Prior to putting together a continuing education employee training program, the management team must decide upon their desired outcome. One question that is important to answer is, "Do you want the program to enhance the skills of the associate or do you want to help the associate with personal development?"
While there is some commonality between these answers, the main difference is the opportunity for the management team to mold future management team members. If the desired outcome is simply to enhance skills, with no personal development, the department will have a staff that simply knows how to do their job a little better. While that is a positive outcome, you want your company to think "outside the box," and design a program that allows, and even encourages, critical thinking and problem solving.
Therefore, when designing a continuing education program, the desired outcome should be a blending of both technical and personal enhancement. This type of training program will allow the staff the opportunity to develop solid management skills, coupled with a better understanding of their position and function, and how that fits into the relationship of the organization.
For example, if you discover during the assessment process that writing skills in the department are low, you will need to enhance those skills by developing a corresponding training session.
Blend Technical Training With Personal Development
This writing training session could include topics on the basics of writing, such as spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and correct word use. Building on those basics, you could give your participants an applicable topic, such as writing a letter to a customer apologizing for a late shipment.
Provide the participants background information about the customer. Tell them the customer has purchased from them for ten years and has always made payments promptly. Give them ten or fifteen minutes to compose a rough draft and have them present their letter to the group. Once someone has read a letter, ask the other participants to offer feedback for improvements, and as the trainer, point out the positive aspects of the letter.
Another mechanism that will help with ongoing continuing education is to enable staff members to develop an affiliation with an association or industry group. This type of education is tangible and has been proven to have a positive track record with the local offices and their industry trade groups. Staff members are given the opportunity to come together periodically, and discuss the issues they are experiencing in their business.
This is a positive experience for everyone involved because the information gained in this type of setting can prove useful to others who may have the potential to partake in a similar situation. Also, others who have experienced a similar situation have the opportunity to talk about their resolution(s) that worked effectively.
Effective Training Program Tips
Here are a few final thoughts on the design of the continuing education employee training program.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, most adults write at an eight-grade level. Therefore, always follow the acronym of KISS. (Keep it simple, sweetie.)
- When scheduling the training session, attempt to keep your groups diverse. This promotes good discussion and is a live example of how concepts can relate throughout the organization and/or workgroups.
- Attempt to have a point person or a trainer in each work area. This concept serves two purposes. If a new system or procedure will be introduced, the point person can learn the system or procedure and train the staff. (People always learn better when they are required to teach the concept.)
Second, it helps having a local resource within the workgroup. This allows for more questions when the level of understanding is low. Associates will not feel threatened by someone they sit next to every day versus a trainer from the human resources or organizational development area.
Read about the components of the best continuing education programs.
