Dive Brief:
- Although companies have become very good at professional development training using traditional methods, the training itself is having less impact and relevant, says Stephen Gill, co-owner of Learning2BGreat.com and contributor to the Association for Talent Development blog.
- Moving away from a situational training culture and towards a learning culture means that learning takes place continually, and not just in a few classrooms or events. This can happen naturally through coaching, action-learning, mobile learning and more.
- Gill warns that as long as organizations focus on how many courses that they produce and force on employees, the less productive they become.
Dive Insight:
It's true that many organizations have a learning design team that churns out interactive courses to be delivered by a trainer. However, once the training session is over, the real question is whether employees will actually transfer this knowledge to tasks that make any kind of impact on company objectives.
Bad training can actually harm a company. According to Grovo, the total cost of ineffective training is a staggering $13.5 million annually, per 1,000 employees. On the flip side, when employees are in an environment where they are encouraged to take charge of their own learning to better their performance, the return on investment is much better. Employees feel valued and become more engaged in their roles and the company.
