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Inside Business Journal
Inside Business Journal
Focus on performance not training
Ron Chapman
Monday December 5, 2005
Training is big business in our country, employing more than 50,000 training vendors and thousands of corporate trainers. Statistics show that each year, U.S. organizations spend more than $50 billion, or $820 per person, on training. With this type of investment, organizations should be doing a great job of preparing staff and managers to excel at their jobs.
Unfortunately, the Society for Human Resource Management recently released a national study that reported that while 84 percent of the companies surveyed conducted skills training, only 17 percent reported a positive return on their training investment. In addition, between 80 percent and 90 percent of the time, companies do not determine the return on investment for their training dollars.
It appears that organizations are spending billions of dollars on training without knowing whether it produces tangible results. It is no wonder that management is demanding proof that training is worth the cost.
As a professional trainer, the number-one tip I have to help you improve your company's training ROI is: Stop training and start focusing on performance.
Once you choose a performance approach, there are many issues that can impact the outcome:
-Business goals must be clear.
-Leadership must be supportive.
-Corporate culture and staff attitudes must align with the desired outcome.
-Policies and procedures must be effective.
-Coaching must provide support for performance.
-Employees must possess the appropriate skills.
If you look at these requirements for performance, you see that only employee skills are impacted significantly by training. If the cause of your company's lackluster performance lies in one of the other areas, training will have a limited impact, no matter how good it is.
So, how do you focus on performance?
There are three critical times when we need to pay close attention to performance issues before, during and after a performance improvement activity.
Before you attempt to improve performance, it is important to accurately assess the root causes of the current performance shortfall. In the SHRM survey, companies reported that there is no assessment of the actual training needs measured against business objectives in 65 percent of the training they provide.
During the implementation of the performance improvement activity, or solution, you should look for quality of the design and delivery. There are usually two choices in designing and delivering the solution: internal or external resources. Often, the deciding factor is cost. However, there are other issues to consider:
-Are resources available?
-Are these resources credible for the issue at hand?
-What is their track record of success?
-Do you have a process for assessing needs, recommending solutions and evaluating results?
While the before and during phases are important, the most critical and most overlooked step is the after phase. This is when the performance improvement actually takes place.
According to Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, organizations should spend 10 times more energy reinforcing the training they have just conducted instead of looking for the next great learning initiative.
The supervisor or manager is the key to reinforcing performance improvement. Coaching and accountability during the two weeks immediately following training is vital. With proper reinforcement, employees are 80 percent more likely to act on the performance improvement, and there is a greater likelihood that they will continue the behavior after the event.
However, all too frequently, the corner office is unaware of what was addressed in the solution. Once staff returns from the training, there is no reinforcement or accountability. The training becomes a fading memory, and the opportunity for improvement is lost.
Ron Chapman is president of 5 Star Training and Consulting in Hampton, a business that provides customized training solutions. He can be reached by calling 865-3133 or e-mail ron.chapman@five-star-training.com. |
