The Right Training

Today we shall look at the Right Training which makes up the 2nd Element of the 5Rights Wheel.

Logically, this should be the immediate step after you've selected the Right Person.

Just like in the military, you never send off a soldier before being trained, you must equip your people and make them ready for their respective roles.

Regardless of their level of experience, there's no excuse for training your people whom you've newly employed.

Why?

Firstly, your systems and processes will be different from where they're coming from.

Secondly, they'll be coming with baggage and garbage from their previous place(s) that you need to rid them of.

Training Goals

Every training has to have a goal.

Let me rephrase that - every training must have an outcome.

I've come across some companies that conduct training to achieve the KPI of someone responsible for organizing training sessions. That's the wrong goal.

I urge you to use the Kirkpatrick Pyramid to determine what exactly you want to achieve from the training you conduct.

When you do this, then you can measure the effectiveness of training.

Everything you do must be measured, otherwise you can't improve it. So said Peter Drucker about a 100 years ago - and still remains true.

Types of Training

We can segregate this into 2 types - universal for all employees and specific for individual roles.

Universal

This would be Onboarding. This should cover everything that every person in the organization must know. So this would include:

• corporate history
• vision
• mission
• core values
• claims processes
• benefits system
• performance management system & process
• rewards system & process
• whistleblower process
• and whatever else that's common to all staff, including products/services company provides, types of customers

Specific

These would be trainings that are related to the respective roles, for example:

• Supply Chain - anything related to supply chain - core products and their lead times and buffer stock requirements
• R&D - research techniques & tools
• Finance - accounting and audit processes, systems and tools
• Sales - core product training, selling skills training, CRM tool training

Who Conducts Training

1. All Onboarding sessions should be conducted by people from the respective departments. So, finance-related matters should be done by someone from that department. Ideally, the very first session should be by the CEO of the organization and that should cover the history, vision, mission & core values. If time doesn't permit or the new staff numbers don't justify or there's a high frequency of new hires or distance is an issue, then create videos and share them.
2. Role-specific training obviously has to be from the people from the related departments.

Training Methodology

I come from the training school of T. Harv Eker's Peak Potential's philosophy. And that philosophy is that every training has to be interactive.

Research shows that interactive training boosts memory.

So, you can even make an Onboarding session interactive, where you can teach using games, activities, reflection, discussion and role plays (if relevant). You can even convert video training into asynchronous interactive sessions when you use the right platforms. Dubb is one such tool.

I recently published the 3rd edition of my book - How to be a Professional Corporate Trainer , where I cover every detail of making training sessions effective.

Training Frequency

All training should never be one-off but must be continuous, except maybe the Onboarding topics.

Even then for Onboarding topics, if there are updates, you must communicate these via videos or physical sessions.

Many role-specific training can be one-off with frequent topical refreshers. These refreshers may not necessarily be for every member in that role but tailored to the individual who needs it.

Ultimately, the frequency can be pre-set or ad-hoc.

Training Stories

Before or After

In every company I was employed a sales rep (encyclopedia & pharma) I was never allowed to go into the field until I was proficient in the product and also in sales skills. So this is my philosophy too.

And I've also come across companies that will only provide product training and send their reps out to meet customers.

A month later all the new reps are given sales training. As much as you may think this is stupid, their philosophy is that when the sales training is conducted, the reps will be able to relate more, especially regarding the wrong sales techniques they used prior to training while in the field.

As much as I appreciate that viewpoint, I wouldn't recommend that. I would rather eliminate as many mistakes as possible. Some mistakes are irreparable, especially if committed with a high-potential prospect or client.

Never

Many companies are afraid to train their staff for fear that they will leave for greener pastures.

And here's the thoughts of Zig Ziglar for such thinking:

The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is to not train them and keep them.

Imagine the damage done to your corporate reputation when untrained mess things up.

One of my clients is fond of issuing certificates to all the staff who complete any training. And when I asked him, if this would encourage them to move elsewhere, his classic reply was:

My goal in life is to develop and grow everyone who joins this company. If they leave, I'm delighted that someone else recognizes their value and that acknowledges that I'm on the right track.