Managers and Business Owners Is it time to protect your training investment

April 15, 2011

Training can only bring employees so far and then it is up to management and the employees themselves to reinforce what was learned in training and make it stick long-term. So, how do you know it is time to reinforce so you can protect your investment of time and money? Here are two easy steps:

1) Ask Your Employee to Assess

Ideal Timing – One or Two Weeks after Training

Depending on the skill your employee learned, sometimes asking a few questions can determine if this employee needs some additional reinforcement coaching or training. Here are some examples:

What are one or two things you are doing differently as a result of the training?

The answer you get should be specific to the topics learned in the training. It should mirror the activities or role-plays that the employee completed in the training.

What changes came easy and what changes are more difficult? What are you finding most helpful?

Most adults can change one or two skills or behaviors at a time. If your employee says everything came easy but when you review results (see next set of tips) they are not where you want them to be, you may need to do some reinforcement.

If you think about what you learned in training, what had the most impact on how you do your job?

If your employee cannot come up with something that had a specific impact and this employee had a need to improve in areas covered in the training, you may need to do some coaching and training as reinforcement.

2) Observe Behavior – Review Results – Ideal Timing – 30 to 45 Days after Training

Sales Training

If your employees attended a needs based selling program, they should be closing more sales, achieving a higher cross sell ratio and they should be having rich dialogues with your customers. You can quickly identify if your salespeople are reverting to a transactional approach if their first question or comment to a customer is focused on either the transaction request or a product.

Example – This sales person may need reinforcement training or coaching because the response is too transactional/reactive:

· Customer – I would like to open an account…purchase a couch…sign up for your services…

· Your Sales Person – What account…which couch…which services?

Example – This sales person may not need reinforcement because the first response is focused on the customer and what the customer needs:

· Customer – I would like to open an account…purchase a couch…sign up for your services…

· Your Sales Person – Great. Thank you for coming in. My name is Linda. What is your name? What brought you here today? We have many accounts…couches…services…in order to identify the right solutions for you, do you mind if I ask you some questions?

Customer Service Training

Observe your customer service employees after a customer transaction. Listen to what they say (or mumble). Observe how they hang up the phone. Pay attention to their body language.

What can your observations tell you about the need to reinforce training? Well, if the training focused on how to ensure customer’s expectations are met and exceeded, regardless of how difficult the customer may have been, your employees shouldn’t be complaining about the customer after a transaction, shouldn’t be mumbling ‘what a pain …’ and definitely shouldn’t be slamming down the phone.

If your training focused on the skills of communicating with customers, even when they are angry, your customer service employees shouldn’t look stressed during or after a customer interaction. They should be ready to move on to the next customer. Their body language should always be approachable and their voice calm.

Is it time to protect your investment?

Tags: training assessment, training investment

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