In our last blog “Are You Creating The Employee Engagement You Want? Studies Suggest You Aren’t…” we talked about the proven results learning opportunities deliver for the employee and for the organization. The greatest challenge in organizations, once they have decided to provide learning, is in the implementation of the learning back on the job. Too often we send our employees to learn – virtual, blended or in person, and we rarely speak of it again.
This process leaves the application of learning, up to the individual. Such a process will rarely ensure a valuable return on the investment, and too often management are disappointed in the results that they see; often concluding that the training provided must have been inadequate.
If you truly want to see results change from development opportunities, it will be critical to first change behaviors. Let’s look at some tips to follow to ensure behavior change, once an employee has completed a learning and development initiative.
- Prior to an event, spend time with the employee and together discuss why they are attending this program and what expectations each of you have for successful application and implementation. Share how you will support the employee when they return to the job and are ready to apply their new skills.
- During the training prevent interruptions for the individuals taking part. If at all possible, transfer work assignments to others during the training days. Take the day-to-day pressure off the individual so that they can focus on their learning.
- After the training plan on frequent conversations with the individual – ask questions, remain curious on their learning and how they are applying this on the job
- Remove barriers of learning transfer, such as lack of time, daily time pressures, and on-the-job distractions.
- Provide positive reinforcement – catch them doing things right, and let the employee know.
- Check with your training provider for behavior checklists on what to expect when the learning is implemented correctly. Deliver coaching to correct any activities implemented incorrectly.
- Revisit expectations set prior to training to ensure ownership and accountability of learning transfer is remaining with the employee.
- Ensure opportunities for all employees who participated in the training, to share successes and challenges together, so that they can coach and support each other.
- Provide experience opportunities – special projects, stretch assignments, or job shadowing
- Celebrate wins.
Seems like effort. Yes indeed, though so worth it. A survey by Deloitte of 2,500 companies found that those with “comprehensive training programs” have a 218% higher revenue per employee and 24% higher profit margins. Process that for a moment – if we change one thing in our business, we can achieve over 200% higher revenue per employee. Why wouldn’t we want to implement employee development?
