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Management and Administration of Training: The Training Program Toolkit

While training is being designed and developed, the management and administration of training endeavors need to be in place. To be fair, this post should have been first in the Training Program Toolkit series. Nevertheless, managing and administering training is a crucial element to an organization’s training function and should not be overlooked. In most cases, the training function in organizations will rest in the hands of just a few people. It’s not all that uncommon to witness one-person training departments where the lone member is responsible for everything from analysis to development and delivery of training. Regardless if there are one or more members in your organization’s training department, you should have the following in place to be effective.

Project Management

It goes without saying that requests for training in organizations stem from a need to fill a knowledge, skills or abilities gap in performers to meet specific goals or objectives. When that request is made, it is important align your work with “big picture” goals and objectives for the organization. The training department must interact with several functions and leaders within an organization. Therefore, staying organized, task-focused and goal-oriented is crucial. Project management is the key to staying on target in the organization’s training function. Managing training projects requires:

  • Knowledge of training request origins (the who, where and why behind training requests)
  • Knowledge of when training needs to occur
  • Resources to support training delivery

Budget Planning and Monitoring

Budgeting is as simple as allocating funds to support training and then tracking expenditures to make sure you are not going over budget and becoming a liability to the organization. Always be thinking ahead in regard to your training budget. Find ways to cut costs, but not at the expense of the training – it’s goals and objectives.

Instructional Design Process

Have a defined process for creating training. By following a process, you can create effective training that is instructionally sound and cost effective. When you create training through an instructional design process, it can be completed in a timely fashion and more importantly be objective.

Outsourcing

Be open to hiring consultants or freelance instructional designers to work on some training projects. By outsourcing the design and development of selected training to third parties, you are able to free up resources that you can dedicate to more important training programs. A colleague at company in Boise, Idaho uses this method to focus his training team on the ongoing, mission-critical training programs in his organization. While they work on those programs, the one-time training events that are important, but not crucial, are handed off to consultants he manages.

Training Resources

Resources to support the development and delivery of training are wide and varied between companies. Training budgets often dictate what what access you have to tools and resources for training. Try to allocate the resources you need and find creative ways to use what you have available. You may find ways to deliver training that is efficient and cost-effective.

Evaluation Process

Create processes and models to measure the effectiveness of your training. The most popular evaluation methodology is drawn from Donald Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation. Typically, evaluation of training programs will measure reaction to the training program or how well it was received. This is commonly known as a Level 1 Evaluation. A Level 2 Evaluation will test or quiz your learner’s knowledge of the subject matter after they have been trained. The data gathered from these forms of evaluation will provide guidance to you on what changes to the training need to be made, if any.

Conclusion

By looking at your training department from this perspective, you can effectively manage, organize and plan company-wide training. Any training you create out of your training function will then be aligned with your business’s objectives and demonstrate its ability to be an asset rather than a liability.

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By Justin Beller – April 28, 2011

Controlling Training Costs: The Training Program Toolkit

Downturns in our economy over the last decade have prompted companies to tighten their belts and cut back on training, but I’ve been a staunch advocate for companies to not cut training programs when times are tough. Instead, I have encouraged them to either maintain or throw more support toward training to remain competitive in the marketplace. In this post, we take a closer look at the costs associated with training and discuss ways to control them in difficult economic times. By controlling costs, you can still deliver training to your employees thereby making sure your company still remains competitive.

Cost Distribution – More Learners, Higher Costs

When it comes to controlling costs associated with training, you first need to know how costs accumulate. The general rule of thumb is the more people you have to train on a given topic or curriculum, the higher the costs. This is especially true in instructor-led training (ILT). The bulk of your expenses are in training materials development and distribution of those materials and content. If you are fortunate to implement an e-learning model for training distribution into your company, you can dramatically reduce your costs. A post published last year on the PinPoint Performance Solutions Blog compares the cost and benefit to a centralized e-learning distribution model versus the more traditional training distribution model found in classroom instruction.

Shared-Cost Model

Not all companies can afford to implement e-learning however. Some simply do not have the logistics to support such a platform for training. If you must go the ILT route, you can control your costs through a shared-cost model. We often think of training costs being associated with development and distribution, but we often overlook the cost of of training associated to downtime when an employee takes time off from their assigned duties for training. Productivity tends to suffer when they are away from work, therefore a shared responsibility between the employer and the employee is needed to maintain performance in the workplace. To remedy this, encourage employees to attend training on their own time such as evenings or weekends. An alternative would be arrange half-day training sessions where the employee attends training in the mornings or afternoons. This way you can minimize downtime or time spent away from the workplace. A shared-cost model is a fair exchange if the company is fronting all or most of the cost associated with training and the employee is receiving the benefit of increasing their knowledge and skill set.

Leverage Technology

As illustrated earlier in this post, if you have the technology you should take full advantage of it. Adopting e-learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, will help lower distribution costs. If you can leverage content online and make it reusable, rally around knowledge management practices to ensure learning content is up to date and easily accessible.

