KEY STRATEGIES

FOR TRAINING

TRANSFER

IF IT DOESN’T STICK,

WHAT’S THE POINT?

AN EBOOK

Brought to you by:

Negotiation

skills

IS YOUR TRAINING STICKY ENOUGH? THE KEYS TO TRAINING TRANSFER.

Do the participants in your training program effectively apply what they are supposed to learn

to their day-to-day job performance? This may be the single most fundamental question every

HR and Training professional should ask about current training efforts and programs. If you are

spending valuable resources on employee training, and your employees do not apply what

they learn on the job, why continue wasting those resources? You can find better uses for the

time, energy and money currently being wasted. On the other hand, if you’re like most professionals charged with employee development, education and training, you want to prove

that your efforts are getting the training results you desire (usually improved performance), and

you want to know that your efforts support business goals and objectives.

So – where to start? How about with the baseline effectiveness of your training? Does it stick?

There are generally speaking, three broad phases for training programs or events:

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to these phases as “Pre”, “Event”, and “Post.” There are several stakeholders and important players in each phase, and the ultimate effectiveness of your

training depends upon a complex series of closely interdependent actions, engagements and

decisions across all three phases. For the purposes of this exercise, we will focus on three critical

players to training transfer:

Definition: Training transfer is

effectively and continually

applying on the job what the

trainee learned during training.

Goals of successful training

transfer:

Trainees generalize skills to the

work setting.

Trainees maintain skills in the

work setting.

Training transfer is measured after

participation in a training

program.

Transfer of Training, By Holly Hutchins,

Ph.D., and Lisa A. Burke, Ph.D., SPHR,

SHRM 2008

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Before the event or program (pre-event)

The event or program

After the event or program (post event)

THE TRAINER THE EMPLOYEE THE MANAGER

These charts appear in Making Training Stick: A Training Transfer Field Guide, by Barabra Carnes. The research delved into the impact of

the combination of three time periods (Pre, Event, Post) and three roles (Trainer, Employee and Manager). The book in which the research

first appeared, called Transfer of Training by Mary Broad and John Newstrom, remains one of the leading resources in the field of training

transfer. As you can see, there are nine possible combinations in the matrix. The third column represents the level of disconnect between

impact and usage. The most significant impact is manager/before (-4) and manager/after (-6). Meaning that the impact of these roles in

combination with the corresponding time frame are the least utilized, and therefore represent the greatest opportunities to improve

training transfer.

So, we know which stakeholders can have the greatest impact and when we need their involvement. The question then becomes, how

do we do it?

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CRITICAL PLAYERS TO TRAINING TRANSFER

Power/Impact Use/Frequency Disconnect

PRE

Trainer 2 2 0

Employee 7 8 -1

Manager 1 5 -4

EVENT

Trainer 4 1 3

Employee 5 3 2

Manager 8 6 2

POST

Trainer 9 7 2

Employee 6 4 2

Manager 3 9 -6

1= MOST POWERFUL/IMPACTFUL FOR TRAINING TRANSFER

SOURCE: BARBARA CARNES, MAKING TRAINING STICK

6 best practices for aligning

training to deliver business results:

1. Identify the business objectives

and partner with stakeholders.

2. Understand the business need.

3. Establish goals.

4. Determine the performance

requirements.

5. Align the learning solution.

6. Develop and execute a

measurement plan.

PRE-EVENT

The work we do before a training event carries the most impact in transferring the learning to

improved performance. The manager’s role before training is the most impactful, and the

trainer’s role is second most impactful of the nine possible choices. Before the event, there are

three broad areas of important work that will bear a direct correlation to the ultimate transfer of

the learning objectives as follows:

1. Alignment of the learning objectives and training event to organizational goals and

objectives.

2. The actual design and development of the training content.

3. Marketing of the training to stakeholders – specifically to the affected employees and their

managers.

1. ALIGNMENT

We’ve probably all heard this term used many times in a variety of business and corporate

contexts. It’s one of these “buzz words” that sounds great. And it’s a concept that many people

overanalyze and overthink to the point that it seems hopelessly complicated. Effective alignment of organizational goals to training efforts does not have to be that hard. In fact, it

can be pretty straightforward if you approach the challenge logically and systematically.

