Tag: Training

Writing Training Evaluation Report

We pilot test training, don’t we? Isn’t an evaluation study or a needs analysis just as important to our success? Get your research team, your department’s two biggest nitpickers and the coordinator from your client department together and do a dress rehearsal.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

Only during a dry run will you find out that your findings aren’t as crystal clear as you thought or that “MBO” or “TA” or “Behavior Mod” are taboo words in the client organization while “goal setting,” “interpersonal communication” and “performance management” are not. You’ll also get a test of the sell-power of your presentation from the client rep. Continue reading →

Training on Communication and Presentation Skills

Most results presentations follow the rule of tradition: We do what we’ve seen others do and hope it works. If our organization traditionally writes 200-page reports, we write 200-page reports. If most presentations are verbal, to small groups, we follow this organizational family formula as well. In reality, a two-day presentation and a 200-page report may be too little for some groups and studies; a two-hour presentation and a 20-page report too much for other circumstances.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

The trick is to tailor. If your report is to be made to six people, find out as much as you can about the communication and organizational needs of those six people. What issues are sensitive to them? What vested interests do they have that relate to your study? What are their communication styles? What outcomes do they expect, and what unexpected results might be rejected out of hand? Continue reading →

Developing Training Task Force – Training for Trainers

A training task force (TTF) consists of one or more employees who follow an organized plan for drafting training material, usually of a technical nature, that is obviously beyond the capability of in-house program developers. The desired training material is usually ex¬pected to meet a tight target date, be accurate and have credibility.

If managed according to the guidelines set forth in this article, a training task force can accomplish all these objectives. In return, TTF team members receive invaluable exposure to top-level management, thus facilitating their career development. Allstate’s training department frequently uses training task forces be-cause of its large, decentralized structure and because of its high quality standards. Continue reading →

How to Conduct Training Evaluation

We recently asked a number of HRD research consultants, evaluation specialists and communication experts to share some words of wisdom on two key show-and-tell questions: “What is the best way to present research results to management?” and “Is there any special knack to presenting bad news outcomes?”

As you would expect of a question containing the phrase, “What is the best way to…,” we received a lot of “it depends” answers. The most frequent “it depends” we heard revolved around the issues of purpose and audience. Continue reading →

Training from the Trainees’ Point of View

Gypsy trade is the picturesque term given to businesses with inherently high employee turn over. Restaurant employees, whose average national turnover exceeds 200 percent, typify this phenomenon. Speed’s Koffee Shops, Inc., recognized this problem and decided to re-examine its training program and adjust it to the vagaries of a classic gypsy trade.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

They launched their project with a five-question form, to be completed by all employees and returned to their immediate supervisors. Out of more than 400 employees, a gratifying 92 percent obliged. And their responses went a long way toward educating management in its areas of strength and weakness. Continue reading →

Training Evaluation on Behavior Modelling

How to set up, run and evaluate a training program based on behavior modeling principles. At St. Luke’s Hospital Center, 108 supervisors have improved their skills, thanks to behavior modeling. The program is so successful that some of us have spent our va¬cations offering the technique at other organizations. Employees of an international insurance company, a multinational shipping firm and more than 20 health care institutions have benefited from our classes alone, and dozens of large and small consulting firms now offer supervisory training that utilizes behavior modeling techniques. Continue reading →