SMOOTH seas never made skilful sailors. In rougher times you start to see where the cracks appear, however, giving you the chance to do something about them.
Businesses with a high-performing workforce are more equipped to weather through storms. A forward-planning business leader identifies where there are gaps in knowledge, skill or experience and invests in workplace training to strengthen performance.
Perhaps a client has given some negative feedback, or perhaps you are concerned about staff productivity. Whatever the tipping point is, team training can equip your workforce with the relevant skillset to help your business succeed.
To get the most out of your learning and development dollars, you need to identify the outcomes you want. Then, you can measure success and support the training goals in your wider leadership strategy.
Once you’ve identified the areas for improvement, you need to decide what business goals you want team training to achieve.
If you want to improve your team’s productivity and time-management, for example, think about what targets you can measure before and after the workplace training. The number of client calls, completed tasks or new proposals in a given time period, for instance.
Take note of your starting figures and set targets. If you are hiring a third-party to train your team, make sure their workshop objectives align with yours and check they have a proven track record of getting results.
Most businesses do a great job of collecting participant feedback at the end of a workplace training session. This is useful information, but nowhere near as important as what happens when the post-workshop enthusiasm wanes and reality hits.
Then it’s time to pull out your targets from the first step above and decide on the time frames for measuring performance against the targets. You will then have the data you need to analyse your return on investment and identify future training and coaching needs.
Investing in your team‘s learning and development will help keep them engaged, motivated and focused. Ultimately, however, workplace training is only part of the equation.
To ensure a training session isn’t just a flash in the pan and has a lasting impact, you need to identify other areas your leadership strategy can support.
Having a high-performing workforce also comes down to other factors like engaging your staff with timely constructive feedback, providing them with adequate support and creating a positive workplace culture.
We can help your business see a return on investment with team training and support your leadership strategy. Contact us for your free business leadership consultation.
Susan Rochester has been managing director of Balance at Work since 2006. Susan has a natural tendency to balance analytical thinking with an optimistic outlook to set direction and solve problems. She is an effective facilitator and constantly creates new and more effective ways of doing things, motivated by helping others to achieve their goals.