Training Industry Quarterly - Winter 2009 - (Page 28) further targeting training. Especially now, learning leaders need to reach out to business leaders, understand company goals and use market research-like techniques such as needs assessments and diagnostics to better understand learning needs. They may also need to collect data through interviews and surveys or other instruments. Armed with this information, learning leaders can then develop “specifications” for what needs to be offered and design courses that will meet the learners’ needs. Fortunately, a recent study shows that training professionals have a lot of respect for this approach. In another 2008 study on “What Makes a Great Training Company?” with nearly 200 training professionals, 81% rated strategic alignment – or designing learning programs to align with business objectives – as “critical” in making a great training company. As Table 2 shows, more rated strategic alignment as “critical” than either content development or delivery. Diagnostics, another market research-like process that identifies the causes of problems, was rated fourth. Table 3 Types of Decisions Supported by Metrics & Reporting Strategic: What training is most needed? Course Offerings: What topics and levels should be offered? Budgeting: Where should we spend our training budget? Operations: Which resources (instructors, tools, times) should be used? Course improvements: Which courses need updates/revisions? Compliance: Are we meeting compliance requirements? 0 20% 70% 63% 51% 47% 46% 45% 40% 60% 80% Percentage of respondents Source: Training Industry, Inc. Table 2 Most Critical Training Process Capabilities Strategic Alignment Content Development Delivery Diagnostics Reporting and Analysis Technology Portfolio Management Administration 0 87% 51% 46% 37% 35% 30% 19% 16% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Marketing Communications Once strategically-aligned courses are developed, however, how good are corporate training departments at getting the right people to take them? Just because you build a course, it does not ensure the right people will come. Training organizations must market and communicate the availability and value of training programs to the right people. Marketing communications are done in many ways, ranging from mass e-mail “blasts” and general Web site publicity to very targeted and individualized messages. Table 4 provides a list of many types of marketing activities in order of “most effective” to “least effective” in garnering participation based on another 2008 study, “Internal Marketing for Corporate Training Departments.” Table 4 Marketing Activities Most Effective in Garnering Participation in Training E-mail Blasts Phone Calls Source: Training Industry, Inc. 76% 71% 66% 64% 61% 48% 46% 46% 46% 46% 39% 25% 0 20% 40% 60% 80% Percentage of respondents Source: Expertus Percentage of respondents Management Recommendations Seminars/ Workshops Webinars Internal Training Site LMS Notices Posters Direct Mail Digital Newsletters Inter-Office Mail Print Newsletters Not only do learning leaders strongly value being strategically aligned, they also seem to be collecting the necessary data to be strategically aligned and make good strategic decisions about what to offer. According to the 2008 study on measuring learning and as shown in Table 3, both strategic and tactical decisions involving which courses to offer were most well-supported by respondents’ metrics and reporting capabilities. The vast majority of learning professionals (70%) felt that strategic decisions on what types of training are most needed were most well-supposed by their data, followed by 63% of respondents who believe they have the data they need to make more tactical decisions on course offerings such as specific topics and levels. This provides indirect evidence that at least some type of needs assessments or market research-like data is being collected and used by most training organizations. 28 Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2009 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
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