Planning Training For 2011
It’s that time of year again, when organisations and training professionals inevitably look at the calendar and wonder if their training plans for the coming year are really going to deliver the business objectives expected of them. Whenever the corporate or financial year actually starts and ends, it’s often the break between one calendar year and the next that forces us to sit down and re-evaluate our planning.
Here are some key factors you need to take into account:
Budget – it doesn’t matter whether you’re working in the public or private sector, FDs and procurement professionals will be looking very closely at how you spend money on training. You will need to demonstrate high levels of ROI (return on investment) in order to secure the necessary budget
Sheep Dipping – from a new-starter’s first day, right through to senior management development programmes, if you’re guilty of ‘sheep dipping’ then your training plan is more about compromise rather than adding real value to the organisation.
Reactive or Proactive? – do you have to wait for the feedback from Appraisals in order to assess what training is required (reactive planning) or do you have a long-term strategic business plan into which the L&D activity is critically linked (proactive planning)
Time-scales – when most organisations acknowledge they have a training need, they want it delivering immediately. This can often lead to poor preparation, inadequate planning and minimal follow up – then managers and participants alike wonder why the intervention falls short of the desired outcomes
Learning Styles – training a group of field-sales people is invariably very different from training a group of IT technicians. All groups have unique learning styles and the training material, content and delivery should reflect this in order to have optimum impact
1 to 1 or Groups? – this is not just a question of costs or logistics; a high-impact 1 to 1 coaching session can have as high a return on investment in one hour as a full group intervention does in one day; consider the recipient/s, the subject and the context
On-site or Off-site? – in today’s world of hand-held email access, few of us are ever very far away from work. In order for training interventions to contribute effectively to the strategic business goals do they need to be in the corporate environment or is a fresh perspective required?
If you require a fresh perspective on your training plans for 2011 talk to:
Claudine McClean
T: 01789 734300
E: claudinem@structuredtraining.com
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