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Yes, you read the title right. Most training is a waste of money. You might think that is a strange statement coming from someone who owns a couple of businesses that include major training divisions. Let me share with you two major reasons why I believe that most training does little good.
The First Reason
Method of training program selection
Look at this typical sales scenario:
Sales are not increasing as fast as management wants. Competitors are multiplying. Corporate offices send goals down that need salesmen who can jump tall buildings and you have managers who think that their salespeople can only jump over short barns. So, what is the answer? Training.
So you train them on sales skills. They sit through three days of the same stuff they sat through last year. A few things click. They do a couple of things differently. Very little of it actually works. Much of it is forgotten or not used since there is no frequent repetition. Much of it cannot be used for the second reason, which we discuss later in this article.
So where is the problem? Human Resources (HR) did its job. If they do not sell, it is their fault. You gave them a band-aid when they needed an organ transplant. You gave them an ice cream when they needed a cutlet and potatoes. You gave them a ping-pong ball when they needed a soccer ball. This is a bottom line game. Training should only be given to improve the bottom line, both in the short and long term. That means training has to address specific, and identified, deficiencies.
More and more firms all over the world are now realizing that there is one crucial step which cannot be left out before a company decides on the type of training required. And this step is so important, so vital that its absence builds an entirely false training foundation.
This first critical step is gathering and reporting performance feedback through a multi-rater assessment. In other words, first identifying, usually through computer-based technology, what skills or processes really need improvement, and then addressing those issues with specific remedies or targeted training, as opposed to spaghetti training (hope something that is relevant will stick to the wall when thrown against it).
This up-front analysis, sometime referred to as “360” or “20/20”, involves first measuring customer, management and staff perceptions of firm’s services, employees, processes and behaviors in the department where improvement is desired. The computer then prints out a completely detailed report that identifies areas of competency development, together with skill and needs assessments.
Taking a simple request for sales training, HR does a 20/20 multi-rater assessment first. This assessment usually covers at least ten different competency areas that include everything from organizational skills to customer service skills, from management skills to follow-through habits. These instruments are taken in different forms by sales managers, customers and sales personnel alike, and are confidential.
Only the one who took the instrument sees his individual and his customer results and areas he need to improve. Then, all results are rolled up into report summaries that are charted and presented in different categories that identify deficiencies on a department and firm scale.
. Now you have an exact report on what needs to be changed. It may be a behavioral habit change; it may be a skill-set change
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Most often, this analysis shows that an underlying habit, more important than sales training, needs to be changed. Then, and only then, do you approve targeted training or request process modification to improve the bottom line.
Identifying deficiencies first in the processes does much more good than just training and de-motivating a well-trained staff because they cannot overcome poor processes. The famous Dr. Deming changed the entire mentality of the Japanese industry by improving its quality partially through his examples of how poor processes defeat profit no matter how well trained employees may be.
HR departments are increasingly becoming aware that their responsibilities are not to train staff first but instead to identify what habits/processes need to be changed, and followed with training.
Reason Number Two
Managers are left out of the training.
Inevitably, this scenario happens in most training:
Seminar leader: Did you learn anything in the seminar?
Participants: Yes, a lot.
Seminar leader: Have you learned new skills that will help you in your job?
Participants: Yes, these are great.
Seminar leader: So, will you start using them on Monday?
Participants: No.
Seminar leader: Why not?
Participants: Because our managers were not here and they will not let us use these techniques; they do not know about them.
Do you know how many times we have heard that? Recently, we gave a customer satisfaction training to middle managers of a major company. These managers were so excited. They were just amazed at the opportunity to show the customer that they cared which resulted in repeat business and a better bottom line.
“Please, please,” they begged. "Can you give the same training to their top managers? We cannot implement what learned to improve customer satisfaction because our bosses do not know what we were taught.” You might as well throw your money out the window. These people will get frustrated and eventually become unmotivated and leave.
You can teach your people teamwork. But unless their bosses are trained in teamwork, those people who were trained have no choice but to go back and use the same techniques they used before. You can teach your people effective time management. But unless their bosses permit them to use the time management techniques, they learned they have no choice but to obey their time wasting habits. You can teach your people customer satisfaction. But unless their bosses were trained in customer satisfaction, you just threw your money right out the window. Now you see a second reason why most training does not work.
Before you start your training plan for this year, think about measuring what really needs to be changed first. Second, make sure that management is included.
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