We can all agree that training is an essential step in keeping your associates well educated in their jobs, as well as for performing to the needs and expectations of the company. Companies have high hopes that the associates they invested in will arrive back at their positions with all sorts of new and improved long-term behaviors as a result of the training. These visions are often inaccurate. Know that I am not knocking training; I agree and support the need to continually challenge and educate your associates. Where I believe there is a big disconnect is in this disillusion that, say, just one training class will encourage sustained improvements through the duration of the employees' employment. What about providing the tools and expectations to your associates to maintain and grow the new training skills?
I fear all to often the training manual is put on a shelf and never opened again, and the new learned behaviors quickly revert back to old habits. A successful training program isn't complete without evaluating the training's effectiveness. The answer to this is providing a safe environment for the associate to continue to practice what they have just been taught. Managers and/or supervisors need to encourage and support this sustaining effort, otherwise your training investment is wasted. Put on the training wheels and let them not only learn the new skills, but to start to use them so they become skills of habit.
When my girls were 16, I used to tell them that the only way to learn to drive well is to drive a lot. The same falls true for new training material; the lessons need to be used and practiced repeatedly. My niece from up north told me that her daughter was just about to master riding a bike for the first time when the bitter cold set in. This is a lesson that will need to be relearned once the weather breaks. Without practice and reinforcement, new skills are lost.
In our business, the most successful programs are the ones where we use pre and post-skills' evaluations. For example, we conducted a customer service training for a large hospital in Orlando. Prior to the training class, we completed an assessment of their current skills, and then after training, we did a series of evaluations of the team members to test if they were in fact successfully using the skills they learned. Along with these evaluations they were provided a critique of their current performance, learning where they were successful and what areas still needed attention. This team did not have the opportunity to revert back to old habits because they were constantly being evaluated and were given actionable steps to improve.
The late, famous motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, said it best when he said, "The only thing worse than training your employees and losing them, is not training your employees and keeping them."
5 ways to protect and sustain your training investment:
- Provide training that is customized to the needs of the team. Know where their skill level starts.
- Don't make training "us vs them." Engage in the training with your team. Learn together.
- Keep the training wheels on until the new skills are mastered.
- Do ongoing evaluations of your teams performance, providing additional training where needed.
- Celebrate and praise your teams efforts!
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin
