Ask yourself "What needs to be done?" Consider the following factors:

• What are your business goals, both immediately and in the foreseeable future?
  • new products?
  • new service offerings?
  • new markets?
  • new clients?
  • new working practices?
  • new technology?
  • new equipment?
  • new business legislation?
  • new budgetary constraints?
  • sell more?
  • waste less?
  • use fewer people?
  • employ more people?
  • expand the workplace?

  All these changes may create training and development needs. In some cases it may be appropriate to buy-in specific skills, knowledge and experience but in most it is more likely you will wish to train your existing staff to meet your current or future needs.

• What training do your new employees receive on how to do the job, health and safety issues, what they need to know about your organisation and other people working in it etc?
   
  
• Are you meeting your mandatory legal obligations with regard to health and safety ? If not then training is required.
   
  
• What training do your employees feel they need? The appraisal is an excellent source of information for this.
   
  
• What do your customers and suppliers say about your business? Compliments will tell you what needs to be implemented across the organisation and complaints will show you what needs to be changed.
   
  
• What are the current skills and capabilities of your employees and do these match their job descriptions ? You either have to recruit people who can do the job perfectly from day one (a rarity!) or provide training to make up any shortfall.
   
  
• Who is moving into a new job or taking on new responsibilities?
   
  
• Who is under-performing or not reaching his/her targets? Information can be gained from appraisal, self-assessment, peer appraisal, client/customer feedback etc.

Gather all the training and development needs of your team into a training and development plan and prioritise them. Training needs exist where there is a gap between the knowledge, skills and attributes required and those already possessed by your employees.

Training and development needs are often identified at three different levels:

1. Organisational
2. Departmental
3. Individual

• Business strategy

  All training should be tied into helping deliver your strategic objectives. You may consider a SWOT analysis for this: eg

  • S - strengths
  • W - weaknesses
  • O - opportunities
  • T - threats

  Weaknesses can be rectified through training; strengths can be consolidated. Opportunities needs to be balanced against costs (including training costs) and threats can be minimised by identifying areas where training could improve the performance of your employees.

• Importance

  What skills, knowledge and experience are most important for the employees to fulfil their roles now and in the future? Use the job description and person specification to identify what is most essential.

• Priority

  What skills, knowledge and experience are most urgently needed? Consider what is needed to fulfil the basic requirements of the post and what changes, new projects or strategic developments are coming up and when so that account can be taken of the length of time it will take for the employee to be fully competent. Training which is required to comply with statutory legislation such as health and safety will have to take priority over other training needs.

• Dependency

  Are any employees being held up by a lack of simple skills or basic knowledge and understanding? How dependent are their jobs on the skills they lack? Consider also how their lack of skill may impact on other employees' roles.

• Return on effort

  Having considered the above points, think about the likely return on effort for both the individual and the business. Will the time and money invested in the training provide the appropriate rewards (more efficient practices, higher standards of work, compliance with legislation, more fulfilling role, better employee retention etc)? Also think about the consequences of not providing the training.

Decide how you are going to meet the training and development needs that you have identified.

Training at the organisational and departmental levels need to be assessed, taking into account the line management views.

Individual training must be planned with the individuals involved. Individual needs will be identified through the appraisal system, via self-assessment, client/customer feedback or management assessment. Training should be geared towards the outcome desired by the business rather than just what the employee may want. Getting the early involvement and 'buy in' from the people to be trained or developed is an essential part of the process; mandatory or imposed training or development is never as successful as a voluntary and welcomed programme. Your employees know how they learn best and will welcome the chance to participate in the design of their own plan.

You have a multitude of options at your disposal:

• Job training/coaching (sometimes called "sitting with Nellie"): here experience and skill is passed from one employee to another, using the motto:

  'I do it quickly, I do it slow,
  You do it with me,
  Then off you go!'

  ie the tasks are demonstrated slowly by the experienced employee, the learner practices and the experienced employee checks that the learner is performing the task to the required standard before leaving him/her to get on by him/herself.
   
• Reference materials (books, specialist publications, articles, papers): make sure that these are up to date and ruthlessly throw out any that are obsolete.
   
• Internet, intranet and E-learning: there is a vast amount of material available on the internet, some of it very good indeed. Always check the quality though, some of the sites are amateurish and difficult to use.
   
• Shadowing: this is a great way of learning. The learner simply spends time with someone learning how they do things and meeting up with their contacts.
   
• Training courses and workshops: again there are vast numbers of training services, agencies and trainers providing both in-house and external training. In-house courses should be specifically tailored to your needs. Open courses take people from a wide range of backgrounds and so cannot, by definition, be specifically tailored but can be useful where you are wanting to gain a broader perspective on the topics being covered. It is very useful to make a note of how the courses were received by the delegates and whether they worked, this will then act as a reference list for the future.
   
• Colleges, night schools, day release and distance learning packages: a very effective and relatively low cost source of (often) accredited training to national standards. Particularly useful for things like computer skills. Look in your local library or on the Internet for details.
   
• Projects: a superb way of gaining skills. Working on a project team leads to effective knowledge sharing and the honing of existing skills. Best of all are projects that are particularly relevant to the learner's job.
   
• Computer-based training (CBT): there are hundreds, if not thousands, of computer-based training packages, some specific to computer programs and some covering personal and business skills. With such a wide range the quality is variable. Be ruthless with them and throw them out when they become obsolete. The advantage of CBT is that people can work at their own pace, the downside is that it is a lonely business learning all by yourself so encouragement and motivation is needed.
   
• Seminars, exhibitions and conferences: an excellent source of learning and information, they also offer oppportunities for networking and market research. It is useful to set goals when attending these as there is usually so much to see and do that it is easy to get sidetracked.
   
• Job enlargement: when the individual is ready, including additional responsibilities and tasks develops people rapidly. Any of the other methodologies can be used in conjunction with this.
   
• Supplier training: many suppliers of equipment such as office machinery, engineering products, software packages and so on will supply training when asked - after all they are the experts. You could make it part of the contract that they will supply training on delivery.

There is little point in spending time, effort and money on a training and development programme if you can't tell whether it has worked. Here are some of the ways you can measure success:

• improved morale and motivation (and less staff turnover)
• increased productivity (faster output and improved quality)
• increased sales
• increased knowledge transferred to the workplace
• improved customer satisfaction
• increased productivity
• fewer mistakes.

You can now complete your training and development plan . Your decisions are likely to reflect priority, practicality, learning preferences, cost and the likelihood of success with each of the training options described above. Again, do this with the relevant employees so that they are involved in all the stages of planning.

Before starting any training activity, make sure that the learner clearly understands the following:

• what you hope will be gained from it
• what he/she hopes will be gained from it
• how the new skills, knowledge or understanding will help him/her
• how the new skills, knowledge or understanding will help you
• how the new skills, knowledge or understanding will help the organisation
• what the time scales are
• what the performance standards are
• what resources are needed and where to find them
• when you will hold regular feedback sessions
• how the programme will be evaluated and followed up. Where possible have clear and explicit statements regarding standards of expected performance/skills.

Feedback is one of the most effective tools in your management toolkit. This is particularly true in the training and development field. Feedback not only allows you to check on the validity of the programme but it motivates and re-motivates the learner. Feedback will tell you how effective the programme is, what more is needed, how the learner feels he/she is doing, what will be done differently as a result of acquiring the new skills and whether the programme is meeting expectations and requirements. Here is the recipe for a good feedback session:

• Start on a positive note.
• Encourage the employee to talk within the first minute rather than listening to you.
• Don't finish the employee's sentences for him/her.
• Find out what is working and what isn't.
• Check progress against objectives set or outcomes expected.
• Be very specific.
• Give feedback about behaviours and actions rather than value judgements.
• Keep notes.
• End with an action list.
• Make sure the actions happen!

For individual training courses, you may wish to use our training evaluation form which gives you a format to use to check that the training delivered met the needs and objectives of both you and the employee.

Record the training on the employee's training record .

Measure the effectiveness of the training against your criteria and the goals you set in the briefing session. Ensure that acquired knowledge and skills are transferred to the workplace.

This is not a one off exercise. Training and development plans should be reviewed and revised as the employees, your organisation and environment change.

It can be demotivating for employees if training and experience "promised" at their appraisal review is overlooked or not delivered for any reason so check the plan from time to time to ensure that all promises are kept.

• Plan, plan, plan. Time and effort can be saved by careful planning. Careful consideration of not only what is needed but also the best ways of achieving these goals pays real dividends. Some people learn best by reading and figuring things out, others by jumping in at the deep end, others by asking for advice, others by attending formal training courses. It really is 'horses for courses' when it comes to training and development.
   
  
• Make sure that you budget for the likely costs of training and development activity, not just the fees you may have to pay for materials and trainers, but the cost of the time that other people may spend when acting as coach, demonstrator, mentor, librarian or doing the work of the trainee whilst they are away from the workplace.
   
  
• Encourage employees to share their learning with others. At team meetings have a session where people share their new knowledge with the rest of the team. Use the learner as a demonstrator or coach for less experienced members of the team.
   
  
• Link your training to externally accredited and nationally recognised qualifications like NVQ's and Chartered Society memberships. These are seen as hugely valuable by your employees and enhance your reputation as a good employer. Your local TEC and the Chartered Societies are a good source of information for this.
   
  
• Remember that training and development can help you to retain your employees, particularly where it enhances the challenges of a job.
   
  
• Build up a library of learning materials that all of your employees can access easily - books, manuals, journals, papers, reports, case studies, CD ROMs, internet and E-learning sites, video and audiotapes etc. Keep it up to date and throw out anything out of date and obsolete.
   
  
• When choosing an external training provider, check that the training on offer is the most likely to achieve your objectives. Ask that the course be tailored to your business' needs and markets where possible and ask for a reference. Cheapest is not always best.
   
  
• Make sure that your employees can put their learning into practice as quickly and often as possible. Without refining and developing the new skills it is all too easy to slip back into the old ways of doing things.
   
  
• Regular feedback and congratulations sessions will keep the trainee motivated and up to speed: without them the programme will grind to a halt.