Training Assessment & Needs Analysis Best Practices Blog

(Part 6) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-11-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

Are You Serious About Getting Results?

If the outcomes are important to you, important to the participants, important to their boss, and important to the company, then you owe it to yourself to do it right.

That means treating your learning initiative as a process, not an event. That means investing in accordance with the results that you desire. That means ensuring that in addition to the 6 steps outlined above, you use an assessment process to also:

Urgency: Create a sense of urgency and creative tension to get people engaged
Kickoff: Initiate the change process and predispose participants to get the ball rolling
Exactness: Customize the training to ensure that it is exactly what you need
Baseline: Set baseline metrics against which to measure improvement
Buy-In: Obtain buy-in right from the start

In ConclusionWhile many assessments on the market today are statistically invalid and often implemented in a way that inhibits trust, decreases relevance, and wastes time, we believe that the assessment process is an invaluable tool to drive true behavior change and positive results.Interviews, focus groups, and best practices can provide interesting data points to help ensure that your training design is on target. They are key elements to a successful solution. However, the assessment process, combined with an individual coaching plan, allows you to provide both the participant and the coach the tools required for sustainable success. So the next time you have an important business issue related to skill or knowledge gaps, be sure you can answer “yes” to the following 6 questions before you jump to or initiate a solution. Only then can you be assured that you are on the right path to the success that you seek.

Does Leadership Agree Upon a Clear Direction?
Are Leaders and Employees Aligned?
Do You Know the Specific Skill Gaps of Your Target Audience?
Do Your Participants Have a Game Plan?
Are Your Coaches Set Up to Succeed?
Are You Serious About Getting Results?

(Part 5) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-10-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Are Your Coaches Set Up to Succeed?

There is an incredible amount of data correlating the value of ongoing performance coaching, training, and behavior change. In a nut shell, if you do not coach your target audience, the majority of them will not change their behavior. Without behavior change, you will not get the performance or business results that you desire. Without the results that you desire, you would be better off buying participants books, saving your money, or going golfing.

Training, by itself, is typically a waste of both time and money.

The same data that is used to provide participants with a game plan should also be used to create a targeted and individualized coaching plan with their supervisor. The amount of involvement and support from the learner’s manager has direct impact upon their success.

In fact a recent study at a Fortune 500 Financial Services comparing a “Coached Group” vs. “Non-Coached Control Group” showed:

20.3% higher overall skill scores for the coached group
5.9% to 65.6% higher individual skill scores for ALL 38 skills
10% net increase in skill levels pre/post compared to control group
3 times the skill improvement attributed directly to their manager
2 times the success story results attributed directly to coaching

Additionally, of the 61 participants who received individual coaching, 9 out of 10 improved their scores in the critical areas measured. Of the 47 participants who did NOT receive coaching, their scores decreased in 9 out of 10 areas measured. This is not a fluke. It has been proven repeatedly that in order to change behavior and performance results you need two things:

Plan & Action: A plan and immediate action to begin applying new skills on the job
Manager Coaching: Involvement and support from the learner’s manager

(Part 4) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-10-19T18:19:00.001-07:00

Do Your Participants Have a Game Plan?

From a participant’s perspective, it seems a little crazy to go into an important training program without a clear game plan. It is hard to improve your performance without knowing where you stand, what is expected of you, and what options you have at your disposal.

Customized profiles are excellent tools to help drive individual performance from the beginning.

(Part 3) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-10-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Do You Know the Specific Skill Gaps of Your Target Audience?

Once you have direction and alignment, it is time to pinpoint individual, group, and company skill gaps against a proven standard.

The skill assessment should be online, take approximately 20 minutes, and be based upon researched and behaviorally-based questions and scenarios that have been agreed upon by your key stakeholders.

The results will give you a clear picture of individual, group, and company:

Strengths / Opportunities
Differences between high and low performers
Barriers to success
Coaching / Development priorities
Customization needs

With this detailed skill gap analysis, you have the data required to both plan and act intelligently. Remember, this is about creating Training RAI™: Relevance.Adoption.Impact™, not about learning for the sake of learning.

(Part 2) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-10-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

Are Leaders and Employees Aligned?

Once you have clear direction and executive alignment, your next step is to get your target and supporting audiences on the same page. This is accomplished by sharing the Leader Assessment results with the target audience and reviewing the 3 skill buckets:

A – “must have”
B – “good to have”
C – “nice to have”

Necessary adjustments that increase focus and buy-in can then be made based upon input, discussion, and analysis. This alignment process is a critical step in achieving any behavior change.

(Part 1) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-09-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Does Leadership Agree Upon a Clear Direction?

While this seems like common sense, we continue to be surprised at how many seemingly experienced learning consultants and practitioners fail to answer two fundamental questions with key stakeholders before designing and implementing learning solutions:

Barrier: What are the skills that are holding us back from achieving our goals?
Focus: Where should we focus our efforts for the greatest impact?

An effective skill assessment should clearly identify the key “money making” skills for your initiative. You need to know the critical few “A,” “B,” and “C” skills and invest your resources and efforts accordingly.