Conclusion

Just because times are tough and companies need to watch their expenditures, it doesn’t mean you should sacrifice training. Costs can be mitigated and controlled if you think differently about it, utilize your resources, and partner with your employees to build a learning organization that’s still competitive in the marketplace.

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By Justin Beller – April 21, 2011

Training Needs Analysis: The Training Program Toolkit

A training needs analysis is conducted to determine who in a given organization needs training and what specific areas they need help in to increase knowledge and skills. The training needs analysis is an outline for goals to be met, format of training that needs to be delivered, and in most cases, performance metrics that need to be realized at the completion of training. More importantly, it validates the need for training in the workplace. Think of a training needs analysis as a mechanism to help you “look before you leap”. Before you begin building training, you should conduct one or more assessments like the ones described below:

  • Context Analysis – identify current business needs in relation to the future or desired state of performance.
  • Audience Analysis – identify the traits and characteristics of the target audience for training. What is their current level of knowledge and skill?
  • Job-Task Analysis – understand the steps and procedures behind the work your target audience does.
  • Content Analysis – review the documents and information used on the job.
  • Training Sustainability Analysis – determine if the requested training is in fact due to a lack of knowledge, skills or abilities in the target audience. If it is not, training is not necessarily the answer to the performance problem in the workplace.
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis – determine if the cost and effort behind the production of training will be profitable.

To conduct these different forms of analysis, use one or more of the following techniques:

  • Observation
  • Surveys and questionnaires
  • Interviews of subject matter experts and top performers
  • Focus groups
  • Knowledge or skill tests
  • Records and reports
  • Samples of actual work

Once you have a solid training analysis completed, you will have all the data you need to begin the instructional design of your training modules and programs provided it is confirmed that training is needed to improve workplace performance.

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By Justin Beller – April 14, 2011

Strategic Planning for Training and Development: The Training Program Toolkit

Strategic planning for training and development is used to direct a company and its respective departments on how best to implement training in the workplace. Under its direction, the strategic plan provides oversight to the objectives outlined by the company’s leaders or stakeholders. The strategic planning of training programs in companies need not be a monumental task. You need to have vision and the ability to take the action necessary to create that vision. Far too often, companies spend an inordinate amount of time and money on strategic planning only to come up short with their desired results. Without proper strategic planning, the outcomes will either be make or break. If a company and its leaders were to follow the guidelines discussed here, it should produce the results to bring about success.

Guidelines for Training and Development Strategic Planning

  • Goals and objectives – This is essentially what needs to be done. Training cannot exist if there is no direction or purpose. The goals and objectives defined as part of a strategic plan must be measurable and observable.
  • Decision aids – Establish guidelines or rules to address tough decisions or dilemmas the company may encounter over the course of the plan’s implementation
  • Change management – Provide a framework for managing the change that will occur as the training and development plan is implemented. Rather than implement the plan all at once, find a way to roll it out in increments that are manageable and acceptable to the target audience
  • Personnel management – Declare who will be on the steering committee for training and development strategic planning and provide a rationale for each personnel selection. Define the criteria for committee membership and manage accordingly

As a lead-in, state the inspiration for the strategic plan. Why was it created in the first place and what are the overall intentions? This puts the plan an its actions into proper context and gives other people in the company an understanding of what is going on. Also, outline the benefits of implementing the plan. Stay open-minded, flexible and be willing to change the plan if necessary.

Conclusion

Any strategic plan you create around training and development should align with the company’s overall strategic plan. It should support it and not do anything to counter the company’s primary goals and objectives. You should respond to the needs of the organization in regard to training  and always understand the current state of the company. If you can create a vision for the desired state of your company through the training and development strategic plan, you will have an effective road map to building a top performing organization.

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By Justin Beller – April 7, 2011

The Training Program Toolkit

Every good mechanic or craftsman knows they are only as good as their tools. You don’t necessarily have to possess more tools than the next person, but you should own a set of high-quality tools and know how to use them properly.

This approach and attitude toward tools in the trade skills is also true in the field of training. For organizations to build and implement training in an appropriate manner, they must have the proper tools available to support programs in order to meet certain goals and objectives. With this post I begin a series looking at the tools you need to build a successful training program in your organization. It is important to note that when I say training program I don’t necessarily mean a single learning event or training session.

Organizations that dedicate resources to training and make it a critical component to their overall operations, look at it as an ongoing effort with many learning events. Sometimes, these multiple learning events are interrelated and comprise a curriculum. So, to establish an effective training program and curriculum in your organization you need the following:

  • A strategic plan, sound and objective aligning the organization’s goals and objectives
  • Needs assessment and analysis tools with supported methodology to validate training needs
  • A means to monitor and control costs associated with training
  • Administration and management of the training program

Whether you are part of a business with an established training program or an emerging company that is in the beginning stages of creating a learning organization, this series should provide you with many useful resources. I look forward to the discussions that lie ahead in this series, The Training Program Toolkit.

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By Justin Beller – March 31, 2011