Most likely, your company has a strategic plan with a road map for reaching goals through tactical plans and clearly marked objectives. But how often do you consider where training and development initiatives fit into the big picture?
For example, if one of your company’s overall goals is to improve customer service, how can you assure that training resources – budgets and people — are on track to measurably and effectively improve how customers interface with your business?
No matter what the training budget, the investment should be targeted to the overall goals of the organization. Here are some tips for tailoring training to your company.
* Benchmark your strategic plans across industries. To be at the top of your industry in customer satisfaction is a worthy goal. A better goal is to be the best at customer satisfaction across industries. Insight for improvement can be gained by looking both within and outside of your industry.
* Use external evaluators as you establish your training priorities. Bring in a new set of eyes to look at the issue from outside your industry. Those at the top tend to know their businesses too well and believe there are certain parameters and barriers. Someone from outside isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and ask questions.
* Maximize your internal training staff. Don’t direct your own people to spend time on something that a third party can do cheaper and better. It’s not in your best interest to build a huge training staff when there are partners who can assist. Additionally, make sure your in-house training team devotes its time to the critical issues that it is uniquely qualified to handle.
* Measure, measure, measure. You should know up front what results to expect from your training and development plans. Putting measurement tools in place at the beginning of an initiative assures you’ll know the return on your investment.
Source: Denise Reading, president of Tri-C’s Corporate College, (866) 806-CORP or www.corporatecollege.com
