Computer and soft-skills training seems to fall into the nebulous, foggy category of a "necessary" but "unmeasurable" need. At a basic level, it's obvious that employees can't do their jobs well if they don't know what they are doing! Yet so many times businesses spring beaucoup bucks for training, and end up scratching their heads wondering if the investment was worth it. After all, how do you know?
In this article we are going to explore three methodologies for you to use to help you determine if your training program is as effective as it could be, and if not, how to tweak it so that it meets your objectives. But let's begin at the end.
1. Begin with the End in Mind
The first mistake businesses make is to forget why they are holding training sessions in the first place. You need more than a vague, "upgrade skill-sets" goal in order to get maximum results for minimum expenditure. What's necessary is a set of clearly defined goals that tie directly into business objectives. In other words, you need to let your business goals drive your training goals.
How can you tie them together?
It's easy. Once you have determined your business goals and needs, you ask, what do my employees need to know to accomplish these objectives? This will quite literally flesh out your training outline all by itself. You would be amazed at how many businesses skip this step, insisting and hoping that putting their employees through a generic training program will yield needed results. Doesn't work that way.
Why not?
Because employees and trainers are not geared towards meeting your goals; they have their own agendas. Imagine telling a group of people to go look for "something," in a "northerly" direction. What a silly instruction that would be! Can you imagine what they might come up with? Oh, they'll come up with something all right, but it won't be what you had in mind!
Now imagine telling them, "go look in that building on the 3rd floor for any clothing or food staples that are still salvageable."
These are specific, easy-to-follow instructions that will help target your peoples' efforts. It's the exact same way with computer and soft-skills training. Having clearly defined objectives, and communicating those objectives to both trainers and participants in advance, helps to focus your people and will net you much better results. Not to mention, you will not be throwing away all that money on generic, useless training.
So take the extra time to specify exactly which topics you need covered in your training sessions, and why, and this will go a long way towards helping you achieve your training and business objectives.