Improving Effectiveness of Training - Five Easy Things You Can Do

How do you improve the effectiveness of training -- ie. learning, transfer of learning, and bottom line, improved business results?

There's no ONE way. In fact effective training involves doing a lot of the little things correctly, from identifying needs to creating just the right balance of content and process, right through to ensuring that the training is reinforced after the seminar, and on the job.

Five Simple Strategies For Improving Training Impact

  1. Identify the skills that employees need to do their jobs, identify gaps between where they are and what they need, and focus training on resolving the gaps. Always start with job tasks and work backwards to be sure the training is targeted to improving necessary job skills. Do training needs assessments that focus on job tasks, rather than asking people what they want. The latter is usually misleading.
  2. In skills training, need to be used by learners IMMEDIATELY upon returning to their work environments. Training that occurs way in advance of applying the skills fails.
  3. Consider doing follow-up mini-sessions a month or two after a training session, where participants can interact and talk about their experiences and challenges applying what was learned. Even an hour long mini-session can be hugely effective, and participants really like this focus on application of learning.
  4. Encourage managers of participants to both attend the same training of their employees AND talk about the training back on the job. Managers often want to "fire and forget" when it comes to training, but if they are onside from the beginning and actively coach, and/or remind staff to apply what they've learned the training becomes much more effective.
  5. Encourage and/or arrange for participants to teach or communicate what they learned. This is often a very cost effective way to train many people, but if participants know up-front that they will be training others, or even reporting back to their peers, they tend to learn more effectively and the act of communicating what they learned to others is a way to reinforce learning.

Top : Improving Training Effectiveness :

For training to be effective, it can't stand on it's own, but should be part of an overall development strategy that results in creating an infrastructure of learning. Many small things go into making training more effective, and that's what you will find covered in this section.


How to Improve the Effectiveness of Training By Leslie Allan
Organisations spend billions of dollars on employee training annually, yet research indicates that little of this results in real benefits. In an environment of shrinking training budgets and the move to greater accountability of training departments, Les Allan reveals how you can increase the impact of training. Hits: 1599 )

Talking Shop: Use Feedback To Improve Training Content And Presentation By Elisa Suiter
A good trainer will ask for feedback about training content and presentation, and a great trainer will use the feedback to improve presentation skills and course content. Read some of the advice for making improvements here. Hits: 1478 )

Seven Secrets Of Successful Training By Mike Wills
These great training tips are accompanied by illustrations -- easy to call to mind whenever they are needed! Hits: 1628 )

The Basic Theory of Learning with Stories By Jan Stewart
In this article, Jan Stewart draws upon the latest brain research in explaining how stories are such a powerful learning tool. Hits: 848 )

Ten Tips to Make Training Work: Training Transfer Tips - How to Help People Apply Training On-the-Job By Susan Heathfield
Basic techniques to improve training effectiveness and transfer of training from the classroom to the job. Hits: 1771 )

Musical Learning By Dick McCann and Jan Stewart
Music can be one of the most effective devices you can use to make your workshops memorable. Find out how to select the right type of music for the mood you want to create and practical suggestions on how you can add music to your training for maximum impact. Hits: 641 )

Transfer of Training By n a
Learn a few tips about how you can improve the transfer of training (or transfer of learning) in your organization. Hits: 948 )

Barriers to Learning: Dismantling the Hurdles to Create Results By Emma Weber
Suggests keys to transfer of training to the job -- accountability, self-reflection and structures and processes to foster it Hits: 579 )

How Effective Is Your Training System? - Leslie Allan By Leslie Allan
It's hard to improve training if you don't know how effective your training is in the first place. Here's an approach to determining the effectiveness of your corporate training. Hits: 1166 )

Assessing Professional Growth in Skill and Use By Jamie McKenzie
A primer in the fine art of program assessment. Hits: 771 )

Back To Haunt You: What If It's Your Bad Training? By Veronica Combs
Find out how to repair bad training in your organization. Can it be done? The author of this article offers some advice. Hits: 1148 )

Get Huge Learning Value From Handouts and Job Aids By Robert Bacal
In tough times, the pressure is on to cut any hours spent in training sessions past the point where learning is impacted, and trainers, speakers, group leaders and even managers have to make do. The use of handouts and job aids can help tremendously in increasing the learning that gets taken back to and used on the job, provided the material is usable on the job, and is easily accessible -- a kind of Just In Time Resource. Hits: 838 )

Research Summary: The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking By Joanna Penn
Fascinating research summary that suggests that learning is more effective if learners take notes in longhand rather than using a keyboard. Hits: 854 )

Getting Past Major Learning Barriers By Kevin Eikenberry
There are some common barriers that get in our way of being the most productive learners in training: we are forced to be there, we don’t see the learning as relevant or valuable, and we feel like we already know the material. While these barriers are real, there are things we can do to jump over or break through these barriers – to make the time invested in these situations more valuable and useful to us. Hits: 828 )

How to Influence Others When You Have No Authority or Power: By na
Trainers often lack formal authority in the workplace, and have to rely on their own creativity to be heard, or to get a seat at the table. Here's some advice. Hits: 1719 )

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Pages Updated On: 22-Aug-2019 - 09:09:04

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