The workplace is progressively becoming a place where organizations can foster, enhance, and encourage the potential and capabilities of employees. One way in which organizations foster these talents is by implementing training and development programs with the goal of preparing employees to better meet the challenges of today’s competitive workplace. However, unless training programs are carefully designed and developed, such programs are unlikely to meet the demands of the competitive workforce as well as the needs of the employees and the needs of the organization.
Designing a Training Program
When designing a training program, it is important to keep in mind that the goal of training is for the employees to acquire new knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes (KSA). A good training program must be detailed enough to meet the goals of the organization with comprehensible specifications of the purpose and goals of the training program. Any effective training program must have specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound (SMART) goals in which a clear definition of the goals is communicated to the employees (learners). The employees’ needs are determined in the context of the nature of work. It is also very important for the management to define the goals of the training program to make sure that the training program is aligned to the organizational values. The content of the training program as well as the learner activity, which is central to communicating the course content, is very necessary and should be determined prior to the start of the course.
Training Evaluation
The success of a training program is not entirely dependent on organization and the content of training, but rather, on the execution and follow up after the training. This is where evaluation of the success of the training program comes in. It is imperative that management obtains feedback for the training from the participants (employees).
By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development
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