So start looking at it as one
In a recent conversation with a colleague over coffee, she mentioned that it was becoming increasingly difficult to convince her customers that training was an investment – in every employee – not just a “select few.” She asked if I was seeing the same problem with my clients. I said I may be a bit “luckier” than she as most of my clients call me in early on in the process.
For example, a new client of mine recently contacted me since her budget comes up in July, 2011. She wanted to do a bit of planning ahead of securing the budget she wanted for training employees. During our meeting she announced that she wanted to “change things up a bit” with her training programs and needed guidance in the following areas:
- Evaluating how effective her current vendors were in providing training content to employees
- Evaluating what training is needed for the next year across all business units
- Developing her business case as to why she needs more investment in training for employees
- Helping her select the appropriate vendors to either provide training content or help her develop content
She wanted help in developing a plan to ensure that all training provided to employees of the company was the right training, done at the right time.
Here are the steps we will be taking initially to gather some data:
- Do a complete review of all current programs in place which will include looking at evaluations completed by participants, the objectives of the programs and the reason the programs were brought in initially, how relevant the programs are today (for example, is the content current and relevant?).
- Survey all employees (individual contributors and managers) to determine training needs.
- Conduct small focus group meetings to determine needs.
- Meet with leadership team to understand the strategic long-term goals and direction of the organization.
Once this data is gathered, we’ll have some great information to start making some decisions about training programs to be provided over the upcoming fiscal year.
The client’s goal is to show how investing in training can help the organization meet its goals. To do this, she’ll have to show that the training selected to be provided to all employees is aligned to performance objectives.
Stay tuned for a future post where we’ll discuss progress.
