Author: Beth Nurnberger

Most organisations have processes in place to provide personal and professional development.  Sending staff to attend training is one way to invest in your people.  This blog explores what organisations can expect by way of return on their training investment – positive, negative or nil (neutral= zero)

 

Why do organisations train their staff? 

Have a think about this for a moment……  You may respond to this question with the following answers: organisations train their staff in order to provide them with relevant skills and knowledge related to the job; to ensure their staff are following all policies & procedures, so that there is a uniform approach to standardised workplace practices; to ensure that all legislative requirements are upheld in all work-related tasks. 

 

Bottom Line = Return on Investment

Training your staff should have a tangible return and not merely be an exercise in ‘ticking the boxes’.  The reason businesses and organisations should be training their people is to realise a positive return on their training investment – that is, that the business will see a definite, noticeable, and measurable difference as a result of the training such that the business benefits overall.  Resources that are devoted to training usually involve a considerable financial investment for a business or organisation.   Financially, the return on training investment should mean less money out and more money in – a healthier bottom line!

 

What is Training Transfer?

There is only one reason for you to send people to training – because there is an identified gap.   Your staff are employed to fulfil a role.  In order to meet the requirements of this role not only do they require the appropriate resources; they also must possess the relevant knowledge, skills, and attitude.  If there is a gap in what they know or are able to do in relation to their job role (or even how they do it), then and only then is there a need for training.

 

Training by its definition will impart new knowledge, teach a new skill or demonstrate the appropriate attitude for the workplace.  Training transfer is the realisation of the investment – how training has affected the attendees: it will either be positive, negative or zero.

 

1.   Positive Transfer – This is achieved when the attendees to training return to the workplace and perform better than they would have without the training. They can now solve problems they couldn’t before, or they are more productive, more efficient, more engaged, more motivated.  Results are noticeable, measurable and desired.  The training has added value to the business as a result.

 

2.   Negative Transfer – This occurs training has a detrimental effect and results in training participants performing worse than they would have had they not gone to training at all.

 

3.   Zero Transfer – This occurs when the acquisition of a new skill or new knowledge has absolutely no effect in the workplace.  The productivity or performance of the staff who attended training is neither enhanced nor hindered.  If the trainer was fun and interesting but resulted in a zero transfer, the company has just invested in a good entertainment session for its staff!

 

 

Where does Training Fit in an Organisation or Business?

So before training is decided upon as a course of action, before we can even begin to discuss return on investment, training needs to be clearly situated within an organisation – it is important to identify the role training plays in the workplace.  It needs to be an integrated part of the whole work environment, from induction to up skilling, from performance review to moving an organisation into a new phase of existence. 

 

The context of training, therefore, must clearly be established throughout the various levels of an organisation or business, and its role supported by other factors in the workplace. These factors include not only the design and delivery of training, but also the role supervisors and managers have in relation to learning and development, the culture of the workplace, the performance review systems that are in place, all the way up to the vision of the organisation – training must align itself to the values and direction of the company.

 

My next blog explores how to do this – how to ensure every training session will result in a positive return on the training investment your business or organisation makes in their staff.

 

In my previous two blogs I wrote about what is meant by the term Training Transfer – when training their staff, organisations must consider the return they will get from the training investment they are making financially and from an allocation of resources point of view. I explored the difference between a positive, negative and a nil result from sending people to training, and how to ensure your organisation’s ROI is always positive.

 

In this blog, I discuss how organisations can achieve a better than positive return on training investment (ROI) – a maximum ROI.  To achieve this, we need to explore the question – who really is responsible for putting the newly acquired skills and knowledge into practice once trainees return to the workplace?  Consider the answer to this question before you read on.

 

Now what?

So, you’ve sent your people off to training, and here they are, with their workbooks and newly acquired knowledge, their heads full of great ideas ready to go…….. now what?

 

Most Team Leaders and Managers will say, ‘Get to it!!’  Infused with the belief it is now up to the person trained to be able to apply all they have learned to improve their performance in one or several areas.  After all, the business paid for or supplied their training, and now it is their job to put it into practice.  Right?

 

Not so fast…… let’s say that you have done what was recommended in the previous blog, and you ensured that a training needs analysis was done and there were clearly defined gaps in trainees’ skills &/or knowledge.  AND the training was so terrific it closed those gaps.  Let’s also say that you also ensured that the training provider aligned the training material to your work environment, incorporating your policies & procedures, as well as your workplace practices.

 

Great job!  You have successfully applied the principles of how to achieve a positive return on training investment (ROI) from the training your staff attends.

 

But, wait! There’s MORE!!

 

Ask yourself these questions:

·       ‘How do your people know they are applying their newly acquired skills and knowledge the way they are supposed to? The way you want them to?’ 

·       ‘Each and every one of them – will they all do it the same way?’

 

The answer will be ‘YES!’ only if there is an established coaching method in place in your organisation or business.

 

If not, then you cannot be guaranteed they will know how to ‘unpack’ their skills & knowledge as expected, and YOU can expect a mixed bag of results:  some will ‘get it’ and some will be so far off the mark you will be left wondering what is wrong with them.

 

Identify who is responsible for implementing the S-K-A

 

Consider who is truly responsible for implementing the skills, knowledge and desired attitude acquired in training in the correct way.  Who is responsible for making sure the skills and knowledge are applied the way the business or organisation expects? Is it the responsibility of the people who have been trained……?  The answer may surprise you:

 

The answer is you, and anyone else who holds a management-level position.

 

Without clear guidance, your people will apply what they know in the way they think is suitable.  They will do the best they can with the skills they have – skills that pertain to the training they have just completed, plus skills that relate to applying those skills effectively, including effective communication skills, analysing and thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and a whole range of other skills.

 

Their idea of what is best may or may NOT align with your organisation’s vision, your business unit’s goals, or the current initiatives in place in the workplace.  Please don’t get me wrong here – your people will do the best they can with what they have.  They come to work with the best intentions of doing the best they can.  The trouble with this is we are all individuals. 

 

We all come to the workplace with our own values and beliefs.

 

Not everyone will do it the way they are “supposed to” or the way you “expect” them to, not without a process that gives them the feedback they need to get it right, consistently and competently.

 

What is in place in YOUR workplace to ensure this occurs?

 

If you’re left scratching your head here, I’ll let you in on a well-kept secret.  The way to get maximum return on your training dollars is Workplace Coaching…..  This requires a whole distinct set of skills that compliment a team leader’s or manager’s role.  And it is completely different from training.  But that is the topic of another blog…..