For example, a recent client called us to help significantly increase revenue. This global technology company had seen revenue decrease consistently for the last 8 quarters. With other initiatives in place to focus on product quality, competitive positioning, and service, they wanted to significantly increase the capabilities and performance of their sales team.

After our initial meeting, it was clear that the President, SVP of Sales, VP of Sales, and Senior Account Reps all had different ideas about how to solve the problem based upon their past experiences. We knew that a lack of agreed-upon direction among the leadership team and supporting cast was a death knell for meeting their goal.

To clarify the direction to take, we designed and conducted an online assessment covering 93 key skills related to selling successfully in their industry. 10 specific skill areas and 35 “Must Have” skills rose to the top. The assessment and the accompanying process to align sales executives started the initiative off on the right foot.

Alignment can also occur through interviews and focus groups; however, an assessment backed by (in this case) a research bank of 150+ proven behaviorally-based questions and scenarios provides a data-driven approach to ensure that your project is set up to succeed. A thorough approach also underlines the fact that you and your company are taking the initiative seriously. In this case, perception is indeed reality.

(Intro) Training RAI™ and Raising the Bar through Assessments

2011-09-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

Even in this climate of tightened belts and increased analysis, more than 90% of training initiatives continue to fail.

If that sounds surprising, try to remember the last training session that resulted in measurable and sustainable behavior change. Then try to remember a session that quantifiably impacted revenue, costs, or productivity. Does the fact that the great majority of training initiatives fail still seem so far fetched?

When we ask leaders about behavior change and impact related to training, we typically get a long pause and then a pensive and pained look. Then we usually get a long answer that would make many politicians proud for the lack of clarity and specifics.

Unfortunately, the training bar is still too low. Most people continue to consider training “successful” simply when participants get a few “Aha’s” and feel that it was not a waste of time. We can’t think of another business process that gets less scrutiny or has lower expectations than training. The training bar needs to be raised.

Q3 Poll

To help raise expectations and quality, our recent Q3 Poll highlights 4 critical success levers behind impactful learning initiatives and a positive Training RAI™: Relevance.Adoption.Impact.

Strategic Business Link: An urgent business relevance - 20%
Skill Gap Assessment: The strong understanding of individual skill gaps - 28%
Performance Coaching and Support: The consistent and timely performance coaching of participants by their bosses - 20%
Training Measurement: The impact on the business - 28%
Other - 4%

We define Training RAI™ as a solution with 3 key characteristics.

Relevance: The solution needs to be relevant to the (1) Business, (2) Leadership, (3) Target Audience, and (4) Audience Supervisors. Without relevance, you would be better off buying books on the subject – you’ll get the same result.
Adoption: The new skills, knowledge, and behaviors must be consistently adopted. Without on-the-job application, a disconnect will occur between learning objectives (skills and knowledge) and performance objectives (desired results).
Impact: The business impact needs to be measured. Contrary to popular belief, this can be done quickly and easily. Measurement is a key component to driving accountability for execution and providing actionable feedback for follow-on coaching. Read more about training measurement.

In this article, we will tackle one of the major impediments to obtaining a positive Training RAI™: a Lack of Individual Skill Gap Assessments and Coaching Profiles. In our experience over the last 15 years, we have seen that the lack of proper individual training skill assessments and coaching plans causes a disproportionate amount of training failure. The majority of corporate learning initiatives continue to bypass individual skill assessments prior to designing or delivering new training programs. Skipping over the first step of assessing skill gaps is one of the root causes behind the 90%+ failure rate.What if doctors prescribed the same medication and the same dosage to all patients before an individual diagnosis? Training practitioners who continue to sell, buy, and facilitate training with little regard to ensuring that the prescribed solution is the best fit for each participant could similarly be accused of “malpractice.”And even if you have diagnosed correctly, each participant has different strengths and weaknesses that need individualized attention before behavior can change and performance be improved. Not many problems get solved without a detailed, carefully considered plan.When asked, most training practitioners mistakenly identify attributes such as participant materials, length of program, location, facilitator personality, content, and instructional design as the culprits behind failed learning. If only it were that easy. Changing behavior is a process, not an event. With the assumption that a clear and thorough business case must precede any individual skill assessment, this article outlines the top 6 assessment questions that you should ask to ensure a successful Training RAI™.

Skill Gaps, Customer Service and the Impact on Profits

2011-03-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

In a recent business & training assessment quarterly poll, a large % of people stated that "ensuring the best customer service talent possible" was keeping them up at night.

A small % increase in customer service performance can boost profits by as much as upwards of 50%. Research has shown that loyal customers lead to greater sales growth.

Read more about some of the best training assessment services, eliminating skill gap practices and make the link between industry leading revenue growth and service...

Your team's strenghts and skill gaps...

2011-03-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

If you manage a team, come performance review time each year, you probably ask yourself the following training needs assessment questions, sometimes while laying awake at night:

• What are the strengths and skill gaps of my team?
• What are the must have skills in order for my team to impact business results?

Search for the Right Training Assessment & Needs Analysis Resource. Right Now.

