Training is one of the drivers that a company has to remain competitive in a context marked by the crisis and constant changes. Greater professional flexibility of its employees can only be achieved through the development and strengthening of human resources.
Each company can be considered a real production machine: to obtain the final product it is important that all the pieces are in the right place at the right time.
Employees are the essential components for the correct functioning of this delicate ecosystem, therefore it is important that they feel constantly valued and involved in the reality that surrounds them.
In fact, it is well known that a worker guarantees a better result from the moment he is placed in a serene and encouraging environment. We live in a society in which we are constantly subjected to new stimuli and incentives to learn new concepts.
Precisely for this reason, the importance of staff training should not be underestimated: in addition to satisfying the employee on a psychological level, it allows the company to increase production quality.
THE STAFF TRAINING PROCESS
Staff training, if carried out properly, allows the company to remain competitive in a historical context in which evolution is very rapid and competition, especially in some sectors, is high.
Greater professional flexibility of employees can only be obtained through the development and strengthening of internal human resources and the ability to adapt to technological, cultural and social changes is a characteristic and determining factor.
This is why training is necessary and indispensable, in order to motivate employees to grow, to acquire more skills and to perform their tasks in the best possible way, keeping in mind the objectives to be achieved.
Certainly any type of incentive generates a feeling of satisfaction in the employee and increases the will, not only to improve themselves, but also to get involved to reward, in some way, the trust that the company has placed in them.
TRAINING AS AN INVESTMENT
Let’s find out the main reasons why we can consider staff training an investment for the future:
- Make employees acquire knowledge and skills that will allow them to perform their duties in the best possible way.
- Fill in any gaps due to internal or external changes.
- Create plans for the enhancement and development of talents.
- Reward employees.
- Providing the company with a competitive advantage.
How to plan a training?
For an investment in training to have concrete positive results, it is important that nothing is left to chance. In order not to make mistakes, it is important to create a real training program, without neglecting the following steps:
- Analysis of the internal and external needs of the company
- Design and delivery of the training intervention
- Evaluation of the results obtained
- Review of the process
Needs analysis
Needs analysis is the obligatory starting point for any training intervention. If done well, it reduces the number of errors and saves time and money.
The needs analysis must be a systematic procedure, based on the collection of structured information and must be able to involve all the stakeholders concerned.
Not only business needs but also individual needs should be considered.
The first step is to photograph the current situation of the company: mission, vision, objectives, market and competition trends, organizational structure, data on past training initiatives.
This information can be obtained through tools such as: questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, company documentation, job descriptions, etc.
The second step is to draw up a document in which to highlight the areas for improvement identified and the interventions and tools to be used to make changes to the organization.
The company must decide what is the best way to solve the problems identified by evaluating costs and skills.
The planning and implementation of training interventions
The planning of the interventions is the transposition of the activities proposed in the analysis document. In this phase, the objectives of the training process, the didactic contents, the type of teaching and the techniques to be used, the time required and the evaluation criteria are planned.
During the implementation of the training interventions, the constant monitoring of ongoing activities is of fundamental importance, in order to possibly modify the objectives and didactic interventions that may prove to be inadequate.
Evaluation of the results
To measure the effectiveness of the training intervention, it is necessary to evaluate the results after some time, to verify whether the acquired knowledge has been transformed into “actions” in the workplace.
Review of the process
Evaluation consequently becomes the starting point for subsequent training courses.
Unfortunately, the only check that is usually carried out is that of the course evaluation questionnaire.
To review the training process, however, it is essential to verify the effectiveness of the interventions after a period of time (3 or 6 months), to verify that the desired change has actually occurred.
If the knowledge learned during the course has transformed into working attitudes, if the business climate has improved, productivity and customer satisfaction have increased, it means that the training has achieved the intended results.
If not, it will be necessary to reassess the whole process to understand where the mistakes were made and how to remedy them.
Adequate personnel training therefore represents a goal for the growth of every company reality.