The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), a professional association of 70,000 corporate learning specialists worldwide, with its study “Profiting from Learning: Do Firms” provides new material for everyone who needs to advocate for employee training. Investing in education and training pays off?” They suggest that companies should view employee training as an investment and report it in their financial statements alongside R&D and capital expenditures. While few companies are likely to report training as an investment, it is certainly operating costs that achieve a good ROI.
Considering that the latest figures show that dealing with underperforming employees costs companies in the United States $105 billion each year, that managers spend 14% of their time repeating or correcting the mistakes of others, and according to a recent Conducted Consumer Study 50-Seven percent of consumers surveyed identified poor employee training as a key aspect of service deficiencies, employee training can be one of the most important expenditures a company can make in order to achieve a serious return on its investments.
Proper training can improve employee performance and production, reduce management problem-solving time, and improve customer satisfaction. But how does a company choose the “right training”? Technical training, teamwork training, motivational training, writing training, sales training, work task and process training, the list of training types is almost endless. Combine this with a variety of training methods, both old and new, such as online training, classroom, rapid e-learning, DVD and CD-ROM training, etc., and you begin to see how difficult it is to find the “right training” for select employees.
First, set goals and set targets for training results. Make sure you target your training to provide the skills needed. Get input from your employees on what they think they need to know to do their jobs well.
Develop a training plan and policy based on the issues/needs to be addressed. Determine exactly which skills need to be taught and which employees need training in which areas.
Determine the format and resources for implementing training. The format can be group or individual, in-house or outsourced, and resource options include CDs, intranet and internet resources, traditional classroom, books, DVDs, etc. In other words, present the material in a way that suits your staff’s learning style correspond.
Evaluate every training session you implement, regardless of the format or resources used. Ask employees for written evaluations of their training and create a method for determining results, e.g. B. to analyze whether employees’ errors have decreased after training in that task/skill.
An example of a training need that most organizations face every year is technology training. With the rapid advances in computer technology, companies often need to upgrade hardware and software, but without training, you and your employees waste a lot of time and money trying to do old tasks with unfamiliar technology. Many experts have suggested that 70 percent of your technology budget should go to training and only 30 percent to hardware and software. However, these numbers are based on last year, and like everything else computer-related, last year is out of date.
Let’s take a look at the use of e-learning for computer training, which has helped many companies increase their training reach at a lower cost than traditional training. However, it still wasn’t cheap. Development and deployment required advanced skills and a long turnaround time. There are many methods available today for fast e-learning, with which learning tools can be created quickly and inexpensively in order to quickly familiarize employees with software tasks. For example, we recently had to train some employees on a new data entry task to be performed on a database they were unfamiliar with. Our SME created a recorded training module with audio, video and quiz questions while working on the database in about two hours, wasting less than half an hour of productive time. The employees to be trained took minimal training time, around 30 minutes, to at least adequately complete the task, started working on the task and were competent by the end of the working day. Because the training module was a recorded session, it continued to exist if the employee needed a refresher or to train temps or backup workers. This is a cost- and time-efficient training that gives you more budget for hardware and software.
Today, more and more companies are embracing new learning resources and developing training that is job specific rather than concept or program oriented. In other words, companies are less looking for training in Microsoft Word and more looking to train employees on how they will use Word in their specific job. With new resources like rapid e-learning, organizations can reduce the time and money it takes to develop training.
Thanks to Vickie Adair
