Recently, I had the pleasure of conducting training for one of the key state institutions that organizes many tenders for training on this topic "Training management" - i.e. how to examine training needs and organize training from A to Z
The preparation of the workshop itself, as well as the exchange of experiences with the participants, as well as my experience as a trainer, owner of a training company, HRBP, and in the past ordering training services on behalf of companies, prompted me to share my observations and the most common mistakes made by buyers and orderers of training services. .
After all, unsuccessful or poorly designed training is a significant expense, and the same budget could be better used.
In my opinion, here are the most common mistakes made when contracting training:
- Sending several employees of the same company to open training when they are struggling with a specific topic to work on, typical for their organization.
I conducted open training three times (i.e. one where a rigid training program is predetermined) in which several people from the same company and external participants took part. These people came to the training with specific questions, quite specific to their organization, and by taking part in the open training, they counted on an in-depth discussion of their case(s).
- Mistake: Open trainings have rigidly established programs that need to be followed. These programs are dedicated to a specific group, but we never know who will come, what level of knowledge and experience they will have, and what their individual expectations will be. This means that the trainer has to "balance" the content, so there is a significant risk that the presented content will be obvious for one participant and new or even too difficult for another. During an open training, we do not have time and space to thoroughly analyze and talk about individual topics, so we can only guide the participant where to explore the topic further. Effect - the participant may leave not entirely satisfied because he expected something more, and the other participants may feel dominated by the first one.
- Important: if you plan to send several of your employees to the same open training, look for a company that will provide such training in a closed form, dedicated specifically to your specific needs. You can successfully negotiate the price due to the small number of participants, or ask for an online form. The training will be intimate and to the point, and everyone will get what they really need.
- Lack of examined training needs of participants - lack of motivation during the training, other needs
Unfortunately, this is a common problem. The HR department itself comes up with an idea for training. In 70%, this topic revolves around communication - and this is a very broad topic. 😊 Often, training companies propose a program and price based on inquiries only. When implementation takes place, and the trainer asks the participants in the room about their needs and expectations regarding the training topic, it often turns out that they have completely different needs, or, horror of all, they don't even know what will be the topic of the training? This is a huge challenge for the trainer and only an experienced and substantively strong trainer will cope with such a situation and be able to select the content so that each participant leaves with new experiences.
- Mistake: We do not ask future participants for their opinion whether they need such training. People often label problems differently. What may be a communication problem for one person will actually be a lack of assertiveness for another. I once received training with a ready-made program on the topic: "Serving a difficult customer". It was not possible to contact the ordering party. Standard program for such training. This is a topic I have dealt with many times, so I didn't expect any major problems. In the room, it turned out that difficult clients for my participants were people abusing alcohol and drugs, homeless people, socially excluded people, who did not speak Polish. Within 10 minutes I had to adapt the content of the 95% to the topic. Instead of the effect of first impressions and non-verbal communication, I talked about emotions, crisis interventions, mental health protection, etc. This was only possible thanks to extensive knowledge, including psychological knowledge.
- Important: If you are unable to conduct a survey yourself or ask the participants what they would like to know, learn, or practice, ask for an online meeting with a trainer at the stage of agreeing the program. He will guide you and ask questions that will help you clarify the scope. Some trainers themselves take the initiative to conduct an online survey with participants before the training. Feedback is valuable knowledge for the trainer that will allow him to prepare the content really well
- No defined performance measures
It is difficult to measure the effects of training if you do not know what and how to measure. Post-training surveys often contain general questions to which participants generally answer, somewhat along the lines of: it was nice, the trainer was also nice. So what? How will you know what practical benefits the training provided to each participant and what effects you can expect for the money spent?
- Mistake: Generally (the same for all participants) specific outcome measures, or their lack.
- Important: Clarify with each participant what he expects during the training, what will change for him and how you will know it. Agree on these metrics with the trainer so that he or she knows what to pay attention to during training. A good trainer will be able to handle this very well.
