Training is appropriate when an employee
does not know how to perform at desired levels
and when less costly interventions would
not provide the needed performance boost.
BEFORE you decide how to improve performance, you must answer the following:
Do employees know how to perform at the desired
levels?
This is such a critical question. If you assume and your assumption
is wrong, your follow-on actions, although well-intentioned, will be poor
investments. If you don't know whether an employee has required knowledge
or skill, you need to find out. Act on fact.
If you determine that employees don't know how to perform some job tasks,
you then need to answer a second question:
What interventions would produce the needed
performance?
Interventions might include job aids, mentoring, documentation, etc.
Training is an intervention, but it may not be your only option. Consider
job aids for example. Perhaps there is a complex job task that an employee
has to perform only once per month. You could provide training in the task
to the employee, but chances are that the task is too complex and performed
too infrequently for the employee to remember how to do it correctly (no
matter how well they are trained). The problem is neither the employee
nor the training; the problem results from the work process. The task is
performed too infrequently to rely on sufficient recall of the skill. Assuming
the work process is sound, you need to consider job aids.
See the topic - What is a Job Aid?
Remember: Training is appropriate when an
employee
does not know how to perform at desired levels
and when less costly interventions would
not
produce the needed performance.
Once you determine that training is appropriate, you still have many decisions
to make. How do you select a training option? What training options do
you have? Which training options are best? Browse through the other topics
in the Training Assistant for more information in these areas.
You're not expected to be a training expert. The Certification
and Training Group can help you determine whether your organization
has a training need. |
