Friday, February 24, 2012

Factors That Make Up an Effective Employee Training Program

Employee training programs - such as Customer Service Training, Sales Training, Management Skills, Communication Skills, Leadership Skills, Change Management, Organizational Change, Team Building, Goal Setting and Time Control, Safety Training, Audit Skills Training, and Presentation Skills - are important to any company. A number of companies, in fact, go beyond these training programs and other educational opportunities that are job-related to offer short courses on setting up a small business and the like. And there are not a few well-known organizations like Xerox, Sprint and McDonalds that have even established corporate universities to further emphasize that the company values education and supports education efforts in the company.
What factors help build an effective employee training program?
* Constant and effective communication. Being able to communicate in a consistent manner and being able to spread the word effectively helps make sure that the entire organization are on the same page regarding the goals of the company. You should be able to communicate clearly how these goals are aligned with the goals of the incentive programs and that of the teams or departments and their individual members. Show also how the goals of the company are aligned with that of the incentive programs and of the training program that supports the incentive strategy. You should also be able to clearly express how the training is directly related to the work that they do and the results of these training programs contribute towards achieving the goals of the teams, individual employees and the company.
* Another key message - and an important factor in building a successful training program - is how the employees and the management are all part of the same team and how everyone is part of the company's future. Communicating this message well can help make the training program a powerful way to motivate employees.
* Build the training program using a holistic perspective. Look at the big picture. It should ideally begin with the company's missions and goals. From these goals, you should be able to create an incentive strategy. This incentive strategy should be the foundation of your specific incentive programs which are in turn supported by a sound training program. Make sure that the incentive program that the training supports has specific and measurable goals. These specific goals are based on exactly what you want to achieve. This could a particular number of outputs from the workforce or maybe a specific change in behavior or a behavior that you want to encourage. The corresponding measurable elements of these goals should be the basis of your incentive program targets which should in turn guide your training program. This kind of approach helps you focus on the goals and make the best use of the training funds at the same time.
* Measurable results and goals help keep employee training programs on track towards success. Specific and measurable goals is that they show everyone in the company that the reward program is objective and not just based on favoritism or the management's whims. Measurable goals also make improvements and performance easier to track which in turn helps in delivering effective feedback and in setting expectations.

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