Hello Anupama,
A calendar approach is fine when you have a large budget. If training is new to the organization, I’d take a project-based approach. What are the key manager/employee capabilities that the organization requires to achieve its strategic and operational objectives – assuming that it has a strategic/operational plan? Work with managers to identify the key needs. This is different to a wish list that I see many organizations come up with – a list of what training managers/employees would “like” to do. Next allocate priorities and budgets.
Some organizations deem so many days compulsory training per employee per year. This can work to change the culture, but should only be used as an interim measure and is not as effective as a project-based approach.
As for wanting to fight back, if your attitude is to “fight”, you have already lost the battle. To turn around employee attitudes to training, you will need to work in partnership with managers/supervisors. Together, there is a lot you will need to do before and after each training session for employees to become engaged. Have a look at our page at:
http://www.businessperform.com/html/..._training.html
This page is specifically about transfer of training back to the workplace, however, the pointers on building a partnership and the pre- and post-training activities are very relevant here. The most useful points are:
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If your organization is struggling to see the skills learned during training transferred to actual application in the participant’s job, here are ten pointers to help you figure out why. Think here about your last course in which the training was not transferred successfully.
· Did instructional designers, trainers and line managers work together in partnership or was work on the program done in isolation with little collaboration?
· Were non-training solutions seriously considered or was a training request received and an off-the-shelf solution delivered?
· Were training outcomes stated in behavior and performance terms or were outcomes unstated or stated in fuzzy terms?
· Were training objectives tied to stated organizational objectives or were they left floating in the organizational ether?
· Were managers and supervisors actively involved before, during and after the program or was the program divorced from the employee's day to day work?
· Was post-training support provided back in the workplace, such as coaching and on-the-job aids, or were employees left to flounder with no opportunity to practice?
· Were new procedures and role expectations clearly communicated to employees or were they left wondering why they were nominated for the program?
· Were workplace performance expectations agreed with employees prior to the training, or was it back to "business as usual"?
· Was the training integrated with a well thought-out and implemented change or improvement program, or was the training a single point "silver bullet" solution?
· Did you measure the organizational impact of the program or rely solely on "happy sheets" for feedback?
How did your last training program measure up? From your answers, draw up an action plan that you can implement for your next program. Remember, the responsibility for transferring training to the workplace is not the sole responsibility of the trainer. It is also neither the sole responsibility of the training participant nor their manager or supervisor. It is a shared responsibility between all three parties acting in partnership. Only with all three roles collaborating to ensure that skills are transferred to the workplace will training participants change their behavior back on the job and the organization reap the benefits of training.
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The most important activity for managers/supervisors is the pre-training and post-training conversations they have with each employee about why the training is important, how the employee will apply the new skills learned and what the employee needs from their manager/supervisor to be able to do this. As well, having managers introduce the trainer at the beginning of each training course emphasizes the credibility of the trainer and management support for the training. The work of Broad and Newstrom in “Transfer of Training” is particularly useful. Also, you might want to check out our book “From Training to Enhanced Workplace Performance”
http://www.businessperform.com/html/..._transfer.html
as it goes into the detail of what I am talking about here. It’s one thing for managers to say they support the training, its another for them to visibly demonstrate this to the people who care – the employees/training participants.
Along with this, reporting to managers the absentee rate for courses and the cost to the organization may help to spur them into action. Just make sure that you have an action plan ready to recommended to them.
Vicki Heath
http://www.businessperform.com