6 Common Circumstances When Training Is Not the Answer

If you as a trainer have ever faced a classroom full of “prisoners” whose attendance was mandated by their manager, you know the frustration of trying to fix a performance problem that is not yours to fix. There are indeed many times when training is not the answer.

There are many other reasons why employees do not perform at the level needed for the organization to succeed. The only way you can determine what is causing the problem is to conduct a thorough training needs assessment. Before you prescribe a “fix,” you and your management team need to determine the root cause.

Here are 6 possible causes of poor performance that do not include a lack of knowledge or skills:

1. Unclear strategy.  Training cannot compensate for ambiguity.
2. Unaligned organizational culture. This could involve a need to transform the performance environment to match your strategy.
3. Mismatched Talent.  If you talent does not match your talent strategy, organizational culture or business strategy, training is not the answer.
4. Insufficient resources, systems, processes or support. This is management’s responsibility and involves taking a change management approach, not a learning initiative.
5. Ineffective management. This may require training and re-alignment of managers and management systems, not employees.
6. Lack of appropriate incentives or consequences. This requires a close look at the systems in place to monitor compensate employees.

Before you initiate training per se, carefully evaluate the reasons employees are not able to do a specific task at the point of work and make sure that your approach fits the challenge at hand.