How to Develop a Training Plan for Your Employees?

The quote by Heraclitus "The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change" applies to our lives in every way, whether it's business or personal. When it comes to workplace environment there are numerous challenges associated with the changing nature of work. We are constantly expected and required to upgrade our skills and knowledge. For any business to grow it requires a workforce that is flexible, adaptive and focused.

Managers, have a key responsibility to develop the staff. Training of staff not only assists in their personal growth in terms of career development but plays an important role in the growth of the organization as well. So corporate training is recognized as one of the ways to ensure employee loyalty. Here are some noteworthy points to keep in mind.

Pre-decide the aims and goals

• Identify the weaknesses and areas that need improvement and have the training program address these issues.

• Attach a goal to your training. Goals linked should be both short and long term. These will help in estimating the progress achieved over time.

• Training should be provided by experienced professionals. You can hire professionals from training institutes or industry professionals specializing in specific subjects that you would like to focus upon.

Systematically organize the process

All employees do not require all training. Organize some training programs for all staff and some only for specific departments that require specialized training. Some programs like interpersonal skills might be useful to all employees but some others like customer relationship management might not be needed for employees that are engaged in handling machinery.

You can maintain a spreadsheet to track training schedules, training programs and specific requirements for future.

Appropriate execution of training program

A proper training schedule should be decided in advance so that it doesn't obstruct day to day work. Training time should be assigned according to the time required for a particular training program. If a program can be conducted for an hour each day for a week after office hours and if the employees have no problem attending then you don't have take time out from regular working hours. Some other training programs might require 2-3 full days. In such cases you can have the program done in batches so that all the employees do not have to attend at the same time.

Training programs should be based on immediate requirement. What is most urgently required for proper functioning of the workflow in the organization should be give priority and other general training programs can be scheduled once the urgent requirements are met.

Tools for training

When you hire professionals for training make sure they use the right equipment, graphics and animation, graphs and slide shows and include games sessions, quizzes, question and answer sessions etc

Training sessions, apart from imparting knowledge, should also be interactive, enjoyable and interesting. Feedback at the end of the session gives an opinion and reaction of the employees and will help in future training programs.

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