2010-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Introducing a powerful new Search Tool to help you track down the right Training Assessment & Needs Analysis Resource right now. Search this blog and the vast collection of corporate training communities and related best practice blogs with a single click.

Step 1 - Locate the Search Tool to the right of this post

Step 2 - Type your keyword search phrase. eg. Performance Culture

Step 3 - Click Search

Step 4 - Review the results, sorted by:

This Blog | Sites Linked to this Blog | Recommended Blogs

See illustration below. Enjoy.

Training Assessment Research Study Results

2010-09-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the past 12 months, we conducted an online research study where visitors to our website were anonymously surveyed across an area of topics related driving performance through investments in human capital. In particular, one such survey asked respondents the following question:

What is stopping you from conducting a training assessment & needs analysis as step 1 in your efforts to drive performance through investments in human capital?

From a list of predefined responses, here are the results for your viewing pleasure.

It is too expensive--21%
It is too difficult--34%
We do not need to--9%
We do not know how to--35%
Other--1%

How would you answer the above question regarding training assessment or training measurement best practices?

Training Needs Assessment Best Practice Resources

2010-08-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

From time to time, we like to provide visitors and subscribers to this blog with a refresher on where they can find helpful resources devoted to best practices in the area of Training Needs Assessment, Skills Gap Analysis, and related areas.

We hope you find these resources insightful and relevant:

Enjoy!

Training RAI(TM) - Raising the Bar through Assessments

2010-03-31T06:38:00.000-07:00

Below is an abstract of a white paper highlighting the role and impact of a training needs assessment in any effective employee performance development programs, or the risks of bypassing this critical step in the process.

The majority of learning initiatives continue to bypass individual skill assessments prior to designing or delivering new programs. Skipping over this first step of assessing gaps is one of the root causes driving a nearly 90%+ learning program failure rate.

If that sounds surprising, try to remember the last training session that resulted in measurable and sustainable behavior change. Then try to remember a session that quantifiably impacted revenue, costs, or productivity. Does the fact that the great majority of training initiatives fail still seem so far fetched?

When we ask leaders about behavior change and impact related to training, we typically get a long pause and then a pensive and pained look. Then we usually get a long answer that would make many politicians proud for the lack of clarity and specifics.

Unfortunately, the training bar is still too low. Most people continue to consider training “successful” simply when participants get a few “Aha’s” and feel that it was not a waste of time. We can’t think of another business process that gets less scrutiny or has lower expectations than training. The training bar needs to be raised.

Download the complete Training Assessment focused white paper PDF...

Cutting Costs, Saving Time and Producing Results with Focused Needs Assessment

2009-11-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Most corporate training programs are designed to improve 8-12 competencies over a one or two-day period.

This approach works great for training companies looking for mass customization, increased revenues, and high margins.

It does not work out so well however, for clients seeking to manage costs, make training relevant to the business and change critical on-the-job behavior required to make a true business impact.

In our experience, a laser focus on 2-3 core skill or knowledge gaps provides you with the greatest return on your investment.

A concentration on only the most meaningful areas allows you (and your participants) to spend less time and money on training while getting better results. It also enables you to more easily support on-the-job adoption and training business impact - the keys to success.

If you would like to know "What is really holding us back?" and 'Where should we focus?" in order to spend both your time and money more wisely, then...

Learn about training needs assessment best practices that help target what matters most...

Is Your Learning Solution Set Up to Succeed?

2009-05-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Over 50% of executives today are unhappy with the returns from their investments in corporate training.

Accordingly, it is not surprising that in tough economies, learning is often one of the first areas to be questioned or cut. In good or bad times, slashing training that does not have a clear business impact makes a lot of sense to us.

While it seems like common sense to ensure that learning investments are set up to succeed, we continue to be surprised that billions are spent each year on corporate training without any assurance that the money is being spent wisely. This does not mean changing all training to eLearning because you have a travel freeze or because you want to reduce costs. While eLearning can certainly be an effective medium, it means only doing training that makes business sense and setting it up to succeed - regardless of the approach.

Smart organizations make sure that they address ten key training best practice questions before launching any training initiative.

A proper training needs assessment is more than a skill gap analysis. It allows companies to effectively initiate change, align stakeholders, customize solutions, predispose participants, guide employee coaching, set baseline training metrics, target investments, and obtain buy-in.

Starting off on the right foot provides the foundation to save time, money, and reputations.Where do you stand and How do you stack up?

Training Assessments Done Right

2009-04-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Most assessments are not only statistically invalid, but they are often implemented in a way that inhibits trust, decreases relevance, and wastes time.

We believe that the purpose of a training assessment should be to answer the questions: "What is holding us back?" and "Where should we focus?"

We also believe that training assessment should be customized to each unique environment, drive toward outcomes rather than simply seek opinions, and guide strategies by comparing skills to actual performance.

And from a purely practical point of view, we believe as well that assessments should be short, relevant, cost effective, and timely.

In addition to traditional interviews and focus groups, LSA Global offers three proven online training assessment options. With over 600 assessment and training measurement projects over the last 15+ years, we think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the speed, cost, flexibility, and value of these options.

Learn more about 3 Best Practice Training Assessment Options...