Training plans for employees Benefits and objectives and steps to make a training plan
Here we will share the information about Training plans for employees Benefits and objectives and steps to make a training plan.
An employee training plan is a company’s internal training system. It consists of many interdependent parts, such as a weaknesses and needs analysis, performance evaluations , specific programs and curricula. However, everything points to the same goal: training employees to improve their performance. In this way, the company increases its efficiency, productivity and innovation potential.
Benefits of a good Training plans for employees
But what advantages does an employee training plan bring to a company? Below, we point out the most relevant ones:
- Promotes internal talent . That is, we can train the people we already have prepared within the company.
- Employee satisfaction increases , since they feel better prepared for their job.
- Allows the creation of interdisciplinary profiles . Not specialists. We can find internal talent that could move and fit into various jobs or departments. In this case, if a position disappears, it helps us relocate it.
- They help detect obsolete tasks that reduce productivity . Because whenever something is done in one way, it does not have to be the most productive. With this plan we can realize these weaknesses and improve.
- It improves the corporate and brand image , since it is a social benefit for employees and speaks volumes that they take care of their staff.
- Increases the overall performance of the company . Better trained people equals increased productivity, that is, increased profitability.
Objectives of a Training plans for employees in the company
The main objective of an internal training plan is to promote the professional development, innovation and recycling of the workers who make up your workforce and thereby improve the professional development of employees in the company.
Training is an investment in companies because:
- Companies need innovation, which implies more knowledge, which generates a greater need for training.
- Furthermore, training makes you stand out from the rest and provides added value to the activity in a competitive market.
- The company benefits by creating perfect employees for each position, as it has the opportunity to design the training plan tailored to its demands.
What is the difference between Training and Development
Investing in corporate education is essential for companies, but what few people know is that there are two specific formats and moments for this training to take place. This is precisely one of the differences between training and development.
Although these synonyms are often used to describe an activity or action, there is a difference between qualification and training, and knowing the correct definition of these concepts can help you to develop a good professional qualification plan in your company.
Training
When we talk about employee training, we are talking about training someone in order to improve what they already know, that is, improving their skills, around a position.
When a position is assumed by an employee, it is necessary that he be trained to assume the responsibilities and difficulties that involve that position. The training will teach them new and better ways to reach the goals.
Training aims not only at achieving goals, but also at decreasing a person’s chances of making mistakes.
For a salesperson, for example, training would be linked to the use of sales techniques , customer service, negotiation, among other topics related to that activity in the company.
Development
The first point to clarify about professional development is that this method is also known as professional training. In this case, both are synonymous, and refer to the same techniques used by HR.
Personnel development is a method that refers to the individual’s growth process, that is, it is related to the improvement of the person’s knowledge and skills, without being directly linked to an activity or process.
It is the ability to accumulate knowledge and information that can effectively improve the performance of an employee in their role, thus, this method offers continuous improvement.
Development is more focused on the professional’s future, it is a continuous learning strategy that promotes transformations and improvement in the medium and long term. This process can be focused either on an individual contributor or for teams.
To make it easier to understand the main differences between training and development, check out the table below:
| Training | Development |
|---|---|
| Short term | Long term |
| Focus on improving a process or performing tasks | Focus on the person’s growth through the CHA: Knowledge, Skill and Attitude |
| punctual improvement action | continuous improvement action |
| Passive learning, in which the individual only receives knowledge of the applied practice | Active learning, in which the individual is the protagonist of their development. |
| Instructions are put into practice | It requires time to incorporate and learn the techniques |
Example of how to make Training plans for employees
Now that we know what an organizational training plan consists of and its many advantages, let’s look at the steps we must follow to prepare it:
Step 1. Analyze the current situation
The first step before proposing the training plan is to diagnose the business situation and, from there, define the training needs of the employees.
The skills that are most useful for the company and that allow it to gain productivity and competitiveness in the market must be identified. We must follow the organization’s strategy and see how we can empower employees to achieve compliance and follow the same line.
Step 2. Performance evaluation
Secondly, to analyze the skills of employees, a performance evaluation must be carried out , which consists of easily detecting the team’s weaknesses and using these indicators to set the objectives we want to achieve. There are different types of performance evaluation:
- By a supervisor
- Among partners
- On the part of the employee
- Self appraisal
- On the client’s side
- 360º evaluation
- Automated evaluation
Step 3. Choose a target audience
Once we have the performance evaluation, we must analyze which people or groups in the company need these skills to choose them to carry out training actions. It is important to choose a training audience. To do this you have to:
- Be clear about what you want to achieve with the training , what capabilities you want to work on with each team.
