Building an Effective Employee Training Program
Never forget! Your company is only as strong as the foundation is strong enough to build on. Building an effective employee training program is the best way to invest in the growth of your employees, as well as strengthen your organization’s success. Development and training programs also reduce staff turnover rates, resulting in a win-win situation. So, how do you go about designing your training program? What factors do you need to take into consideration? Who is going to run the process? Take a look at the hints below on how to build your staffing firm training program.
Define Your Needs
As Albert Einstein stated, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”. That being said, before you start spending time on how to build your staffing firm training program, you need to understand and define the needs you have. Are you looking to improve the performance of your sales team? Do you want to train your newly hired recruiters on how to locate and submit the best talent? Are you trying to increase employee retention? Understanding the scope of your needs is going to help you create and lay out a pertinent plan that focuses on developing the necessary skills your staff needs in order to be highly effective.
Set Your Goals
Understanding what needs to be cured is essential when you build your staffing firm training program. Something else that is equally important is setting clear goals that allow you to modify your training accordingly. What percentage of employee retention rates do you want to achieve by the end of the program? How is the program going to help your sales and recruiting teams improve their performance? How long is it going to take before you see results? Determine your objectives, or in other words, set the bar beforehand in order to stay on track throughout the lifecycle of the process.
Involve Your Employees
One common mistake to avoid as you build your staffing firm training program is leaving your employees out of the equation. Remember that after all, the purpose of training is to benefit your staff and your organization. Get together with your teams and ask them for thoughts and ideas on what would help them improve their performance. For instance, are there specific areas they feel the program should focus on? What methods do they prefer when it comes to learning? Answers to questions like these will serve as valuable feedback to enrich and adjust your approach.
Select Your Approach
Once you define your needs, you set your goals and you get feedback from your team it is time to choose the approach you are going to follow. Do you have the resources to run the program internally, or do you need to outsource to an experienced company? Are you going to train your employees individually or as a group? If internally, are you going to have experienced staff members train junior employees, or do you plan to rely on external resources like books and the internet? Different development programs cover different needs and deliver different outcomes so be mindful when you choose yours.
Assess Your Success
After you build your staffing firm training program and you put it in effect, you need to evaluate it and measure its success. Even if everything went the way you designed it and all the timelines were met, what really matters is meeting your objectives. This is really important especially when you intend to conduct training on a regular basis. The only way to maximize results is to look into your process and find ways to improve it. Again, remember to ask your employees for input and use it to your advantage. Before you know it, your organization will develop a training culture that is going to boost employee performance and enhance your branding.
Key Takeaways for Building an Effective Employee Training Program:
- Understand and define your company needs in order to address them appropriately
- It is important that your program to have specific goals
- Ask your employees for feedback on areas they want your training program to cover
- Make sure you select the right training program approach for your needs
- Evaluate and measure the success of your program
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.