TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

Attention HR folks! This article is meant for you to share with managers in your organization who want to become the best leaders they can be.

One of the main factors affecting job performance is whether or not the employee knows how to do the job. We all know that an employee comes into the job already knowing how to do a lot, and there are several things they’ll learn on the job on their own. However, that isn’t enough to optimize performance. You’ll get better performance if you invest in effective training.

We need to toss in the word “effective” because sending someone off to a course just so you can tick off the box, “Training done,” is pointless. So, as the manager, your job isn’t just to make sure some training is going on; your job is to keep a close enough eye on it that you can be confident that it’s helping to improve performance. In fact, what you are really aiming for is a learning culture where learning is genuinely encouraged, supported, and designed to fit each employee’s needs. You also want an environment where people coach each other, look up how to do things on YouTube, read articles, and take a moment to reflect on lessons learned after a project.

There’s one more important element to this: people. (Yes, in management-related matters the issue of people seems to come up often.) Most people want to learn, so providing a workplace where learning is a priority is an important part of your employee value proposition. Remember, an investment in training is an investment in retaining your best workers.

Three Broad Categories of Training

• Training to improve productivity. Productivity training includes things like technical skills, listening skills, and product knowledge.
• Training in compliance. Compliance training ensures employees know the laws and regulations relevant to their work so that they don’t inadvertently break any laws. For example, there are laws about how you dispose of chemicals and how you handle personal data.
• Legally required training. This is training a person must have to be allowed to do the job. For example, someone will need appropriate training (and licensing) to drive a truck. 

The larger the company, the more likely compliance and legally required training are effectively handled by HR or some other department. They will often ensure that the organization is up-to-date on the relevant regulations, that appropriate training is given, and that records are kept. In a smaller organization, the onus may be less on HR and more on you. In an ideal world, all you needed to know about compliance would have been covered when you were onboarded to your managerial role. If it wasn’t explained to you, now is the time to find out. When we say now we mean right now. Put down this book and send an email to HR asking for a meeting to go over all the details of the training required for each job in your department.

Learning Strategy

Once you are confident you are on top of required legal and compliance training, you can turn your mind toward training —or more generally learning—to improve productivity. Since this is important to your team’s success, you had better have a strategy.

A strategy is built from:
 

• Understanding what your team needs to learn (we call this “learning needs analysis”)
• Figuring out what learning programs will meet these needs 
• Securing any necessary budget
• Planning how and when the learning programs will be carried out
• Following through on implementing the plan

The strategy can probably be noted down in just a few pages; it’s not the length of the plan that matters, it’s that you’ve put quality thought into creating it. 

Learning Needs Analysis

Identifying the right learning programs for your team should be a collaborative process based on team needs and will depend on the training structure in your organization. The life of a manager in a company with an established Learning & Development (aka L&D) department is very different from the life of a manager in a company with just one HR pro. However, in all cases, the right training for your team will depend on:
 

• What they do and how they do it
• What they need to learn
• How long they have to learn it
• Best practices designed to enhance retention

You will probably have a pretty good sense of those four points and if you collaborate with HR or your L&D function, then you will be able to clearly define learning priorities for each employee. 

Finding or Developing Learning Programs

While you can take a pass at developing training yourself, if you truly want it to be successful and help drive team goals, it is highly recommended that you work with a professional: either a consultant or an expert within your own organization. This person should be someone who can help deliver the compliant, branded, engaging learning content you need. (Help is on the way!) It should be noted that HR/Leadership may have some specific training available from their division. If you have a Learning and Development (L&D) division, you can work with them to create or buy the learning resources you desire. (Aren’t you lucky?!) Smaller companies may not have an L&D division established, but will likely have someone on point who is specifically assigned to handle training development and implementation. Work with this person to help you craft or buy meaningful learning programs for your team.

So, now your biggest task is to clearly communicate your team’s needs to the point person for training. Think about what your team members need to be able to do better or more consistently.

