Should you train your employees?

Training is often the first solution suggested?when employees aren't performing?at the level they're supposed to.?Unfortunately, it's not always the right solution.?A chef might have the finest culinary training,?but she won't be able to prepare a delicious steak?without a good piece of meat to start with.?A mechanic might be trained to fix any car,?but he still needs the right tools and parts?to get the job done.?Before you create training, it's important to determine?whether training will resolve the issue.?

There are three issues that training can fix,?a gap in knowledge where employees need to know information,?a gap in skill where employees need to know?how to do something, and a gap in ability.?If the issue is not related to a gap?in at least one of these three areas,?then training is not the right solution.?

Now, some people wonder about the?difference between skill and ability.?Think of ability as a combination?of natural talent and skill.?For example, I have the skills required?to dunk a basketball,?but I lack the ability to dunk a basketball?in a regulation 10-foot-high rim.?The rim needs to be about eight?feet or lower for me to dunk.?Now let's apply this concept?to some real training scenarios.?

Let me give you an example:?Employees can't keep up with their workload?due to a staffing shortage.?I've gotten that request multiple times.?Let's do time-management training.?What do you think??- You tell your manager, I'm stressed out cause I have?a lot of work, and then they say, time-management training.?Basically what you're telling them is,?we know that your current situation sucks,?but you just can't make the best of your situation?so let's put you through time-management training.?

It might be more?of an issue with just redesigning the organization,?so time-management training might be a band-aid?but it might not fix the actual problem.?And then another perspective is that,?that might actually work, it just depends on the situation,?but I feel like, a lot of times organizations will?think that there's so underwater with things but if they?just kind of took a step back and took a deep breath,?and really understood what they were doing?was really just not productive,?that might help with time-management training.?

I agree that this is a Tratricky one,?because we really don't know the reasons?why employees can't keep up.?I'd call this one a maybe,?since we'll need to do some further investigation.?You can save a lot of time and money if you take a?moment to decide if training is the right solution.?

Keep in mind that training can only solve the problem?if you're missing a KSA,?knowledge, skill, or ability.