Focus Magazine - Summer 2013 - 20

FEATURESTORY

Building a World-Class
Training Organization
I By George Schmidt

T

Establish a
formal link into
the business at
all levels, with the
intent of becoming a
strategic partner.

20

oyota. Apple. Wal-Mart. These names
evoke images of world-class quality,
innovation and supply chain
management, respectively. The often-overused
term “world-class,” by definition, means that
only a few companies can actually achieve this
status. However, simply by setting the
aspirational goal of creating a world-class
training organization, companies can take
advantage of the tangible and valuable benefits
that come with world-class designation.
First, let’s define world-class training as being
industry-leading, looked to as an example from
other industries and known to be a significant
strength for a company. A training organization
can be world-class, and a world-class training
organization can have a tremendous impact on a
company’s performance. Beyond the impact on
employee morale, retention and recruitment, a
study conducted by The American Society for
Training and Development has shown that
having a world-class training organization
correlates with a higher total shareholder return.
Finally and importantly, by effectively training

employees and diligently tracking the training, a
world-class training organization can also reduce
risk, which is critical in today’s compliance
environment.

Best Practices for World-Class
Training Organizations
The first best practice for creating a worldclass training organization is to establish a
formal link into the business at all levels, with
the intent of becoming a strategic partner.
Without a clear understanding of the business
objectives, the training organization may place
its focus on more general training and skills that
will not add significant value to the company.
When deciding how to use scarce resources, it is
better to focus on specific training that will help
people perform the critical aspects of their jobs
in support of strategic business objectives than to
focus on more general, unrelated training.
Second, it is necessary for the training
organization to come to an agreement with
company leaders as to what success looks like in
order to create metrics and accountability to
drive that success. Return on investment in
training is very difficult to prove, but aligning
measurement of training outcomes to business
objectives is a useful way to put a yardstick to the
activities of the training department.
At a practical level, applying Kirkpatrick's
Four-Level Training Evaluation Model—
reaction, learning, behavior, and result—is a
tried-and-true method of evaluation. The key is
to get buy-in from the company leaders upfront,
so that when they see the results, there is a
mutual understanding of what “good” looks like.
A third best practice for enabling world-class
training is to use assessments as the basis of
learning paths. This lays the foundation for
individualized learning. Training organizations
need to begin by measuring the knowledge, skill
FOCUS | SUMMER 2013 | www.spbt.org
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Focus Magazine - Summer 2013

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