Training and Development - Performance Matters
In today’s rapidly evolving business environment, the most successful organizations are often those that invest in workforce development. When employees are encouraged to expand their skills and learn new ones, this creates an atmosphere that is conducive to innovation. Attention to training is also imperative from a performance management standpoint.
Employees Need Guidance
It’s a sad fact that most workers are not demonstrating their full potential. Incentive based pay can only address one of the motivating factors for improvement. Frequently, employees need direction and instruction more than anything. Offering rewards only works if people know how to go about meeting your organization’s objectives.
Individuals who are experiencing poor levels of satisfaction and engagement are also unlikely to respond to bonuses as a “quick fix”. In contrast, when an employer places a priority on development, this shows workers that they are valued for more than their ability to boost profits over the short term. After all, you wouldn’t be spending money above and beyond payroll costs if you didn’t believe in your employees’ potential for excellence.
Of course, training by itself doesn’t necessarily lead to improvement. Instruction must accomplish a specific objective or the costs will outweigh the benefits. Real development:
- Results in better individual and team performance
- Promotes continued “real world” learning
- Initiates positive behavioral change
Common Pitfalls That Make Training Ineffective
HR and management must have the same desire to help workers achieve success or the results will be disappointing. Lack of support on the part of management can sabotage even the best training program. Some supervisors begrudge the time a worker takes off from regularly assigned tasks to participate in ongoing development. This affects the employee’s ability to absorb information in class and makes it unlikely that he or she will be eager to demonstrate new skills or knowledge upon returning to work.
An ideal approach would be for the supervisor to not only support the employee in accessing training but to ensure that there are multiple opportunities to apply the training afterward. Reinforcement is the only sure way to help workers retain what they learn in classes.
Avoid Wasting Resources
Getting a group discount is not a good enough reason to send employees to training if they don’t need it. Forcing high performing workers to sit through remedial level material is insulting and will make them resistant to learning later on.
Target your spending effectively by pre-testing employees to see who needs a refresher course and who would benefit more from advanced training. If you don’t assess performance to find out where improvements are needed, your ability to measure subsequent progress will be limited.
Additional Tips
Encourage employees to give feedback about the usefulness of the material covered. This helps them become more engaged and elicits valuable information about any further instruction that may be required.
Whenever possible, incorporate ongoing learning into your organizational culture rather than relying on one-day seminars. You can expect to see better results with this approach. Build a strong mentoring program to take advantage of the knowledge base already available in your workforce. As continuous learning becomes the norm, the need for outside intervention by training specialists may decrease.
