Putting Training into Practice

Above: An enthralled crowd at Spark09's Shanghai event earlier this year. This exciting event was presented by thought leaders and covered the topics: Humanity, Environment, Science, and Business. Spark09 will be in Beijing and Hong Kong soon!

Putting Training into Practice

Point number two from "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time" By David H. Maister is that training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice.

Maister’s viewpoint is one which I strongly agree with and have, unfortunately, experienced many bad examples of. One experience was within an American multinational company:

The company’s training budget for the last quarter of 2008 was untouched by the economy but the Training Department was, understandably, under pressure to use the budget to full effect. The Training Manager was adamant that the staff required on going Business English in order to improve their communication skills despite the already high level of English within the organization. The problem was clearly the way in which employees communicated, not their level of English, but there was no convincing the Training Manager that a Communication Skills seminar followed by ongoing Core Communications training would be more successful. After Business English had been taken in to account; however, this left unused budget that could be used on soft skill training.

Long discussions and well-funnelled questioning made it clear that both Communication Skills and Time Management seminars would be highly advantageous to all concerned. These are extremely useable skills that can be put into practice instantaneously by trainees to immediately improve workplace efficiency. What more could a company want from their corporate training.

However, the Training Manager decided upon a Powerful Presentations seminar. A great choice of seminar that is not only highly interactive and skill oriented but also a great confidence and motivation builder for employees. It’s a topic I love to deliver and that trainees always enjoy and learn from.

However, during the routine telephone interviews used to customize the training to employees’ needs, it became apparent that not one of the trainees needed Presentation Skills training at this early stage of their career. They were all fresh graduates, very few attended meetings at all, and it was going to be at least a year or so before any of them would actually deliver a presentation to their boss, let alone a larger audience.

I discussed this with the Training Manager who fortunately saw the light when I argued that “Training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice” and subsequently booked both of the aforementioned skills seminars instead.

Skills into Practice

Formal training MUST be reinforced through the individual’s application of new skills on-the-job. The trainee must be able to walk away from the training with a clear idea of how they are going to put their new skills into practice. Then the learning process should be enhanced by the support and coaching of performance managers and colleagues. Individuals need to seek out learning opportunities and request feedback as they perform new tasks and projects using their newly acquired skills.

Use It or Lose It

You must remember that if employees take part in a concentrated amount of training and cannot follow up with the ability to apply what they have learned, the skills will be forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. Trainees retain only what they can apply and continue to use.

I’ve often heard of companies that were originally going to spend two weeks and teach employees “everything” but found that they only retained what they put to use within the weeks after training. Instead they have decided to break the training into more manageable segments for a better retention rate and therefore greater ROI.
Companies wanting to gain the greatest ROI from their corporate training strategy need to recognize that a training program is not close-ended, it is something that should continue and be part of the culture.

In my next article I will discuss Maister’s third point: “Training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organizational change.”

Many thanks for reading,

Emma

For more information on corporate training and seminars, or to provide feedback, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

How to Ensure Training is Worthwhile

Above: Andy Clark, Co-founder of ClarkMorgan Corporate Training, conducting a highly interactive 'Train the Trainer' seminar in Shanghai earlier this year.

How to Ensure Training is Worthwhile...

I have been shocked and dismayed at one training trend I have noticed over the last six months, and I’d like to talk about this today and over the following few days; training for training's sake.

HR and Training Managers have, in general, been provided with a lower training budget over the last few months; you would therefore think that needs analysis and well-targeted training would be of utmost importance during these times. Efficiency and communications skills must be of a priority, as well as training and motivating those with leadership potential.

However, I have noticed a huge increase in completely untargeted training, of little immediate use, with no incentive for future improvement, and extremely ‘stand-alone’. I’ll give you an example:

I know of a corporate trainer who was recently employed by an extremely well-known multinational corporation. This company wanted training once a month for an unlimited number of staff and they didn’t want the employees to interact with the trainer in any way. They insisted that they needed the trainer to ‘lecture’ for two hours at a time about any relevant business topic, such as finance or sales. The lectures were, of course, used as a reason for employees to excuse themselves from normal work and produced no improvement in efficiency or effectiveness. No matter how many times the trainer tried to discover the real needs of the organization or find the underlying reason for the company needing training, the answer was always the same: You. Lecture. Two hours. No interaction!