- Enhance the capabilities that will bring more benefits to the company in the medium and long term
- Based on the professional profile that you want to enhance, delimit a series of professionals who can take advantage of the training 100%, as well as apply it to their day-to-day work within the work day.
Step 4. Introduction
In this section, the suggested data from the following sources will be presented:
- Company strategic plan: Where does the company want to go? What is the mission?
- External or internal document analysis of the company
- Information from interviews with managers: We will see where the training actions go
- Study of the work environment : If the work environment is not good, perhaps the training will have to be sold in a different way so that it is something positive for employees and improve the work environment. We look for training actions with a good environment and for people to improve.
The meaning of this introduction is the presentation of the information that we have taken into account, the meaning that the training plan has within the company’s policy and the problems that these training actions try to correct.
Step 5. Training policy
Many times we leave aside that people can decide for themselves if they can access, if they stop attending, what their obligations are, what their use is, etc. We will have to see if they are taking advantage of it and whether the employee has a responsibility.
In this sense, it is essential that in each of the annual plans and in the multi-annual plan the definition of the Training Policy that the company has adopted appears to make it possible to remember what shaping principles determine the training actions. That is, make things clear from the beginning.
Step 6. Training objectives
In the employee training plan we must also indicate what objectives we intend to cover with these programs and actions. That is, a global objective that must be linked to the company’s strategy.
The objectives ordered by priority will be different each year, having objectives that require different plans for their fulfillment and there being others that conclude within a year. These might be:
- Acquisition of knowledge: Concepts, principles or facts that must be acquired.
- Skill development: Skills that must be mastered.
- Acquisition of attitudes: Behaviors that must be generated and/or developed.
Some examples would be the following:
- Fill the gaps of workers in their jobs
- Enhance “dormant” skills in workers
- Improve the personal and professional satisfaction of each worker
- Create versatile workers with different skills
- Get more productive teams
- Staff trained and adapted to the needs of the market
- Better company image and talent retention
- Competitive advantage for the company
- Increase company profitability
Step 7. Analysis of training needs by organizational units
In this section a matrix of final needs must be filled out. This matrix has to be double-entry, having the organizational units on one axis and, on the other axis, the training programs.
This matrix not only covers the explanation of our needs study/diagnosis process, but also reflects each organizational unit where the training action will focus during the year.
Step 8. Training programs
The basic structure of a training plan for employees corresponds to training programs. These are different plots that collect various actions that reflect the same learning process.
For example, a safety program could include firefighting, safety and hygiene, industrial hygiene, and ergonomics actions. Not everyone may need every action. It all depends on the profile and your role in the company. We have to see what the distribution of each action will be like within the program and who does them.
Each of the programs will be developed in the plan according to the following model:
- Generic objective of the program
- Contained actions
- Management data: Number of students, courses, training hours and budget broken down for each action
- Average cost of student/hour of training.
There are many types of programs. The most common employee training programs are:
- Income
- Improvement
- Recycling
- Polyvalence
- Administrative management
- Computing
- Languages
- Security
- Management Development
- Relationships
Step 9. Provisional training budget
In any planning of an activity, the budgeted provision must be highlighted . In the case of training, it is appropriate to verify a table/summary of the budget where it is broken down by training programs and the training effort is recorded by directorates, organizational units and job levels.
The use of the budget to denote the training effort must be mediated by the average value of an hour of training, since an hour of training in a senior management course has a different value than the hour in an electronics course.
Step 10. Training actions
In every employee training plan, it is necessary to specify each program in each of the training actions. So that the person who has a training plan and wants to know a training action has a sheet/guide of the training process.
In this sense, each action must consist of:
- Qualification
- Objective to achieve
- Action component
- Type of methodology
- Modular programming
- Management data
- Destined seats
Step 11. Action calendar
We reach the last steps. At this stage we have to see the fulfillment date forecasts. These must be inserted into the employee training plan. Forecasts should not be very specific estimates due to their execution difficulties.
Step 12. Training evaluation systems
Finally, the employee training plan itself must include the systems that we establish to evaluate its results, committing ourselves to its implementation through the various evaluation reports. These systems must include three types of evaluation:
- Management . Measure the degree to which it has been executed correctly (classrooms, communications, attendance, etc.).
- Efficiency . Measure both the good level of reaction of the participants in the training actions and the consolidation of learning and its transfer to the workplace
- Profitability . The big objective, the ROI (Investment in training vs. profit obtained).
