In the week that new rights for employees come into force, allowing flexible working options for training, I thought it topical to talk a bit about training and learning in the workplace – and share some of my views on why it can work so well. And, importantly, why we believe our team shouldn’t want or have to go elsewhere to learn!
If you have been exposed to planning workplace learning at any level, you are likely aware of the many debates over how to measure a return for what you invest, how to make sure that the learning is effective and how it can make a difference to the day to day running of the business. Many L&D Managers up and down the country spend much of their time balancing these elements as if a fine art, with some proclaiming it is not entirely possible, and others believing they have cracked it – with still more to do.
I have to admit, over six years in L&D with Percepta, barely a week went by without these points cropping up, on top of the usual design and delivery method discussions; and dealing with the one or two managers who demanded training “to make things better” without really knowing what the issues were, and then having that winge when things didn’t quite turn out as they hoped. Training isn’t the answer to everything, but it can certainly make the difference.
We have spent a good number of years refining our business, with training at the heart of our message. We really believed from the start that good investment in training was worth it – and (as we love to say from time to time) we were right! Percepta had created – with plenty of thought and effort, trials and workshops – a really effective training system that worked at every level.
So how did we do it?
- We talked – to every Manager, at every level to really understand their objectives and what a good business ‘looked like’. We also facilitated focus groups covering all employees across our business to understand what they wanted to learn, what they needed to do their job well, how they liked to learn and when they would like to do it.
- We planned – for many days (and nights), discussing and creating a matrix of skills & competencies, roles and performance measures. We mapped each of our existing course objectives to these elements to build a portfolio of learning tools and identified where we had gaps i.e. where there were skills that were not covered in our training.
- We sold – our plans to our customers for input. And importantly, we gained their buy-in for our learning service.
- We developed – every one of our programmes to meet objectives, for a variety of learning styles and each with a varying priority (based on the needs of the business and the people).
- We delivered – not just our training, but we were able to show the improved performance as a result of our well-rounded training programmes. Each programme measured with pre and post performance reviews and manager feedback.
You know, it did take us a long time to get this system working effectively. And I have summarised quite simply the steps we took above. But overall, it was worth it. For me, as the Lead for L&D, I was able to show the business how we contributed to our collective success. Importantly, I was also able to show our excellent L&D team the difference they made each time they took our work to the customer. For our customers, they received targeted training that would help with skills and performance and could see the difference in the people and in their results.
Our principles remain with us today, ten years later (to the very week as it happens – I can’t make a contribution this week without saying Happy 10th Birthday to Percepta). So much so, that we now take this training excellence to our partners. It would be selfish not to.
Many businesses will likely experience a number of flexible work requests for learning. I happen to think that much of the training, certainly where related to personal and business skills, could be offered and fulfilled in-house, or at least coordinated by the employer. If not, then it is really important that the business understands why employees are going elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with learning from external expertise, just so long as your employee doesn’t have to go elsewhere, to learn about someone else’s business, because you haven’t thought about it.
I could go on, as my colleagues will tell you. But I will hand over to you and look forward to hearing and reading your views!
Take care
Alan