How to tell if your training program is working
Some businesses just don’t get the message. Training is the difference between success and failure. If your staff aren’t trained as well as your competitors, you’re in trouble. More to the point, your business simply can’t perform at its best, which means that lack of training is directly costing you money. Particularly important is customer service training, which is your primary interface with your market. Get that wrong, and there is no business.
Evaluating your training program
Getting training is only part of the story. To be sure you’ve got a good training program, you need to set standards:
- The training must be effective.
- It must deliver measurable results.
- There should be obvious benefits to the business shown in operational terms, like sales and efficiencies.
- Operational capabilities should also show clear improvements in productivity and technical capacities.
- Staff retention will be lousy. Training is an incentive to staff, and if training isn’t valuable in career terms, it’s not going to retain staff or staff interest. Worse, it may mean that the training program isn’t offering anything of career value, which is a true sign of a program that’s past its use-by date.
- Productivity can either be stagnant or minimally improved. This may be a result of a slowdown in business or economic conditions, but it can also mean that the customer base is static, and no new business is being generated.
- Efficiencies aren’t affected. Training produces measurable efficiency improvements. Reports should show clear improvements in processing times and volumes.
- Operational reports don’t show a noticeable benefit. This is actually quite unusual with modern training techniques. It means that the training hasn’t affected the business operational areas. Again, this may be a result of other factors, but if you’re doing a combination sales and customer service training program, the business is facing a clear need for improvements.
- Upgrade your training or not?
- Redefine your training needs?
- Reevaluate your technical capacity?