Yes, every training program is a huge investment from the organisation – not just monetary but also in terms of time and energy from all the stakeholders and participants.
How do you ensure you get the best bet for your training dollars? Let’s bear in mind that the objective of training is to impact the participants. Many HR and L&D professionals invest hours to review the trainer’s and training company’s profile, as well as the course content before the workshops…. But what else?
Here are 3 additional ways to ensure training impact on your participants:
A) Before the training: this is the best opportunity to make sure we get it right. All 3 parties (trainer, HR /L&D and immediate supervisor of the participants) must work together to give the participants a good start with the right attitude and expectations for what is coming. Participants must create their learning goals with the support of the team. What is the objective of the programme? What do we want to achieve at the end of it? How do we measure the success of the programme?
B) After the training – debrief and follow up: this is equally important to
* check in on the (action) plans that were crystallised during the training or workshops, what is the next step and has it been completed?
** close the gap and resolve any issues or questions during the application of the learnings.
C) Support from immediate supervisor
In the process of applying anything new, most participants experience the learning dip – initial applications’ results are often worse than before training. That’s when we need the supervisors to encourage and support the participants so that they persist and continue to practice their new learning.