Communicating clearly is also critical to ensuring that you get the end results you want. Your training professional is not a mind reader and cannot be clear on what you need unless you clarify it. Don’t worry, this won’t be hard. They’ll  ask for the information they need. You just need to make time for them. They will want you to:
 

• Articulate your desired end goals clearly
• Clarify how work performance should change 
• Explain how you will evaluate outcomes

Remember too that your HR or L&D pro will be an expert in learning, but not in the particular topic you want to teach. You’ll have to put them in touch with experts on the subject. (Maybe that’s you!?) There are amazing learning resources available in the world. If you are very clear about what you need, then your L&D specialist will be in a good position to buy, adapt, or create exactly what you need. Focus on what your team needs to change, and let your L&D specialist focus on how to get there.

Feedback Will Ensure Continuous Improvement

As learning programs are being developed or piloted you will need to provide early feedback to your learning specialist. Your feedback will allow them to adjust course as needed before getting too far in the process. Be sure that your feedback is clear and honest! Do not agree to or create training that is off-topic or otherwise “missing the mark” on what your team must be able to learn or do.

There is a pot of gold at the end of all this work. For starters, a well-trained team will be remarkably more productive. From your team’s perspective, the opportunity to learn and grow is something they will value. Strengthening and expanding their knowledge can boost your team members towards their career goals.

Learning programs will demonstrate that you care about their development, which can help create greater loyalty to the company and your team. 

What is Your Responsibility for Training to Improve Productivity?

You are the individual who is most responsible for helping your employees develop their skills. Yes, HR cares a lot about this. Yes, your manager will also care. However, you know your employees better than anyone else. Furthermore, your performance depends on their performance. It is very much in your interest to have a team that is continuously learning. You should be constantly on the lookout for any opportunity to help and encourage your employees to learn. Sometimes it is formal training, sometimes it’s working with a peer, and sometimes it’s direct help from you.

One of the most important parts of this responsibility is that you have to carve out time for employees to participate in learning programs. If you cannot make this happen, then there is no point having a learning strategy at all. 

Learning Agility and the Growth Mindset

A person who is learning agile has more lessons, more tools, and more solutions to draw on when faced with new business challenges. You can see how this is different from just sending people to a bunch of courses. You want your employees to be enthusiastic learners. You want them to actively seek out opportunities to learn. That enthusiasm will flow from your own attitudes. If your team sees that you support learning, if you applaud people who try out new things, and if you show that you are constantly learning yourself, then you’ll build a team culture that naturally has learning agility. 

Important research on an attitude called “The Growth Mindset” underlies the concept of learning agility. The research is discussed in Stanford professor Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dweck explains that some people have a “fixed mindset” when it comes to skills. They might think “I’m good at math” or “I’m bad at public speaking” and see that as a fixed trait. If it’s fixed, then there is not much point in trying to get better. With a growth mindset, people believe they can always get better.

The research shows that a growth mindset leads to better results. A fixed mindset discourages people who need improvement in a skill from trying to get better (“Oh, I’m just no good at giving presentations so why bother; get someone else to do it”). Strangely, it can also prevent people who excel at a skill from getting better as fast as they should. One reason this occurs is that they don’t feel they need to try hard.

Note that the growth mindset doesn’t mean everyone can be a superstar. There are innate differences in ability. However, everyone can improve, and they can improve to a surprising extent. For most of the tasks people need to do in business, you don’t need to be a superstar—you just need to be competent. Now let’s bring this back to your own attitudes. Do  you believe in each of your employees’ potential to learn? Do you think their skill level is fixed or  do you think it can get much better? If you believe in them, then it will help them believe in themselves. You’ll be pleased with the results.

This article is an excerpt from HR.com’s book, “HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers,” which is part of the reading material for the course, HR for Non HR Managers. This course was developed to enhance a manager’s partnership with HR, improve team performance and avoid headaches in complying with national, regional, and local labor laws, or as we like to put it, “the stuff that your HR department wishes you knew or wishes you were doing as a manager.”
 

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