How To Motivate Employees To Attend The Training

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently joined a production company as an executive, and here I came across a problem: employees are not interested in attending the training classes. In this situation, how can we motivate the employees to attend the training programs?

Kindly help me in this regard.

Thanks & Regards,
Satya

Dear Satyam,

About five years ago, the same thread had come up for discussion. At that time, the reply I had given still holds true. Please check the following link to refer to it: https://www.citehr.com/316520-how-en...-training.html

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

You have not mentioned whether the training programs are for functional or behavioral areas. Does the HR department have the support of top management? If yes, it should be easier to implement. If not, you will need to use your tact. If the programs align with top management's goals, they can be linked to the annual appraisal format. In the case of functional areas, many managements are serious and may even withhold an annual increment if someone does not attend. Behavioral-related programs can also contribute to the total number of training hours an employee must attend in a year.

Please remember that in the case of adult learning, two aspects are important. They will learn if they HAVE TO (any compulsion—promotion, increment, or top management pressure in one way or another). They will also learn if they WANT TO (out of their own interest, which you should facilitate). Once you analyze along these lines, you will find ways of motivating them.

Regards, V. Raghunathan

Enhancing Employee Engagement in Training Programs

To add to the comments already made here, people will not attend training if it is of no value or interest to them. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

Other than essential safety and operational training, no other training should be offered if it is not backed up by a sound Training Needs Analysis. If training is to be conducted, it should be what staff NEED, not what you or management THINK they need.

Secondly, it needs to be proper training, conducted by a trainer qualified to deliver the course. I have discussed at length many times here on CiteHR the problem of people just asking for generic PowerPoint presentations for training. Standing in front of a group of people and just reading off the words of someone else's PowerPoint designed for some other organization IS NOT TRAINING. All effective training must be designed for the specific organization.

There will always be a hardcore of staff members in any organization who will resist training. That's a given. Forcing them only reinforces the resistance. As others have said, there needs to be incentives, a carrot and stick approach if you will.

Training works well when it is enjoyable, fun, and employees see real benefit from it. If you can get the staff enthused about training, and a good trainer can do this, then the rest is easy.

I know this works from my own experience. I have enjoyed training courses where the trainer was dynamic, enthusiastic, and involved the staff in the training. That is the approach I use when I train people, and the survey sheets have always shown how much people enjoyed my training courses.

To give an example, some years ago, I trained about five groups of former staff of an airline that went bankrupt. They were mostly Flight Attendants who had worked all their life for the airline and now had to find new jobs. These people did training almost every week of their working life, in safety, customer service, airline operations, etc. Almost every single person at the end of the course told me that after 20 or 30 years of continuous training, they enjoyed my training course better than any other they had attended in their lives!

I have some different views than what you have. The members have posted a query to ask how to motivate employees to attend the training. However, motivation is different from inducements. Once we establish a culture of inducements, it becomes very difficult to change.

Employee Training and Organizational Requirements

Employee training is the organization's requirement. Individuals are trained to enhance the organization's productivity. Therefore, each HOD must be made accountable for the business ratios applicable to his/her department. Employee training is conducted to increase or decrease some ratio associated with the HOD's department.

Challenges Due to Lean Manpower

Partially, problems of this kind arise because of lean manpower. HODs are just unable to spare the manpower for training since they do not have any standby manpower. However, little do they realize that because of inadequate skills, their people overwork or consume excess resources. HODs are just unable to break this cycle of non-training and low productivity.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

This is a relevant question that may concern most HR/L&D professionals. I have also faced this issue in my over three decades of corporate career.

Cultural Perception of Training

First of all, this could be a cultural issue, meaning how training is viewed in the organization—essential or non-essential. This may be due to the past experiences of the heads of departments and the participants, in terms of whether they found the training effective and if they could apply the learnings for better results.

Support from Department Heads

Related to the first point is the support from the heads of departments. If they see value, they will nominate and ensure participants attend.

Follow-up Actions

Thirdly, does the company take follow-up action where necessary? This could involve a few coaching sessions, a review of whether the learnings could be applied and with what results, and whether the training needs a follow-up session, and so on.

Involvement in Training Design

Lastly, we may involve heads of the departments in the training needs identification process, if not already done. Also, include some participants in designing the role plays/other exercises and training content. This will help in the customization of training, and heads of the department and the participants will feel included.

I hope some of these suggestions could be of help.

Regards,
Raju Ahluwalia

Dear Satya,

First, you need to determine if all your employees require training. If so, find out what motivates them and why they may lack interest in training. It could be influenced by their past training experiences. If that is the case, consider rescheduling the training program.

After identifying the reasons behind their lack of interest, explain to them why you are keen on providing the training program.

Thank you.