Designing good training modules

Large organisational initiatives like business process improvements or system replacements may entail a paradigm shift in peoples' lives. The impact can be managed through active change management and communication.

One of the key enablers of change management is effective training. Hence, it becomes imperative to design and implement a training programme that facilitates successful change management.

Training design inputs

First step in the training design is to identify the audience. This pertains to the global mass directly impacted by the coming change. This global mass needs to then be segregated into smaller groups in order to design role specific courses.

The content needs to not only impart the technical or operational details of change, but also the context for the change and its objectives.

Another critical component is the current-state to end-state comparison that helps the trainees to comprehend the specific changes and the corresponding impact on their work.

The training needs to operate under tight timelines to ensure there is no learning exhaustion.

The medium of training depends on the content. Electronic means of training significantly improve participation and progress monitoring.

Lessons can be uploaded on a learning management system and employees can be encouraged to login from their desks to complete courses.

End of course evaluation can be remotely administered and employee performance metrics can be culled out for management analysis.

Conventional classrooms can continue to be used for training requiring a high touch factor where interaction with live trainers facilitate faster grasp of the training subject.

However, a critical factor in ensuring classroom success is to ensure an optimal trainer-trainee ratio.

Effective execution

The actual training execution entails elaborate tracking and coordination. Certain key metrics like attendance levels, passing percentage and course completion percentage aid the proactive management of training.

A training dashboard needs to be developed to track these metrics on a daily basis. The training manager needs to act upon the feedback.

One of the biggest problems faced in training is absenteeism. The most effective manner of tackling this is by focusing on the managers of absentees rather than the absentees themselves.

By passing the ownership of training to line managers, the message being passed is that they would be responsible for the change readiness of their units.

Rewards

Training effectiveness can be ensured by instituting rewards programmes to encourage successful participation.

However, care needs to be taken to calibrate the rewards to actual training. For generic self improvement training, the rewards need not be sizeable as there is an inherent personal development benefit already provided to trainees.

However, for operational training, it is in the interest of the organisation to provide a suitable reward as the training would lead to improvements which provide the organisation a long term benefit.

Sanjiv Anand is Managing Director and Abhishek VS is Engagement Manager at Cedar Management Consulting International.