Employee Learning and Training—No Retreat, No Surrender!

How much do employers spend on learning and training?

According to the American Society of Training and Development’s 2013 State of the Industry Report, U.S. organizations spent more than $164 billion on employee learning in 2012. (In this case, “learning” encompasses a wide array of educational initiatives including training.)

Training magazine’s 2013 Training Industry Report, on the other hand, offers a narrower focus on training initiatives and the dollars spent. The report indicates that U.S. training expenditures, which totaled $55.4 billion in 2013:

·       increased among large companies (from $11.3 million in 2012 to $17.6 million in 2013);

·       increased very slightly among small companies (from $294,532 in 2012 to $301,082 in 2013);

·       and fell among midsize companies (from $2 million in 2012 to $1.2 million in 2013).

No matter how you slice and dice the definitions or the numbers, it appears that employers’ commitment to training and learning remains strong overall—especially considering the state of the economy during the past few years, the increasing challenge of global competition, and the ongoing turmoil around employers’ healthcare costs, among a host of other ongoing competitive hurdles.

Make no mistake, no matter what our other business challenges are, we need a no-retreat, no-surrender commitment to training and learning for one simple reason: organizations that are dedicated to learning crush their competition.

Bersin by Deloitte’s Corporate Learning Factbook 2013 contains several persuasive proof points based on years of study. They show that organizations with “strong learning cultures:”

·      Are 42% more likely to innovate (i.e., be first to foster ideation and implement change initiatives) than their peers.

·      Are 37% more productive.

·      Are 35% more responsive to customers’ needs.

·      And have a 26% greater capacity to deliver quality products.

It’s hard to ignore numbers like those, which clearly show why our investment in employee learning must be unwavering. Obviously, how we allocate our investment is equally important. The Training magazine report shows that employers’ top three priorities in allocating training resources in 2013 were: 1) increasing the effectiveness of training programs (32%); 2) reducing costs/improving efficiency (20%); and 3) increasing learner usage of training programs (14%).

When it comes to training and learning, our bottom line costs matter. But the greater bottom line is this: if our commitment to learning weakens so will our companies.

Developing Your #1 Asset…Your Employees

Developing your employees is a task that takes proper thought and understanding. As a company, you want your employees to grow in their positions and in the organization. There are many options to do this, but here a few that can truly make a difference.

First things first, establish goals with each of your employees. Lay out a road map of where they want to be and what they need to do to get there. This way they have motivation to do well and they know you understand what position they want to be at someday.

Providing incentives to do well is also a big motivating factor for employees. Incentives can be anything from bonuses to recognition of their work well done. Rewards show employees that if they go above and beyond, they will be noticed. This creates a drive for employees to perform well.

By offering continued education you are also developing your employees. Provide your employees opportunities to take classes that pertain to their positions or professional development classes.

Another extremely effective development tool is providing a mentor program. With this program, you would pair an employee with someone who is in their target position. This way they can learn and gain advice from their mentor. This is also a great way to have communication amongst all tiers in the company.

Developing your employees takes time and dedication, but by taking the initiative, you are improving your #1 asset.

Develop A Training Plan Based On Skill Gaps

Since training is an expensive proposition, it is critical that training dollars be spent wisely. We find that far too many companies allow their employees to select the training they will participate in or they put everyone through the same training.

It is a fact that very few employees are a perfect fit for the jobs they hold. This means that they will need to be coached and trained to help strengthen skills they might lack or be deficient in. Understanding where each employee's "skill gaps" are is important to developing a training plan that helps enhance overall company performance. Putting employees through training they don't need is a waste of money. There needs to be a very targeted approach to training employees. A shotgun approach is wasteful and frustrating for all involved.

For each employee develop a good understanding of what skills they lack to perform the jobs they hold. This can take some time to develop and are often uncovered over a period of time. A coaching assessment tool can be of great assistance inspeeding up this process by identifying the deficiencies of the employee against job requirements. The Prevue Assessment is an excellent tool for creating a training plan for new and current employees by uncovering areas where the employee lacks sufficient skills or tendencies.

A training plan will help focus training on skills that are critical to employee and company success. And it will be based on specific and individual needs rather than generalized ideas about what training is needed. The training plan should take the form of a matrix that shows each employee and the specific type of coaching or training required. Once this is determined, the task is to find training programs that meet your needs in terms of delivering excellent quality at a reasonable cost.

We are firm believers that sending someone off to a public seminar or workshop is rarely as effective as individualized coaching, mentoring and training. An employee must be mentored and coached to higher levels of performance and a one or two time exposure to concepts and theories is usually not retained and, therefore, not very effective.

Look for training providers that offer individualized and group training with follow-up and mentoring. Mentoring helps isolate the specific needs of the employee and allows the mentor/trainer to instill specific skills over a period of time. This approach helps immensely in getting the skills to "stick" with the employee.

Remember that training should be focused, individualized and carefully planned for. A haphazard approach to training will only frustrate you and your employees.