One Big Training Mistake That's Costing You Money
It’s a common lament. “We’ve created training program after training program to support this new initiative and they still aren’t adopting the tools.” Sound familiar? Your organization has a new product, program, or corporate initiative to launch. Our programs are supposed to motivate them to adopt these new requirements. So, we build training programs, track participant in our learning management system (LMS), test them, analyze their scores, and make sure the training is mandatory. They still aren’t adopting what we are teaching. That's costing you money and not producing results.
Where are the gaps?
Don't get me wrong. There is a lot that goes into getting behavior or process change in an organization. Training programs are one piece of that process. But as learning professionals, we need to step up our game if we want to be better partners to the stakeholders who need our help.
One of the challenges with training I hear from participants is, “This just isn’t relevant to what I do day-to-day.” As an organization, are we designing our programs with the needs of the learner in mind? Without a needs assessment, it’s a guess. This probably sounds like old school training development. We’ve got to re-align our thinking and design with participants in mind. This is even more important for virtual instructor-led training. We can’t afford to have them disengage.
Our workforce is mobile, global, independent, and not slowing down. Employees get information from many sources. If we don’t identify the needs of our workforce and adapt our training designs accordingly, we risk longer development times and potentially accrue more costs to achieve our organization’s learning and business goals. Any training we push out there has to be delivered in the way our participants will apply it and see “What’s in it for them?”
Avoid these three traps
1. Stop tell them how to do their business: Focus on how they do their business. How do your training targets conduct their day? What are their goals and how will the topic, tool, or initiative help them achieve them? “Telling” them the features and how they should apply the learning is not going to cut it. Do a needs assessment. Don’t assume. By asking some simple questions of key people in your target audience, you will identify ways to align what you want them to do in their jobs with what they actually do.
2. Quit making stuff up: Make it real world. Do we really need another hypothetical case study? Probably not. Don’t get me wrong - I think case studies are a great way to illustrate a topic or process. If you are trying to get adoption of a process, tool set, or application, make it real. Give them hands on experience with their data using the systems, tools, or process you want them to adopt. Getting their hands into the learning can lead to “aha” moments for participants that you just can’t “tell” them to experience.
3. Let go of the status quo: Plan to change your approach. If you have taken a traditional classroom design approach, you may need to rethink your strategy. Do you need to consider mobile? Are you able to create an adaptive, responsive design that will work in a variety of delivery environments? Do you need one class or a blended approach? Don’t assume that the target participants will access training in the same way across the globe. This goes back to the needs assessment. Determine the business and cultural context, and then be prepared to change.
It all goes back to knowing your target audience
Don't cut corners on the needs assessment. In addition to your participants, make your stakeholders a part of the process too. Identify the outcome of the training with the participant’s needs in mind and then design accordingly. It will save you time and money in the long run.
Laura Pierce is co-founder of evoke virtual and an expert virtual instructional designer, presenter, and facilitator. Laura holds an M.S. from Oregon State University and completed professional programs at U.C.L.A. Anderson School of Management and Stanford Graduate School of Business in Strategic Marketing Management. For more information on how we help you thrive in the virtual world, go to our blog at www.evokevirtual.com