- Present your pre- and post-training surveys to participants. You can receive the content of ready-made internal surveys before and after by e-mail. Text me: global@global-methodi.comand I will send you ready INTERNAL SURVEYS BEFORE AND AFTER THE TRAINING. Did you know that training companies present post-training surveys right at the end, when everyone is still full of enthusiasm and there is no distance, which is why the responses are more positive. Ask your employees for your internal surveys, but 2 days after the training and compare them with those presented to you by the training company? Surprised?
- Fictitious post-training reports
It happens that you, as a buyer, order a post-training report for an additional fee. You do it for various reasons: to have evidence confirming the effects of the money spent, to leave a trace of the training, and finally to simply receive meaningful feedback after the training.
Do you specify exactly what should be included in the report?
- Mistake: Training companies often use a ready-made post-training report format. You will recognize it because it will contain a lot of generalities, you will not find there any information about the course of your specific training and the conclusions reached for its participants. There will be a training program, a description of goals, benefits - everything you received in the offer. It once happened to me that I conducted a closed training on behalf of one of the training companies. After conducting it, I was asked to summarize the training in 2-3 sentences. Imagine my surprise when a participant of this training contacted me on a social networking site asking what I wrote about him in the report, because their HR department received a report with recommendations for each participant for further work. But I, as a coach and the only one who had contact with him and could say something about it, didn't know anything about it!
- Important: When choosing a post-training report, specify what information you need in it. Ask for feedback and conclusions regarding the course and participation in the training of each participant, as well as guidelines for further work. Specify as precisely as possible what you need to know in the report about this particular training. Reduce the number of unnecessary pages of the report - because you pay for them, and instead of 20 pages of nonsense, only a few lines of the essence!
- Contact and support after training - consolidation of knowledge
Often the adventure ends with the training itself. Untrained knowledge quickly evaporates and only a pleasant memory remains, but there are still no effects in everyday functioning.
- Mistake: Companies offer post-training contact to the trainer or to each other in case of any questions. I know companies that create personal addresses for their trainers, but the trainer does not even have access to such a mailbox (!) it is operated by a company employee. Why ? It's worth asking yourself this question. So, thinking that you are contacting the trainer directly, in fact you are being served by someone else, and the answers provided are general, "off the top"
- Important: Ask for and contract post-training support included in the price of the training, consisting in direct contact between the trainer and each participant up to a month after the training to discuss changes and provide possible further support. Then you have a guarantee that the process of change is taking place.
- Choosing a training method – training or workshop?
Even if we call everything "training", make sure that it includes at least 70% exercises, interactions, tests, work with cases. A person learns through experience, i.e. by experiencing the use of a new skill in practice (Kolb's cycle 😊). Please pay attention to this in your inquiry and ask for a detailed program on how the training will be conducted and what tasks and exercises the participants will perform.
- Savings like: I will train 90 people at one time
Recently, I have been receiving inquiries about 8-hour training for approximately 90 participants at a time with exercises and workshops, or large and extensive training programs for a full-day training to be completed in 3 hours of online training.
For the company, this is an apparent saving. For the participants, it is a real waste of time if they would like to practice anything, because with so many participants at once there is no chance for any workshops and practicing new competences. If you do not have the appropriate budget and you have a lot of people to train - choose an online webinar of max 3 hours (the participants will not last longer) dedicated to your organization - then the trainer will prepare an event with very specific content, and during a company trip, invest in integration, not pseudo-training. .
- Training cost
It is wrongly believed that the cost of training is only the amount you actually pay for the training itself.
If you want to calculate how much the entire training actually costs you, take into account:
- your time for development, inquiry, discussion and selection of a training company, summary (you can easily calculate roughly how much your one hour of work costs by dividing your gross monthly salary by the number of working hours in a month)
- time of participants who participate in the training instead of at work: number of participants x training time + travel, etc. x working hours of each of these people
- the price at which you buy the training
- other costs such as: catering, room, hotels if away, per diem, travel, etc.
Therefore, it is worth preparing the entire training process thoroughly and focusing on quality.
If quality and real effects are important to you, please visit us www.global-methodi.com
The entire training process will be real support for your organization and participants.
Training is the beginning of the process, not the end.
Welcome if you value quality and want to invest money wisely.
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