Linking of organizational goals with the employees' personal goals requires common

understanding of purposes and goals of the organization, and consistency between every

objective and plan, right down to the incentive offers.

Think about focusing a pair of binoculars. You can set them once, and then move them to look

at a different object. Do they remain focused or “aligned?” No. You have to adjust them.

Organizations have to do the same thing. Make continuous adjustments to keep their learning

programs aligned with organizational goals as conditions change – especially in this rapidly

changing and evolving marketplace. Otherwise, our training programs will remain fixed on an

objective that – just like the out-of-focus binoculars – looked clear once, but doesn’t help us

achieve our goals as conditions evolve.

• Keep it simple.

• Make sure you understand your

organizational goals.

• Work your way down the

organization one level at a time

to see how each level below

supports the goals above.

• Identify training solutions and

eliminate solutions where

training isn’t the answer.

• Design your training starting with

each employee, and take the

program up the organizational

structure until you get back to

the top.

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TIPS FOR

BETTER

ALIGNMENT

Here’s an example of how this can work.

XYZ, Co. has a total of five broad, organizational goals for 2014:

1. Improve network downtime to less than 1% per month.

2. Retain a high percentage of current customers going from 80% to 85%.

3. Increase the average current customer annual spend from $1750.00 to $2000.

4. Add 1000 new customers per month.

5. Reduce turnover from 20% to 18%.

Which of these goals might be supported by employee training? All of them in one way or

another could be training issues. But the way to make sure is to look for areas where underlying

knowledge or skill gaps might make achieving one or two of these goals difficult. Let’s assume

the network performance can be improved by switching to a different web-hosting

environment. Training won’t make a big impact there. So our challenge as training professionals

is to conduct a thorough performance analysis along each of the organizational goals. As part of this analysis, the potentially impacted managers will play a major role as they help you define

the skills, knowledge and performance gaps that need to be filled. With the support and input

from the managers, you can build the type of strong support network you need because the

managers who participate will have helped set the training goals, make decisions about

possible content and will help you define success.

By building on this foundation of manager engagement, you are poised to provide the support

your managers need as they explain the importance, value and expectations around the

upcoming training efforts.

Organizations frequently fail to achieve clear alignment of organizational goals to training

efforts for three reasons. First, they are trying to make a training solution apply to every organizational challenge. Second, they try to take on too many challenges at one time. Third,

organizations fail to identify important metrics and measures of success resulting in possibly

improved performance, but no linkage to the training efforts.

• Choose no more than three

broad training initiatives in

support of organizational goals

at a time.

• Make sure you conduct an

effective performance analysis

before selecting your training

targets to ensure the gaps in

current performance and

desired performance can be

filled by employee training.

• As a part of your performance

analysis, make sure all

stakeholders agree on success

criteria and are committed to

and can gather and report

data and metrics so you can

see actual training results.

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TIPS FOR

BETTER

ALIGNMENT

2. DESIGN

Effective alignment of training to organizational goals requires significant work on the part of

multiple stakeholders, and there is a strong need for the trainer and manager to be heavily

involved. At first glance, it would be easy to say that design is the sole domain of the trainer. It

would be easy, and it would be wrong.

The first thing to bring to mind is what we’ve learned about how adults learn in the workplace. They learn best when they see a clear and direct correlation between what we ask them to

learn and their job performance. They also need immediate opportunities to apply what

they’ve learned or they forget. A great partnership between the trainer and the manager can

positively influence the impact and effectiveness of your training efforts if you get the manager

involved in making the connection for the employee and providing immediate opportunities to

apply new learning on the job.

Since the people who must apply what they learn are your employees, design and build your

training with their needs front and center. In other words, don’t design the training based strictly

upon the organizational goals. Reverse-engineer the training design based upon the

performance gaps you discover at the employee level. For instance, improved sales might be

an organizational goal. The skill gap might be as basic as negotiation. So if you offer strategic sales as a training course, you will not see improvement. Look at the needs of the employees,

train to those needs, and you’re much more likely to get real results.