T&D magazine published a fascinating article titled "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time." By David H. Maister. Although this is a rather negative title, I would like to add my own positive spin on this and write an article for each of his reasons why ‘most training is useless’, and tell you how to ‘make your training useful’… In fact, more than useful: highly productive and highly effective.

Tomorrow, I’ll begin with point number one: “True long-term changes in any organization need to begin with changes at the top - in managerial behavior.”

Many thanks for reading,

Emma

For more information on corporate training and seminars, or to provide feedback, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

The Changing Landscape of Corporate Training

In July 2008, Bersin & Associates published a Corporate Learning Factbook. The paper made some salient points about the changing landscape of corporate training. Key points included the following:

• Training budgets and staffing are continuing to grow, but at a slower rate.

• Per learner spending is essentially flat, primarily because organizations have more employees to train.

• Organizations are spending the largest percentage of their budgets on leadership development and management/supervisory training.

• Cutting-edge groups are utilizing new approaches to better address the learning needs of younger workers.

• Learning is being integrated with performance and competency management initiatives.

• Chief Learning Objectives are aligning closely with overall corporate strategy to increase effectiveness.

As 2008 progressed and we entered 2009, it became clear that these points were no longer relevant. Training budgets were frozen or reduced; many organizations had fewer employees to train; and the reduced training budget was being used to motivate the masses rather than develop potential leadership.

If you had asked me my thoughts on these key points at the beginning of this year, I would have pessimistically predicted that every point would be rendered obsolete by July 2009

However, as we approach the middle of 2009, I am energized by the need to alter my predictions. I now believe that by July, corporate training research will produce almost identical results to 2008. So, even though multinational companies and the training industry have not evolved to the extent hoped, there has been no devolution either; which cannot be considered disappointing in the current economic crisis.

This, in turn, proves that Corporate Training is a vital component to the development of any company wishing to develop its employees and expand its business.

Many thanks,

Emma

I'd like to know your predictions for the rest of 2009. Will your company increase corporate training levels by 2010? Do you believe the 2009 report will unveil identical finding to the 2008 factbook? Feel free to leave your comments here or email me at eharradine@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks.

Training Cuts

In the first article of my new blog I touched upon my optimism that corporate training within multinational companies is on an upswing. High-level managers are becoming wise to the fact that severe cuts to training might save large amounts of money now but will cost substantially more in the future.

I recently read a report titled, “Knowledge- the New Commodity,” by Cognisco, which makes the case that investment in training is tied to global competitiveness, not just annual survival.

Emerging markets, such as China, are not cutting employee development to the same degree as America and European countries and will therefore be in a better position when the economy recovers, according to the Cognisco report.

However, as a Corporate Training Professional, it has been my role to convey this truth despite the tightening budgets of multinational companies. Training Managers are, understandably, afraid to invest large sums of money when the future is so unclear, and therefore ask the question, “why does training matter?”

Well, this is a simple question with a very simple answer… If you want to do business effectively, training DOES matter.

My experience of corporate training is predominantly within Asian markets and from business meetings and industry research it has become evident that an inadequately trained workforce is the most difficult obstacle for high-level managers doing business in an emerging market. Whether the employees lack presentation skills, engineering knowledge, or communication skills, lack of training can only amplify the effect of these obstacles and lead to an inefficient workforce.

British research analyst IDC, reports that 19 billion pounds (190 billion Chinese Yuan) was lost in 2008 because of employee misunderstanding. With a figure like this, can your company afford to cut training?

Increasing your internal training now might cost less than you imagine (some corporate training companies have very competitive prices right now) and the enhanced efficiency of your employees will ensure your company has the competitive advantage when the recession becomes a distant memory.

Thanks again for reading,

Emma

For further information on corporate training or seminars, please do not hesitate to contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk