Training Inspections Checklist

When it comes to training-related issues I have seen leaders across companies usually freak out because either something has gone wrong or they found out they are bleeding hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss, damage, turnover, wages, federal and state fines, workers comp, lawsuit settlements … etc. So they bring in new teams to fix things, but they fail again or take a good three years in moonshot to get there, which is again millions of dollars in costs.

My point is you can prevent the same issues on a low budget plan using your immediate internal resources, maybe add one or two additional team members to update the existing to be compliant, but you need to know where to start and what to look for.

Here is a checklist to run when you inspect and quality check your training programs:

Common sense

• Can search engines answer this question better than this training? if yes - you have failed on an epic scale.
• Is this accessible within 10 seconds of employees' reach? Otherwise, they rather guess, move on and clock out. ‘rinse & repeat’

Content Design

• Does the content flow smoothly that the learner can follow the training in phases?
• Are the chapters relatable or are we jumping from one topic to another?
• Is it comprehensive? Does it teach the foundations, core, job-specific, function-specific, and upskills for promotions?

Instructional design

• Are there clear Do’s and Don’t’s in instructions? E.g.: user manuals.
• Vocabulary: are the words highly descriptive or generic?
• Chronological order - is it easy to follow the steps?

Multimedia

• Are the images clear?
• Are the images up to date? (do you still have screenshots of an old 1990s system still in there?)
• Are the images saved for web & devices? (a setting all designers swear by)
• Are the multimedia formats compatible with your digital platforms? 
• All the above in multimedia applies to videos and voiceovers

Glossary

Every company has a lingo and those words become highly dependable in operations.

• Do you have an accessible digital glossary of what your lingo means?
• Are you breaking down complex terminology into easily understandable words? Not everyone has studied English literature and operations require clarity.

Maintenance & Development

• Is the training built in an eLearning program or a Web Authoring Tool that allows easy and quick updates?
• Who is in charge of updating the content?
• If the training is an ILT (Instructor Lead Training) and is a PDF, then maintaining it is much easier, but you must archive each version.

Measuring Learning Effectiveness

You must have a strong analytical system to achieve results. Some companies use built-in systems and others use recommended software.

• How many people have taken this training?
• What are the average minutes spent on the training?
• What did they score the first time?
• How many more times did they take it?
• Where can you find the data that shows whether or not their performance improved after being trained?
• Feedback & survey is under the same umbrella

Quality Check

• Do you have a QC checklist? This needs to be as diligent as an auditing process.
• Who does the QC?
• What does your QC process look like?
• Do your legal counsels take a final glance at?
• Are you testing across various digital platforms?

Diversity

Depending on your industry, business, and audience you need to think about how do humans of such an ecosystem learn. Retail and Hospitality, for example, have the most diversified workforce.

• Reasonable Accommodations: Are you offering special training for individuals with Disabilities? color blindness, deafness, PTSD…etc
• Do you teach based on learning personas?

The issue of boredom

People get bored! kids and adults. That is why the world is adding Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Gamification to keep employees engaged, to expand their attention span and learn better. Tolerable boredom is a real issue in the field of Education. I remember when I was in high-school I cried until I came home to play with my guitar and I barely passed my classes, but I did great in college because I loved my major - Visual Communications. You would be very lucky to find employees that love what they do, in theory, that's 1/10.

• What creative ideas have you added to your training?
• What rewards are reserved for the employees that score higher than a certain % in certification? E.g. could you offer a $100 gift card if they scored 100% in a highly technical training?

What has previously gone wrong?

• Your records will give you the best raw feedback of where you are losing capital and what needs to be fixed.
• What did your organization learn from previous disputes?
• Interview both successful, not-so-successful and former employees (if they are willing to) - investigate and find their raw feedback. They are your biggest assets.

In a nutshell, you must cross-examine your training.

Other elements:

When improving your training programs you must consider these elements:

Feedback & Survey

• Have you surveyed your employees before and after the training? if yes - what were the results?
• Do you have an open door line of feedback?
• How intricate is your feedback system ? simply a thumbs up or thumbs down will not provide you with constructive feedback.
• Are you rewarding your employees for giving feedback? Internal Feedback is truly a gift worth begging for.

Score your training

• What is the most popular training module among your teams? find out why and vice versa.
• Ask employees what do they want to be trained on?

Tech Enablement vs. Digital Enablement

• I will leave this for you to research since it is a big topic.

Agile, Kanban, Scrum, Sprint and Retro

• Is your team working in any of the above ways? if not, you need this ASAP to measure, then maximize performances.
• How often do you do Retros? Retros are for immediate feedback (not once or twice a year) but as often as possible. What went well? What needs to be done differently? Action Plans? Also, document your collected feedback.

Processes

• What does the production process look like?
• What does the troubleshooting process look like?
• When and who touches each step of the production?
• How does your process coordinate with a master calendar to keep track of deliverables, budgets, and resources?

?SMEs - Subject Matter Experts

Every training is created by an SME who did that job very well for 2-3 decades. While SMEs viewpoints are crucial in content curation, they aren’t always the best teachers. Teaching is an art! That's why learning specialists often have a hard time extracting information from SMEs. It worth setting up extended times to sit with your SMEs to get into the weeds of complexities.

This is how to inspect a world-class training. This is in response to the other article “Training Compliance”.

Best,

Lily Z.