5 problems of employee learning and development

Many issues in corporate education have improved in recent years, though some problems still remain. These were being talked about ten years ago and action is needed so we are not still dealing with the same problems ten years from now. A typical example of such a problem is the failure of Training Managers to confront blind cutting of employee training budgets or to ensure that the new skills and knowledge gained at trainings is applied in practice. What should you do?

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According to an interesting article on Clomedia.com, employee training managers should finally start solving the following dilemmas.

1. Companies want training but scrap it as the first cost item

Top managers stress the importance of employee training but once a crisis occurs, the training budget is immediately cut. Training costs are still perceived as expenses rather than investments. Your task is to show the specific benefits of employee training from a business perspective.

2. Most training not applied in practice

Many companies still lack procedures to ensure practical application of new knowledge and skills acquired during training. Transfer of the knowledge and skills into practice must be clearly addressed before, during and after each training session.

3. E-learning not effective enough

E-learning and online learning are comfortable, accessible and affordable employee training tools but, compared to traditional courses, they are not effective enough for the application of new knowledge in practice and overall impact. This needs to be improved in cooperation with creative designers and developers on the one hand and administrators able to take business issues into account on the other.

4. Most training and development not based on business needs

Employees attend courses because someone told them to do so. Properly, however, specific kinds of employee training should solve a specific problem the company faces or a specific opportunity that arises. You should start at the end - with clearly defined ideas about what training should bring to the company, ideally expressed in numbers.

5. Not clear why your department actually exists

The success of your efforts should be determined not only by whether employees use what they have learned but also by the impact that training and development has on them. Your department has to be a centre with clear business benefits, shown by the effect they have on participants' jobs, teams or the company as a whole.

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Article source Chief Learning Officer - a U.S. magazine and website focused on L&D
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