imagine creating a culture of learning… a corporate environment where management champions the value of professional development, where up-skilling is considered a part of the job, and attainable goals are set and measured to recognize and reward progress.
Too much? Imagine the lost investment and opportunity of doing otherwise.
Step #3 — Make It Tough, and Make Them Use It
Offering tough training doesn’t mean only challenging the experienced learners, or aiming to make everyone a subject matter expert.
Not everyone needs to become expert in a new skill… sometimes there are team members who only need to become familiar at a high level while only a few need to become serious masters.
Making training challenging doesn’t mean asking tough questions on the test. It means presenting training with structure, feedback loops, accountability, and practical application. Making online training challenging means making the learning hands-on and interactive.
Choose a training provider who offers multiple levels of challenging training so learners aren’t over- or under-trained for the goals you’ve targeted.
Step #4 — Fresh Content from Training Specialists
Even the most general HR compliance policies undergo constant evolution, and it’s critical to teach the latest practices. The same is true for other dynamic skill sets, like programming, health care, and digital marketing. The increasing speed of technological, business, and social change makes this year’s training materials next year’s old news.
YouTube videos can be uploaded by anybody, and finding the most up-to-date video lessons is a full-time job.
You could license a specialty course from a service or tool provider, but those vendors are in the business of contracting for that kind of work. Their core competency isn’t keeping training materials up to date, it’s generating leads or servicing their own customers.
Your best bet is to work with training providers whose core business is education and training rather than providing aligned services… whose business model depends on training success, so they’re motivated to keep materials current.
Step #5 — Provide Them with Expert Guidance
When your vendor is a training specialist, they should have instructors who aren’t just “book smart”.
Look for trainers who are working professionals with hands-on daily experience in the field, who are respected by their peers as thought leaders, and who give keynote addresses at major conferences.
Not someone parroting what they’ve read in someone else’s books.
Step #6 — Track Progress and Celebrate Wins
If learners don’t think they’re being held accountable, they won’t finish their training. Likewise, if they don’t feel their learning efforts are appreciated, they won’t finish their training.
Choose a training vendor that provides a manager’s dashboard and a Learning Management System (LMS). You should be able to assign goal-specific training appropriate to each learner’s needs, monitor and report their progress, and realign them when they fall behind. It made it super easy for employees to log in, see which training modules they had been assigned, and to confirm those they had completed, to keep them on track.
Then incentivize them to study. Of course, there are the classics: Starbucks cards, prepaid VISA cards, or even something as simple as letting an employee go home early on a Friday.
Employees who see quick return on their training efforts in the form of incentives, improved job performance, and personal pride become advocates of training to their peers.
Step #7 — Prevent Relapse for Long-Term Success
New skills and knowledge can wane over time with disuse. Specific tactics and strategies become outdated over time, as industries evolve, or policies changes.
If your learners don’t continue to train, they’ll fail to stay current on best practices, and their soon-to-be-out-of-date strategies will lag behind any competitor who is staying current, and you’ll lose any competitive advantage you gained.
Isn’t that the point of investing time and resources in the first place?
Is it worth it? It’s worth it.
Creating a culture of learning, and remaining committed to professional development, creates an atmosphere that encourages up-skilling and prevents relapse.
Making training fun, engaging, and rewarding makes it all the more likely that employees will happily step up, engage, and successfully complete future training programs.
Which means next time around, it’ll all go even smoother.
Chip Street - Writey Guy 