Organizations are losing around $13.5 million each year (per 1,000 employees) due to ineffective training programs. And many of those training programs are ineffective because they’re never audited or evaluated on a continual basis.
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Here’s why you need to conduct an audit for your training programs today.
Ensure Your Training Programs Match Your Organizational Goals
When you audit your training programs on a regular basis, you’ll learn which programs no longer match your organizational goals, as well as those that never matched those goals in the first place. For example, after an organization revamps its sales strategies and goals, its sales training programs might need to be updated, too, which an audit will help determine.
A routine audit could also determine if new employees consistently have poor performance results after participating in an organization’s onboarding training program, revealing that the onboarding training program isn’t effective or matching organizational goals for new hires.
Guarantee Your Training Programs Are Complying with Industry Standards
Certain industries—such as construction, manufacturing, and healthcare—have compliance and/or safety standards that must always be met, but these standards change all the time. So, conducting regular audits will ensure your organization is always complying with all industry, state, and federal compliance requirements.
Discover Important Gaps in Your Training Programs
When you conduct an audit, you’ll discover whether your programs are missing key components or whether you have training programs that are missing altogether from your L&D goals and initiatives.
For example, one of your leadership development programs could be missing important modules on effective communication, or your L&D initiatives could be missing a leadership development training program altogether.
Gain Insight into Your Learners’ Preferences
As you conduct an audit for your training programs, you’ll learn more about what training programs your learners like to interact with and how.
For example, you might discover that most of your learners like to access their learning content or training programs on their mobile devices. Or, you might discover that some of your courses or training programs have very low enrollment rates, most likely indicating that your learners don’t prefer such learning content or how it’s being delivered.
Essentially, conducting an audit will let you know what types of training programs your learners prefer, as well as how they prefer to engage with them.
Determine the Overall Effectiveness of Your Training Programs
After you conduct an audit of your training programs, you’ll know which programs aren’t consistently yielding a high return on investment. For example, training programs that don’t improve employee performance or engagement, increase organizational revenue, or otherwise benefit your organization aren’t truly effective.
Keep the above information in mind, and in tomorrow’s post, we’ll highlight how you can conduct an audit for your training programs.