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The Four Critical Questions Every Manager Must Ask About Training:

“To train or not to train that is the question”. My Shakespeare reference may be silly but at this time of year in boardrooms and offices all across the country, many are asking this question.. As many businesses begin finalizing their budgets for 2007, the task of determining what will stay and what will go becomes increasingly scrutinized.

In many cases, employee training and education is the first to take the big hit. It is an easy target because when it comes to training someone will eventually say, “we can do it ourselves” or “the new technology will make it easy”. While these two statements may very well be true, a poorly planned training strategy with little or no budget can spell disaster for productivity, result in a minimal return on investment (ROI) and worst of all destroy the morale of your employees.

So in order to maximize your training efforts and get the most out of your budget consider the following items:

  1. Planning and Preparation – Determine your needs for the entire year in all aspects of your business. Ask each department to review if there are any new products, machinery, technology they are purchasing or if there are any new procedures or regulations that may be changing. These may be indications of where training is relevant
  2. Who and How – Find out if the training can be done in house or external help is needed. In either case look for the right environment to train: Classroom, virtual, tutorials, hands-on or a combination of all.
  3. Employee Input – Ask your employees what worked and did not work in the last trainings. This can go a long way in saving time and money.
  4. Budget – Be prepared to support your budget for upper management by detailing the needs of your department. Aim for a larger budget than you need and be prepared to work with a smaller one, hopefully you will end up in the middle.

Remember that effective training starts with a solid budget, the vision to see your business a year in advance and an execution plan. Everyday businesses lose money because they forgot to invest in their people; don’t be one of them!

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