Why Training Fails
Employee
training and development is a multi-billion dollar business. Organizations, big
and small invest a signification proportion of their resources in employee
training. Training is a critical HR function. Without adequate training,
companies cannot tap their employees' potential. There is no doubt that the
greater the focus on employee training, the greater the employee productivity.
However, very often it is seen that training and development does not yield the
desired results. Employee productivity does not rise in proportion to the
training investment. Too much training often leads to chaos and confusion.
Managers are at their wits' end to make their training programs more effective.
What causes training programs to fail? Here is a micro-analysis of training and
development.
In many cases, HR managers don’t have a clearly laid out objective for their
training programs. Training merely becomes the end in itself rather than being
the means. Vague ideas of increased employee effectiveness will always give
shoddy results. Departmental managers need to collaborate with HR heads to draw
out specific objectives of the training program. There should be an explicit
training program chalked out with details and their expected results. As the
training program rolls into action, trainers need to make a detailed review at
the end of each training session in order to keep in line with the plan. It is
only when such a thought-out training program is executed, that desired results
can emerge.
Training can be of several types. In areas of technical knowledge, there can be
technical training. In case of succession planning or management development
programs, we have management training. In case of organizational restructuring
or mergers and acquisitions, companies often have 'organization training'. In
most of the service oriented companies, we have 'soft-skill training'.
Outsourcing companies who cater to client servicing conduct 'telecom training'
and 'voice based training' programs. The marketing and sales departments conduct
'sales training.' Each of these training programs differs in the methodology,
tools, processes and style of delivery.
Some organizations need to conduct more than one type of training programs for
their diverse personnel team. The problem is when the training module is not
function specific. In some cases, training modules are simply picked off the
shelf from popular resources and used without any customization. Such carelessly
created training programs are not just ineffective; they can totally diminish
employee morale and productivity.
Another commonly made mistake is the lack of any analysis of training needs.
Organizations don’t put concerted efforts in finding out the real training
needs. Competency mapping, employee assessment, manpower planning are essential
elements to identify training needs of organizations. Without a proper analysis,
training programs can be reduced to a sham.
Yet another reason why training fails is the failure of post training feedback.
In most cases, post training feedback are vague discussions on the training
results. Generic feedback is given to employees which lack meaning and
relevance. Very often employees feel left out in the entire process by the
lackadaisical attitude of trainers and HR executives. Without a proper feedback
mechanism, even a good training program can fail.
A good training program has its checks and balances in place. A well constructed
training program assigns numerical values to their training program and tracks
the increase in employee efficiency and productivity. A good training program
also calculates the profit yield for the organization. Without a thorough
analysis of the yield, training does not seem important.
Training programs have to be fool proof with adequate contingency measures and
finer details. A review of the training program on a continual basis will bring
out its strengths and weaknesses. Organizations have to take serious note of the
effects of their training programs as large amounts of money are pumped in to
bring out the desired effectiveness. Employees on the other hand have to be made
to realize that training programs are not a 'paid holiday' but a serious
investment on the part of the organization to hone their competencies. Trainers
have to take a closer look at their training modules to uncover snags and ensure
that the training achieves the desired results. HR managers, on the whole have
to be vigilant about the human resource imperatives, and find the key to
successful personnel management.
