Why Learning is Critical for Trainers?
The training and development of employees is crucial to any organisation’s performance. For businesses, the aim is to gain a competitive advantage. For other organisations you’ll want to improve how you work or obtain better outcomes. Ultimately, all organistions are looking to optimise their human resources by honing the skills of their workforce.
Training is, therefore, a huge responsibility and needs motivated and skillful individuals to handle it. While there are many opinions on the efficacy of some training programs, few doubt the necessity of really good, targeted training.
Training employees is a challenging job though, and whether you’re an independent trainer or employed with a corporation, trainers and training managers are expected to have a ton of qualities for the training to be a success.
In 2018 I have invested 1200 hours in online learning, 300 hours in Class Room Learning from Experts and attended 108 Seminars and Knowledge Sharing Session.
In 2019 so far I have invested in 1400 hours in online learning, 360 hours in Class Room Learning from Experts and attended 116 Seminars and Knowledge Sharing Session.
Its very important to be a learner myself and understand what is expected of me.
A deep and thorough understanding of the business or organisation you are part of is among the greatest assets that you as a training manager can possess. A good rule of thumb is whether you can articulate both what your company does and how it does it in a few simple, concise sentences.
Other key areas to be on top of are:
How your product is bought, sold, and delivered to customers.
Why your product exists, and what problem it solves.
How your broader industry operates, the pressures it has, and how it makes money.
An awareness of the competition and new trends in your line of business
The aim of most corporate training is to maximise company resources and build an efficient and productive workforce. This is only possible when you are aware of the skillsets that your workforce requires. Detailed knowledge of your business or operation is, therefore, necessary when designing and evaluating training activities that will help your direct reports achieve your organisation’s strategic goals.
Awareness of how the training needs of your employees is critical to developing your team. Professional trainers are expected to conduct a thorough training needs analysis before undertaking a training assignment, and as a manager, you’ll need to as well. This process will help you determine two things – what needs to be learned by your team, and how to prioritise the learning. Don’t get fixated on the process though! What truly sets a good training manager apart is her ability to read between the lines and zero in on the essence of a problem.
A good manager will understand that faltering productivity is just a symptom. The real problem could be anything — an inability to focus, a distracting environment, confusing directions form the team manager, technological challenges, or something else.
Real life is always more complicated, and part of your challenge as a manager focused on the true training needs of your team will mean you’ll need to peel away layers of confusion to get to the heart of the problem. Don’t settle for surface solutions – doing so will just demoralise your team and prevent discovery and diagnosis of the true problem.
Assessment of training needs is going to require a lot of interaction and input with a department or employees direct management as well – don’t forget to incorporate them into the process. Developing and publishing your training assessment process is really key as well so everyone can understand how it works, and in some cases even self assess.
