New Response to TNA (week of June 12th)
Contributed by a Training Expert at Trainers Direct
It is estimated that nearly 65 billion dollars will be spent on management training and development this year. Without an effective method of planning and conducting training you are wasting your share of that 65 billion.
As the proverb say's, "Unless you know where you are going, you will never know when you get there."
To often organizations and their business units, base the success or failure of their training efforts on undefined outcomes. It is illogical to expect sustainable change to happen in this type of environment. In order for training to be effective there needs to be an understanding, and acceptance of, its importance throughout the entire organization.
We are currently working with an organization that has asked us to review, and make recommendations for the development of project management guidelines in four of their business units. Preliminary indications lead us to believe that although they have been doing some things correctly, there is no alignment in their process.
Why do we believe this?
Because the request for the intervention is being spearheaded by someone other than a member of the senior management group. In fact the first group we have been asked to meet with, and "get buy-in from", is the senior management committee.
Now, don't get me wrong, just because a training request isn't coming from the senior management group, doesn't mean that the organization is in a crisis mode. But, unless senior management along with everyone else involved in the organizational development process understands the reason behind the intervention, the training will not be as effective.
Now, back to reality. We understand that very few organizations have processes in place, which allow their training department to operate in this paradigm. So, to ensure that you are doing the very best that you can in the situation in which you work, here are six steps you can take to make sure that your training program is a success.
1. Identify what is driving the request for training
· Is the request specific or vague?
· Is the request focused on a specific audience?
· Is the request training related (skill, knowledge, attitude gap)?
· What other organizational issues, needs or performance areas are related to this request?
2. What are the desired or future performance requirements?
· What are the future needs of the organization, and the audience?
· What are the characteristic activities, and standards for performance of the audience?
· What are the key competencies that will be required of the audience?
· What are the expectations in terms of outcomes?
3. What are the current organizational needs and problems as related to future opportunities?
· Strategies?
· Business trends?
· Market share?
· Resources?
· Competition?
· Market position?
· Crucial business issues?
· Impact of job performance to company profitability?
4. What is the current state of the proposed target audience?
· General characteristics including age, gender, and educational level.
· Special characteristics in terms of job function; level in the organization; experience; geographic location; attitudes and values; cross-functional dependence; initiative; productivity; quality; etc.
5. What are the times, human resources, and budgetary constraints?
· How will transfer of learning to the job take place?
· What will happen if nothing is done?
· What are the benefits of this training to the organization?
· With what other training initiatives (future or planned) must this training integrate?
· What are the time & budget constraints associated with this training?
6. What has already been attempted?
· What previous training has been conducted (related to this need)?
· What was the result of that training?
· What was the reaction to the training by the target audience?
Last week’s response to TNA (week of June 5th)
A training specialist from PWDC has responded to our Case of the Week…
1. Develop clear and defined objectives and goals
2. Use these goals to identify areas where employees would like to development their skills
a. You can do this by distributing a survey to management and have them compile additional information
b. In addition, employee attitudes and opinion surveys will provide valuable information.
3. Develop a dialogue between your all managers and your training specialist to determine if a management training program is necessary.
a. This step will enable you to determine everyone’s individual needs
b. Also, subordinate feedback will provide a good indication for the need of a training program
4. To determine skill requirements, examine job descriptions, performance evaluations, and management feedback to pinpoint core competencies that are necessary for success in their jobs.
5. As always, considering the complexity of the task, HR initiatives must be supported and have commitment from top management to ensure their success.