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Making Training Stick: Transferring Training from the Classroom to the Job
Harvy Simkovits, CMC - Published in Productivity Reports
Progressive companies can easily spend 2-4% of their company payroll on employee training. To ensure that that these funds not get wasted, executives and managers can take the following simple actions (before, during and after training) to ensure that employees use their new training on the job.
Before Training
- Ensure that every participant knows why they are attending the training session, i.e., what you, as their manager, specifically hope that they would get out of it for themselves and their work. (One-on-one conversations have more impact than a memo or group announcement.)
- Ask the participant for what they hope to get out of the training for themselves. (Putting this down on paper can be helpful.)
- Tell employees that you will want to know from them what they got from the session after it’s over.
- Help the participant to arrange their work/schedule so that being away for training won’t create undue burden or stress for them.
During Training
- Minimize disruptions for the participant; allow them time away with little work distractions.
After Training
- Review with the participants what they learned from the training. Ask them questions or allow them an opportunity to present the concepts and learnings that they think most apply to them, their job or the department. (Another option is to ask to see the participants’ action plans, or to discuss the three most important ideas/changes from the program.)
- Give the employee time to apply new concepts and to practice new behaviors. Offer them praise, encouragement and constructive feedback. (If you are familiar with the material, then provide role modeling and coaching.)
- Encourage groups of newly trained employees to meet regularly to share insights, information and successes, and offer each other help and support in applying new skills. (These can be facilitated by a trainer or manager.)
- Follow-up with the participant 45 days after the training to see if the training is being used; if not, revisit their action plan.
- Include new skill development and application as part of the employee’s performance review.
Organizational studies have shown that what managers do before and after training is as important as what the trainer does during the training session. By following the above simple advise, any company will get a much better return on its training investment.
* Adapted from "Transfer of Training", a study of 85 American firms, published in a book by the same name.
Harvy Simkovits, CMC, President of Business Wisdom, works with owner managed companies to help them grow, prosper and continue on by offering innovative approaches to business development, company management, organization leadership and learning, and management education. He can be reached at 781-862-3983 or .
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