Focus Training for ROI
Make Training Assessment Your Prescription for Success
You've probably been conducting training in your organization for years. However, you may never have used an effective training needs assessment to pinpoint specific areas in which employees will profit from training .You may , alas , have been spraying information and praying for results.
One of the strongest paths to employee engagement is to provide feedback , build on strengths and give people the opportunity to grow professionally.
Adult learning theory tells us that adults will learn something to a high degree when they have a need to learn it. Nothing motivates that desire to learn like feedback on yourself.
One of the most valuable aspects of any organization is its pool of leadership talent. Each manager or supervisor has strengths and limitations that can be enhanced through training. Without assessing those strengths and weaknesses, you cannot know what training your managers, supervisors and team leaders need. A training needs assessment personalizes an organization's training agenda to each individual.
Before you can design a training and development program that hits the mark for every employee, you must know each employee's basic competency in the face of what is wanted and needed in their present and future job.
I know a training director who was charged with the task of rolling out a new leadership program for her midsized company, and she was given a specific budget for the program. Unfortunately, she cut corners and rolled out the program without performing a pre-assessment. When her boss asked her to show the value of the training program, she had a difficult time quantifying the results.
If she had conducted an assessment prior to the training, she would have discovered the specific areas of need for each manager and supervisor. She then could have delivered on those needs by providing only the training each person needed.A post assessment would provide vital information on documentation of the first levels of demonstrating ROI.
A training needs assessment brings economical value to an organization in several ways:
Managers and supervisors are not taken off the day-to day job for training they don't need or want.
Training materials are purchased for only the modules needed, reducing excess expenditures.
Trainer time is focus and reduced.
Another benefit of training needs assessment is the personal awareness it brings to each individual. Assessment gives employees insight into certain aspects of leadership they might not have considered when interacting with their team members. When an organization provides specialized training for leaders, each manager and supervisor knows exactly what he or she must do in order to grow as a leader.
The Right Prescription
Another way to consider training needs assessment is as a prescription. When a patient visits the doctor, the doctor assesses the patient's symptoms, makes a diagnosis and determines what prescription is necessary to make the patient well again. A prescription that cures one patient, however, might not cure the next patient the doctor sees; each patient must be assessed and diagnosed individually. Similarly, a training needs assessment allows trainers to pinpoint the exact training each manager or supervisor needs. Thus, the company doesn't invest in unnecessary training for employees who don't need it.
Our new Supervisory Training Needs Assessment assists clients to better pinpoint what areas of training they need to provide. It allows organizations to evaluate the skills of their managers, supervisors and team leaders. With this assessment, organizations gain insight into employee attitudes and behaviors, thereby helping them maintain the most positive and productive work environment possible. Using the assessment, management can listen to employees systematically, reliably and completely. This gives a voice to all employees in the organization - not just those who are the most outspoken.
The assessment provides custom learning plans, which organizations can implement quickly and easily. It also allows organizations to focus their training, which saves time and money.
In a way, the Leadership Skills Assessment allows each client , in this case you , to be the doctor, assess and diagnose employees' training needs, and prescribe a targeted training program designed for success.
To learn more about our, Leadership Skills Assessment or the Managerial Assessment of Proficiency ( MAP ) one of our competency-based needs assessments along with Perspectives and the Manager Effectiveness Profile by calling 212 362 5215 or email : info@communicationstrat.com.
Communication Strategy is a New York City based consulting firm with affiliates through out the United States.We assist clients in the areas of Leadership and Organizational Development , Performance and Meeting Management , Employee Engagement, Team Building and Customer Service Excellence and Customer Service Culture Building. Contact: David Hellman (info@communicationstrat.com)
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