Corporate Training need to analyze carefully which shortfalls and opportunities

Corporate Training

What’s wrong with asking employees and managers what Corporate Training they want? Nothing, if it is informed by the right mind set. With this tick the box approach, the training department may look as if it is satisfying real needs. But when push comes to shove and managers are badgering their staffs to meet deadlines and serve customers, that course that looked interesting on paper is just no longer a priority. Even with a lovingly prepared training calendar and a slickly presented course handbook, the end result is, more often than not, practitioners complaining bitterly that hardly anyone turned up.

Your organization will most likely experience some deficiencies in all three capabilities. These are the gaps between the capabilities it needs to achieve its objectives and what it currently has. Your job in conducting a Corporate Training is to find out the gaps in its people capability. These are the shortfalls in the knowledge, attitude and skills of your employees.

The trick here is to avoid proposing a training solution where the gap is not a lack of knowledge, attitude and skills. Be wary of managers that see every problem, including employee lethargy, resource deficiencies and unclear processes and responsibilities as being solvable with Corporate Training. Sure, training may be a necessary part of the solution, but conducting the training without dealing with the root cause will not take you or your organization very far. Not every problem can be solved by training, and in your TNA you will need to analyze carefully which shortfalls and opportunities can be helped by training and which cannot.

The second key point to keep uppermost in mind when conducting your Corporate Training Needs Analysis is that if your training solutions are to have maximum impact, you will need to focus on shortfalls in employee behaviors. As you conduct your analysis, continually ask managers what they need their employees to be able to do in order to achieve the desired objectives.

Novice practitioners easily get caught in the trap of asking what people need to know. But knowing in theory what it takes to calm an angry customer is not the same as actually being able to do so in the heat of the moment. Focus on skill deficiencies, not just knowledge gaps. Sure, underpinning knowledge is essential, as is having the appropriate attitude. But it’s what employees can do with the right Corporate Training knowledge and attitudes that count.