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Training and Development in an Economic Recession

We’re not out of the woods yet. The economic outlook for the foreseeable future in our country shows businesses will continue to cut costs and make tough choices in order to survive and stay competitive. While the belt tightening continues so too will the temptation to cut training budgets or eliminate them all together.

More than a year ago, I wrote a post on how cutting training during a down economy is not a smart move. What was said then is still true today, or any time for that matter. A well-coached, well-trained employee armed with knowledge can excel for for any company when competitors or companies in related industries are dropping their programs all together.

Good training that is objective and performance-based will empower employees to perform to expectations, supporting defined business goals and objectives. When the economy is down, training is more important than ever. Layoffs and job restructuring shift new duties and tasks to those remaining in an organization’s workforce. That alone prompts evaluation of current training programs and new training needs that must be met. Times like these are an opportunity to ensure that the existing workforce still engages and continues to work toward meeting an organization’s goals.

Any redesign or reassessment of training programs should be based current business objectives. Before the urge to cut training programs take hold, think about which training programs work and are effective for your organization. Do they produce the intended results? What knowledge, skills and behaviors needed for top performance out of any employee are present in the current training programs? Find ways to evaluate the current training programs by measuring and quantifying results that tie back to the organization’s business objectives.

Despite the negative impact of economic downturns on our businesses, somewhere within the challenges we face are opportunities for creativity and new solutions to emerge. Training is one of them. There are many alternative methods in presenting training to support your business that are efficient and cost effective, such as e-learning. Many of the resources at the disposal of most companies can be leveraged to provide learning experiences that keep your workforce active and engaged in staying productive to emerge from the recession we are currently in.

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By Justin Beller – July 14, 2010

Like Drinking From a Fire Hose, So Is Cognitive Overload in Learning

At some point in our adult lives we have all sat through boring training or felt overwhelmed by the amount of information being thrown at us. When we feel this way, is usually due to cognitive overload.

Cognitive overload occurs when our working memory has reached capacity. Being bombarded by information is the equivalent to drinking from a fire hose. It’s a futile effort. As learners, we comprehend data first through our senses (sight, smell, taste, sound, touch). It then enters our short-term memory where it is processed and later stored in long-term memory for retrieval at another time. Short-term memory can only hold so much information before it is discarded or stored by the learner for other incoming information.

It’s not the least bit surprising more and more people experience cognitive overload in their daily lives. With advancements in technology, the vast sum of the world’s information is easily accessible. Information is distributed in many forms, all competing for our attention. As much as we would like to take it all in, humans physically cannot process and comprehend all that is thrown at us. That is why we as learners must filter out what is only relevant to us and trainers must facilitate this by only presenting what is valued based on the expressed training need.

The key to reducing cognitive overload is to stay objective about your learning. Focus only on desired outcomes and the information that is relevant to the learner – the tasks or knowledge important to their role. If you apply this overall rule each time you develop training, you will create training that is engaging and effective.

If you would like to learn more about how to reduce cognitive overload and create effective training, sign up for a free 5-part e-mail course on How to Build Effective Training in Five Easy Steps at my company, PinPoint Performance Solutions.

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By Justin Beller – June 28, 2010

Interventions to Improve Workplace Performance

An intervention in an organization is an all-encompassing term. It can refer to many things such as a change, program or event to improve overall performance in people and the organization as a whole. It is important to remember that an intervention is not worth doing unless you have the evidence calling for one and a solid rationale for doing so. This is where needs assessments are a valuable tool in improving performance in the workplace.

Needs assessments identify the root cause(s) to performance problems. If a needs assessment calls for an intervention to remove the barrier(s) to performance, you must choose carefully which intervention you plan to adopt to bring about the desired change or performance you wish to see in your organization.

Keep in mind there are several kinds of interventions, and no single intervention will serve as a “magic bullet” to solve your organization’s performance problems. You may have to apply a combination of interventions or introduce them in phases to bring about the desired change.

Interventions are typically grouped into the following categories:

  • Information-focused – Interventions that define, inform and document. This could be as simple as holding an informational meeting, presentation or creating channels of communication to keep people informed.
  • Consequences-focused – Interventions that reward, measure and enforce. Examples include awards and recognition for model performance or scorecards to track / quantify performance.
  • Design-focused – Interventions that organize, standardize, design or redesign. This type of intervention can be a reengineering of a process, adopting industry standards or merging job functions, roles or responsibilities.
  • Capacity and capabilities-focused – Interventions that reframe, counsel or develop. This is usually where training is called for or when new tools and facilities are introduced to improve performance.
  • Congruence-focused – Interventions that align. Demonstrated through team building or soliciting customer feedback (internally or externally).

When choosing an intervention, first make sure you have conducted a thorough needs assessment to determine the barrier(s) to performance. Once identified, you can then choose the appropriate intervention(s) to improve workplace performance.

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By Justin Beller – May 28, 2010

Syndication of Posts from PinPoint Performance Solutions

For the foreseeable future I will be syndicating posts from my blog at PinPoint Performance Solutions. This will supplement posts I had been publishing for the WELPS certificate I was pursuing from BSU. Since I will not be taking additional courses for quite some time, I would still like to maintain this blog.

I hope you enjoy the posts that will be coming your way very soon from PinPoint Performance Solutions.

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By Justin Beller – May 27, 2010

A Close to IPT 511

A few weeks ago, IPT 511 came to a close. For the foreseeable future, I probably won’t be participating in any WELPS courses through BSU and reporting on my discoveries. How I intend to make up for those blog posts will be addressed in a future post, but for now I’d like to report on what I learned in the recent course.

As for what was learned in the last class, Synchronous Learning in the Workplace… well, nothing much. If I did have to point to specific take-aways from the course, here they are:

  • Synchronous learning platforms and the technologies surrounding it are not a replacement for sound instructional design. When teaching online, you still have to adhere to instructional design principles in order to deliver quality instruction.
  • You must think of ways to interact with the learner, create activities to engage them and provide opportunities to apply what they are learning wherever possible in synchronous learning.
  • Enable social presence wherever possible in synchronous learning sessions.

It will be a while before I return to complete the WELPS certificate as my experience during the course was different from the previous courses. With a break, I hope to recharge and re-engage as soon as possible.

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By Justin Beller – May 26, 2010