Is employee training a waste of money?

Is employee training a waste of time and money?

It Depends . . .

Tim Connor

Here’s the bottom line in advance – Most of the training done by organizations is a waste of money and time. (Not being negative here – as I can always use more business.).   

However, having said this – this doesn’t have to be the outcome.  Employee development programs (training) can and do work and are effective at improving employee performance for many organizations but why the difference or inconsistency?  Because some managers ‘get it’ and most don’t.  Get what?  Read on. . .

During my career I have trained thousands of people in hundreds of organizations around the world and although I did my very best to share relevant and appropriate information I have always wondered – did anyone ever consistently use the ideas, techniques and approaches I shared?

This nagging question for many years has caused me to do extensive research on the effectiveness of employee development and use of resources and its short vs. long term success given the tremendous amount of money spent every year by companies to give employees the skills and attitudes they need for enduring success and effectiveness.

When it comes to employee development programs of any kind there are three issues that must be taken into consideration; information acceptance, retention and the training approach or methods used to improve or change behavior.  I will not delve into the first two as it would take several thousand words to cover all of the aspects of both of these.  What I want to focus on in this article is the third area – training methodology.

There are four approaches or levels of learning you must grasp when it deals with employee development when you consider the results you  want to achieve.  They are – awareness, understanding, integration and mastery.  Let’s look at each of these in detail.  But, first let me ask you a question. When you invest time and resources in training what do you want the results to be – knowledge or action? Or put in another way - do you want employees to just hear the message or use consistently it consistently in the performance of their daily roles and responsibilities? If your answer was the first – move on to your next task.  If it was the second – read on.  Here are the four levels in more detail.

-The awareness level.

At this level of learning employees have an awareness only; of techniques, tactics, skills and approaches to be more effective in their roles.  However, at this level they lack the clarity and understanding to embrace the new learning in a way that will allow them to put the information into practice in an effective way and for the long term.  At this level, behavior will not change and you will have essentially wasted corporate resources and the employee’s time. They will be alert and attentive during any training session, but when the learning session(s) are over they will lack the knowledge necessary to know how, where, when and why to use this new information.  The awareness level can be described as sharing information only.

-The understanding level

At the understanding level, employees get it.  They see the relationship between the information they have learned and its value, but they still lack the ability to consistently apply (integrate) what they have learned in their roles and responsibilities.

-The integration level

Knowledge if it is not used, applied or integrated into current mindsets, activities, responsibilities or approaches is essentially useless information.  Without a doubt the biggest challenge in any training initiative is to ensure that the new learning is used and used whenever and wherever appropriate for the long term.  The lack of application of new knowledge/skills/attitudes generally occurs when the following ten requirements are not followed in any training (employee development) program.

Here are the ten requirements.

1. The program must engage the participants and cannot be a one way dialog or approach.
2. The program must permit the employees to practice while they are learning.
3. The program must allow time for group interaction in small work/discussion groups to relate specific applications to their role and responsibilities and their actual or current challenges and opportunities.
4. The program must allow adequate time for topic questions and practical discussions.
5. The program must take into consideration that everyone learns in different ways.  Some people need to hear it while others need to speak it and some need time to process the information at their own learning pace.
6. The program must take into consideration the ‘real world’ issues that the participants deal with on a routine basis.
7. The material must be reinforced in a variety of ways.  This reinforcement must be immediate and ongoing, repetitive and various methods must be used such as; regularly discussing the new material, assignments, follow-up exercises, review of the material using manuals, electronic media such as weekly or bi-weekly webinars and/or telephone conference calls and various evaluation techniques.
8. The learning must be periodically inspected to ensure that the learned skills are being implemented and used where and when appropriate.
9. Management must participate in the actual learning so they know what their employees are learning.  Without this knowledge it is impossible for them to coach, inspect and hold people accountable to their learning over time.
10.  The program must provide opportunities for everyone to develop personal ownership of the material.

- The Mastery Level -

Mastery is the highest form of knowledge and wisdom applied.  This is where wisdom becomes the standard for learning and skill and attitude development and consistent use for long periods of time.  Mastery occurs when knowledge becomes wisdom and wisdom is utilized at every opportunity when a situation or circumstance warrants.  Very few participants in a training session for any number of reasons achieve this level of knowledge or information application.  Generally speaking people who achieve mastery in their chosen field or endeavor have made mastery their goal and they have followed through with discipline, persistence, planning and an ongoing learning mindset. 

There are generally seven laws when it comes to learning.

These must be understood and integrated into any learning experience if you want to have a successful long term outcomes and behavior and skill modification.

The Seven laws of learning;

1.  All discovery is self-discovery.

2. People all learn at different rates.

3. People all have unique learning styles.

4. People learn when they are ready to learn not when you need them to learn.

5. People who are experiencing a great deal of stress or tension will fail to learn what you want them to and when you want them to.

6. If material is not presented or tailored in a way that is comfortable for the learner’s personality style they will fail to integrate the skills, techniques or attitudes into their roles and responsibilities.

7. Everyone’s personal perceptions either contribute to or sabotage their ability to learn and grasp new concepts, ideas and information.

o So, there you have it.  But here’s the problem.  Most organizations want to achieve the integration or even the mastery level of learning for employees but they fail to grasp that these two levels of learning require;       

  A serious commitment to on ongoing learning process. This takes ongoing and consistent time and resources. You will never achieve long term results with a quick-fix approach.

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  The ability to put strategies in place for inspection and to hold people accountable. Most managers are too busy to be involved in the learning process.  They just want to delegate it.

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   Ongoing coaching. Many managers either do not have adequate or acceptable coaching skills so they fail in this area.

I’ll leave you with a simple question – Are you expecting long term employee effectiveness from your training investment while you are not following any or all of the suggestions, no - requirements in this article?  If you are, you will continue to throw more money at your problems or challenges, but fail to achieve the results you desire.