Creating effective training schemes for your staff

Many organisations in the world today recognise the benefits and value of workforce training. When done properly and effectively training makes workers or employees more efficient and productive. Workers that are more efficient increase production, profits, and revenue while decreasing wastes, costs and efficiencies. Effective training leads to a more engaged, satisfied and happier workforce which in turn reduces the cost of hiring new employees and turnover. Here are some of the ways of creating effective training schemes for your staff

Assess your staff training needs

An organisation manager needs to first conduct a training needs assessment to determine the skills that the staff require and investigate the various performance problems experienced by the staff. This will help the organisation determine the best solution for the problems and the best training scheme for the staff. Managers should conduct a training assessment that is directly based on the goals of the organisation. Also when conducting the assessment the manager needs to identify the tasks that employees need to perform, training activities that will help employees carry out their tasks more effectively and determine the learning features that will enable the training to be more efficient and effective.

Develop training objectives

The training needs assessment conducted will identify and determine any gaps in the employee skill sets and the current employee training initiatives. These gaps should be prioritised, analysed and turned into training objectives of the organisation. The objectives are some of the tasks that your staff should be able to perform when the training is completed. Thus hand-on exercises, tests and quizzes should be carried out during the training to assess your staff comprehension of the training and understanding of the objectives. The set training objectives should also be measurable, specific, time-bound, relevant and achievable.

Create a training plan of action

An organisation should create a comprehensive and detailed action plan that includes learning the content, theories, instructional design, other training elements and materials. Training and resource delivery methods should also be well detailed. While developing the training scheme the participants’ learning styles and level of training should also be considered. A manager should develop an action plan that directly relates to the objectives of the program. It’s also very vital for the manager to provide plenty of opportunity for any feedback or questions by the staff or employees.

Implement training initiatives

This step of implementation is where the training program or scheme comes to life. At this phase, the organisation needs to decide whether the training should be externally co-ordinated or delivered-in-house. Implementation of the program includes the organisation of the training equipment or facilities and scheduling of the training activities. The training scheme or program is then officially promoted, conducted and launched. During the training, the progress of the participants should be closely monitored to make sure that the program is effective.

Evaluate and revise training

At this step, the entire training program should be evaluated and revised to determine whether it’s successful and meets the training objectives. Stakeholders should also give their feedback about the program to determine the instructor effectiveness, skill and knowledge acquisition. Analysing and evaluating the feedback will allow the institution to identify and recognise any weaknesses in the training program. The training program at this point can also be revised if the expectations or objectives are not met.