Training Not Always the Answer to Every Business Problem

You recently concluded a training program for a group of your employees and are unhappy with the results. The training just didn't work!

What happened? Poor training? Trainees didn't know how to apply what they learned? Maybe training wasn't the answer to begin with.

A director of training was told by the CEO to revise and update all "new product" training because sales of new products were not meeting project goals. Confident that training was not a primary factor, the director of training made discreet inquiries among the sales force. It quickly became evident that the problem was not poor or inadequate training but rather a compensation problem.

The company was found on an original product that paid a 25 per cent commission. All subsequent "new products" paid a 12 per cent commission. When informed of the situation, the CEO immediately equalized all commissions at 12 per cent. What happened? You guessed it. "New product" sales took off and started to meet projections.

"New product" training programs were not revised, nor was the sales force recycled through refresher training. The sales force knew how to sell the new products but just didn't have the proper incentive. Revising the "new product" training programs would not have solved the business problem, because the solution, an equitable commission structure, was an operations solution. In this case, training was not the answer.

This situation occurs too often. If the director of training had simply revised the training, he or she would not have been doing a professionally responsible job. More importantly, it would have been a waste of valuable training dollars, i.e., the expenses involved in the time it would take to make revisions, the production of new training materials, the salaries of participants sitting through retraining, etc.

Training dollars are too scarce to be frittered away on programs and courses that might not pay off. Instead of being quick to assume that training is the solution to a given business problem, thoughtful analysis of the problem is required. The analysis of the "new product" sales dilemma described above only took a couple of hours.

Before jumping to conclusions about the need for training, consider asking the following types of questions:

• Could employees really do "X" if their lives depended on it? Do they really know how to do "X" but choose not to so for some reason?
• Could using a job aid solve the problem?
• Is the problem the result of an existing policy or procedure?
• Are existing standards reasonable?
• Would improved communications and/or coordination solve the problem?
• Are the right people in the right jobs?
• Are the employees motivated?
• Do individuals have the appropriate resources such as work stations, software, supplies, etc.?
• Are employees committed to their jobs?

Training is not always the answer to business and performance problems. Because employees don't perform the way we would like them to, we frequently conclude that they don't know how. That is not necessarily the case. As the preceding illustration points out, employees may be prevented from optimal performance because of outdated or inefficient business practices, policies, or standards.

Answering the above questions through an upfront analysis will help you decide if training is the solution. Surprisingly, however, many CEOs are reluctant to expend the effort on this front-end analysis. While obtaining answers will involve some time and resources, those expenditures are worthwhile if they prevent the needless spending of thousands of dollars on training that is not the right intervention.