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Training dollars are rare with most companies. So here’s some important advice on how to get more value from your training…
My husband recently took a four-day training course. He loved it although he found it exhausting. (And he had an awful pile of work to return to after have been away from the office for four days.)
As a writer and editor who offers training, I considered my husband’s experience and reflected on ways companies and organizations can make employee learning more valuable. Here are five tips:
1) Ask your employees to teach what they’ve learned to their colleagues. Perhaps surprisingly, the value of this is not so much for the colleagues but for the person who received the training. It reflects the dictum under which medical school student are trained:
- See one
- Do one
- Teach one
It is in the teaching of an idea or procedure that the learner really cements his or her knowledge. My husband did this for his colleagues (it took him several hours to assemble his notes) and he found it invaluable.
2) Try to train a little bit frequently rather than a lot, rarely. Like most things in life, we remember what we do most regularly. My husband does his course every few years. It’s expensive. It requires four days off work. He’s always stressed upon his return. If only he could take a course that did the same thing, say, one evening every two months. (His particular course is national so of course people can’t travel across the country so frequently. But online training might be a good alternative.) The best way to support your employees is through regular, ongoing training. See if you can work with a contractor who will supply that.
3) Ask your employees to ID three behaviours or tasks they want to do differently as a result of the training. Limit it to three. Many of us become overwhelmed when faced with massive to do lists, so we give up. By limiting the behaviours to three, your employees stand a better change of making meaningful improvements.
4) Ask your employees to communicate these three behaviours/tasks to someone else. Don’t insist that it be their boss! (This will frighten some.) But the value of an external commitment is enormous. Even by making a commitment to a colleague, the chances of your employee succeeding will go through the roof. No one wants to lose face in front of a friend.
5) Ask your employes to write themselves a letter about what they learned and the changes they hope to make. Suggest they hide it somewhere in their desk or at home. Then, ask them to put a note in their daytimer, a year from now, reminding themselves to find this letter and re-read it.
Effective training is a gift. But these five simple techniques will help your employees get even more value from it.
