Ineffective training programs cost organizations millions or billions of dollars each year. And some studies have suggested that only 10% of all corporate training is effective at all.
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The truth can be hard for learning and development professionals to swallow, especially when millions of dollars are at stake. But here are four things training programs won’t ever be able to fix.
1. Bad Hires
If your organization doesn’t hire the right people, it won’t matter what type of training initiatives you foster to develop those people—they won’t work. People who don’t fit with the culture of your organization and don’t stand behind its mission won’t be able to learn how to adapt.
For instance, if you have a data-driven culture but hire people who don’t truly value data and what they can inspire, they won’t ever be able to complete the level of work your organization expects or demands, regardless of how much you train them.
Or, if you don’t consistently hire individuals with skills necessary to your marketplace (or who can easily learn those skills), your organization will not be able to remain competitive with others in its industry. And if you consistently hire people who have displayed highly unethical behaviors in the past (i.e., stealing, corporate espionage, etc.), you won’t ever have a reliable staff.
2. Lack of Cohesive Company Culture and Vision and Strong Executive Leadership
While training can help foster and promote a positive and cohesive company culture, the success of a company’s culture and its impact are also heavily dependent on its executive leaders.
Leaders across an organization should be heavily involved in creating and endorsing a company’s culture so that it can retain a cohesive vision. Without a cohesive company culture and vision, it is quite possible that many learning and training initiatives will fail because employees won’t be able to understand their organization’s objectives or purpose, as well as their individual purpose within the context of the greater organization.
3. A Terrible or Poorly Timed Product or Offering
You can always train employees to be better at sales and marketing, and you can train them to make better products in the future. But if you’re currently attempting to inspire your employees to sell or promote a product or service that is poorly timed or executed, your efforts will be thwarted.
For instance, it wouldn’t make sense for an organization to offer “secretarial services” in 2018, and it wouldn’t make sense to sell makeup that is lead-based. A company’s overall structure, business model, and offerings must first make sense within their designated marketplace if training initiatives are to be successful.
4. Poor Planning and a Subpar Gap Analysis
Training programs will always fail if they don’t fill a real and present organizational need or strategy and if they aren’t necessary to the success of an organization. Before any training program is developed, planned, or endorsed across an organization, it is first imperative to complete a comprehensive gap analysis to fully understand what training programs your organization needs in the first place.
And then, once you have determined the necessary training programs your organization needs, it’s critical to have a plan for each of them and to know who will be involved in their development, management, etc.
Keep the four things your training programs won’t ever fix listed above in mind as you consider your current training programs and offerings.