Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2009 - (Page 19) Support Imperative BY DAVID AUSTIN C orporate executives are increasingly aware that in our knowledge-driven economy, significant productivity gains are attainable in the area of human capital. They’re also increasingly scrutinizing the effectiveness of training in helping to realize that productivity. And no wonder. According to the “2007 State of the Industry Report” prepared by the American Society for Training & Development, investment in learning and development initiatives reached $134.39 billion in 2007, an all-time high. Yet whether you’re a glass-half-full or half-empty training professional, estimates on training’s effectiveness suggest from 40% to 80% of training content doesn’t transfer to the worker. That’s significant money and time invested that could be redirected to any number of corporate initiatives, and with increasing financial pressure on most corporations, don’t think executives won't redirect those resources. Although the nature of business, technology and the marketplace has rapidly changed over the past 15 years, training has traveled a linear progression from the bricks and mortar of the classroom to the virtual environment. The problem with slow and steady evolution is that it doesn’t take into account how dramatically the workplace and the people in it have changed, placing training in the position of trying to catch up. Employees today weave and wend through various technology applications that support their jobs and duties, often with little attention to best practices for completing a particular aspect of their job. Jobs are increasingly complex and require significant judgment and domain knowledge. Business processes themselves are often unclear, and simply locating the content and information to support job performance wastes time and money. As organizations seek new ways to cut costs and improve productivity, they will invest in leaders, technologies and programs that focus on support of employee performance and processes. It’s with this in mind that training and learning professionals must consider that the next evolution in enterprise training is to a real-time or just-in-time performance support environment that provides the right flow and amount of information to employees as they are performing their jobs, not just when in training mode. Performance support is about positively impacting employee performance by connecting them to the strategy, tactics, content and procedures they need to accomplish complex tasks at the precise moment they need them; and there could be nothing more in line with training’s mission than that. The Shift Toward Performance Support The real question shouldn’t be “when will this shift take hold,” but rather “who will lead the charge?” In meetings with managers and executives across a wide range of industries, the argument is that training and learning professionals are stuck in the classroom – both from the perspective of classroom delivery of information and from the perspective that the training profession only knows how to create content in a very traditional way. The argument continues that performance sup- Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2009 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 19 http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
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