PAUL NYAUSARU
It is tempting to put off staff training indefinitely, waiting until there is more time or more money. But to succeed, your employees’ skill sets must be complete and up to-to-date.
Employee development is one of the most important investments you can
make in your business.
So, when you do take on a training eff ort, you will want to be sure you’re
spending your money wisely. It’s therefore best to create an overall training strategy to steer your plans for staff development.
Before we go any further, let us start by defining what a training strategy is.
Training and development in an organisation requires implementation to
achieve success.
Therefore, the strategy will require vision, focus, direction and an action
planning document.
A training strategy is a mechanism that establishes what competencies an organisation requires in the future and a means to achieve it.
Many points can be put forward in favour of why an organisation needs a
training strategy.
Th e most compelling though rests in the results of a recent study of 3,000
companies done by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.
They found that 10% of revenue spent on capital improvements boosts
productivity by 3.9%, spent on developing human capital, increased productivity by 8.5%, Remember then that, anything worth achieving, is worth planning for!
The most successful and profitable approach has been to; Identify the customer’s training needs in terms of their organisational strategic
plan, Human Resource strategic plan, personal development plans and focus on comprehensive interviews or focus groups, Analyse your needs — Taking time to analyse your organisation’s needs when designing your training plan will help you choose the right type of training for your
requirements.
Identify skill gaps — This can be done by looking at the written job description (make sure you have one!) and comparing the skills the position requires with your employees’ current abilities.
Understanding where there may be gaps will help you identify the types of
training you need.
Prioritise — Assign the training you would like to provide into categories.
Ask yourself the following questions;
Is it mandatory, or nice-to-have?
If it’s absolutely required, a training effort becomes imperative.
If it reflects an ideal situation that isn’t immediately feasible, you’ll know how to plan for it in the longer term.
Once you have assessed and prioritised the need for training, the next step is to secure what type of training you will use and how you will off er it. Th ere are several factors to consider such as the following:
Types of training available:
l Internal resources: Ask yourself what resources you have in-house.
Seasoned employees may be perfect to take on coaching or mentoring roles.
Inexpensive to provide, these are among the most effective types of training
l External resources: Formal seminars, conferences, private trainers and videos are all good methods for learning. These tools are more expensive, but are professionally developed and often yield good results
Delivery options
One-on-one vs. group sessions, e-learning vs. in-person instruction, on site or off -site? Th ese questions will be answered by a blend of factors such as:
what’s available, what best suits your needs, and what you can afford.
It’s important to balance your need to save with the long-term benefit of
developing staff .
Try to determine the best type of training available for the amount you have to spend.
After all has been done do not forget to secure management and staff
commitment. Before you can execute a training program, you need to have
agreement from the senior person in your company that training is a priority. This person will need to support the plan fully and agree to milestones, costs, dates and deliverables.
Employee commitment is also required. Talk to your staff about the goals
for the training and why it’s important to the business that they undertake the learning eff ort. Most often, employees will respond favourably to your investment in their development.
Today’s employees look beyond their paycheques; they value and embrace
opportunities to learn new skills.
Paul Nyausaru is an HR Practitioner and leadership coach. For all your
HR interventions and leadership development training you can get in
touch with him on WhatsApp/call +263774062756 or Email pnyausaru@
gmail.com
