Many instructors and developers have one goal, to get the right training to the right people in a timely manner. That seems like a reasonable expectation, right? But what happens after the training occurs? What is the likelihood that the students will complete the class, go back to their organizations and revert to their old ways? Pretty high, unless a maintenance program is put in place to reinforce the training, encourage new habits, and mentor the newly trained personnel.
What if we looked at the training event as one step of a process rather than the entire process itself? Imagine a world where prior to a student attending a training event, the supervisors, coach or mentor is briefed on what to expect from the employee when they return from training, the training occurs, and the rest of the organization is prepared to continue to follow-up with the newly trained employee to ensure their success. At this point, we are no longer talking about training, we are talking about performance plans.
Let’s call this a Training and Performance Package:
Step 1: Ensure leadership knows what will be trained (Critical skills/behaviors) and how to identify whether or not the employee learned what was taught (learning transfer).
Step 2: Train the employee on critical skills/behaviors.
Step 3: Follow-up and reinforce the training with pre-determined methods such as weekly mentorship sessions, bi-weekly brown bag sessions to reiterate the training, on-the-job checklists, and any other ways to reinforce what was learned by allowing the learner to apply the principles on the job.
What would that look like in your organization? Could you see the benefit?