Analyze Training Needs Proactively

08/19/08

HR can’t afford to waste time and money on unnecessary training. Identifying employees who need more training is a perpetual challenge’ however, and these tips can make the job easier. Apply them today to raise quality and productivity, enhance customer service, minimize turnover, and increase the job security of workers whose skills have gotten rusty.

1. Review performance evaluations. Your performance rating system should require supervisors to earmark employees for additional training. Sort those folks’ evaluations according to department, job, and the urgency of the managers’ training comments. Place workers who need training ASAP at the top of the list, and meet with their bosses to discuss their specific shortcomings. Don’t wait for the managers to contact you—their agendas are probably too crammed with other concerns. HR, by contrast, is perfectly suited to take the initiative, schedule appropriate training sessions, and proceed without delay.

2. Monitor production records. Many things can cause quality or productivity to plummet, and training is certainly one of them. Talk with department managers about major declines from the norm to see if training might be a contributing factor.

3. Pay attention to customer surveys and complaints. As with performance ratings and production records, HR should have access to these data, too. Sorting criticisms and complaints by department and job title reveals which sales and service workers needed remedial training yesterday. Their substandard customer relations’ skills have already cost your company sales and goodwill that may be very hard to replace.

In addition to using your own customer surveys, consider hiring a mystery shopper service if your budget permits. These companies can give you detailed information about which people are doing things wrong, where, and how.

HR can also use negative customer feedback to propose training to help supervisors brush up on their hiring techniques. Some managers may lack the requisite interviewing and assessment skills to choose applicants who are both technically and temperamentally suited to work in front-line jobs.

4. Use exit interviews to gather further insights into training. Employees who have quit because of inadequate or incorrect training sometimes vent their frustration in exit interviews. Be thankful when they do. As they head for the door, departing workers can give you excellent first-hand information about how your training may have gone awry. Some common complaints to listen for: poorly trained, inept, or indifferent supervisors; inadequate training facilities or equipment; outdated technology; or a reality gap between the information they received in training and the problems and responsibilities they had to deal with on the job. Look for a consensus in their remarks and take it to heart.

5. Examine managers’ performance too. Don’t confine your needs analysis to lower-level employees only; include members of management as well.

For example, bosses who display symptoms of chronic stress or burnout or whose employees gripe about micromanagement may need to hone their delegation, time management, or communication prowess.

In all these areas, don’t wait for managers to approach you for help. Instead, scan the horizon for areas of concern and offer solutions. That’s how to strengthen the company as well as your job security.