We are seeing more and more great information being published about improved learning

results and training transfer from shorter learning events. People are not as motivated as you’d

think to sit in an all-day class or go through a 3-4 hour eLearning course. Outside of work, we live

in a sound bite world where we can get information we want, on-demand, in short bursts or

segments. Think YouTube. It makes sense to build your training efforts along these same lines.

Keep the session short, and make as much use of online video training as you can.

• Make sure managers are

involved with both

communications to employees

about the connection between

assigned training and job

performance, with providing

opportunities for employees to

immediately apply what they

learn immediately after training

sessions.

• Reverse engineer the content.

• Keep each session as short as

you can and try to incorporate

video (think blended learning).

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TIPS FOR

BETTER

DESIGN

THE ADDIE MODEL: Analyze – analyze learner characteristics, task to be learned, etc. Design – develop learning objectives, choose an instructional approach.

Develop – create instructional or training materials.

Implement – deliver or distribute the instructional materials.

Evaluate – make sure the materials achieved the desired goals.

3. MARKETING

Marketing? Really? Yes , you have to engage in good old-fashioned marketing.

Marketing can be broadly defined as creating a value proposition for a targeted consumer

that prompts an eventual purchase. Now, let’s apply that definition to your training. You want

to help employees see how the training will help them perform better, explain what they can

expect in terms of time and inconvenience, and find ways to get as many targeted employees as possible to participate.

Which leads to a very important point. You need to target your message to the specific

employees who will go through the training. Sales professionals will need a different value

statement than your HR team or tech support team. Don’t get caught up in a “one-size-fits-all”

communications plan. If you want to reach everyone, everyone needs their own message!

You need to develop a plan to market and communicate your training program. Your plan

should include things like e-mail campaigns, newsletter articles, bulletin board posters, hand

bills, etc. In other words, figure out how your employees CURRENTLY learn about important

initiatives, and use the same communication channels, and don’t be afraid to get creative.

Remember, you’re trying to create an impression and generate enthusiasm for your training efforts.

Make sure you get senior leadership to buy into your efforts. Having a video greeting from the

President or CEO is wonderful. If you can’t get a video, get a letter or some sort of

announcement. Remember, a big element to effective training transfer is a supportive culture,

and culture starts at the top. The more visible and more direct you can make senior leadership

support, the closer you get to a really supportive culture for employee training, learning and

development.

Identifying cheerleaders,

champions and influencers.

Every complex network and

organization has “connective

tissue.” These are the people who

seem to know everyone. They are

the people you call when you

want an introduction, or want to

know who is the new employee in

accounting.

These individuals can serve a vital

and strategic role in furthering the

learning objectives and strategic

objectives of the entire

organization and every employee.

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A

SUPPORTIVE

CULTURE

For more on marketing your training program, download the

Marketing Planner and Job Aid. Click here.

THE EVENT

As you’d expect, the actual training session plays a significant role in training transfer, but

probably not in the way you’d expect. The most critical element in the effectiveness of the

training event is the instructional design – not the delivery. Now if the delivery is just so bad that

your employees can’t pay any attention, the instructional design doesn’t matter at all. But if you

have a basic level of quality in the presentation of material, the most influential element is the

design.

We’ve learned quite a bit about effective training events over the past several decades. For

instance, we know that adults react to shorter training sessions better and they retain more of

what they learn in shorter sessions. We also know that the event should be as convenient as

possible for the participants. Recent data suggests that streaming video is sometimes the most

effective single method for teaching new material. As you develop your blended solution,

make sure you have appropriate technology tools in place to facilitate easy employee access

to content, tracking, reporting, and administration of the online training elements of your

program. We’ll talk a little more about technology in the next section.

The best training events are almost always designed as part of blended learning programs.

People learn better, retain and apply more when they are given several different ways to learn. Blended learning traditionally involved some combination of classroom, discussion groups,

online training, books, etc. If you’re looking for the best possible results, make sure you are

delivering a blended learning solution.

Malcolm Knowles identified the six

principles of adult learning which

we now call “adult learning

theory” in the 1970’s.

1. Adults are internally motivated

and self-directed

2. Adults bring life experiences

and knowledge to learning

experiences

3. Adults are goal oriented

4. Adults are relevancy oriented

5. Adults are practical

6. Adult learners like to be

respected

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ADULT

LEARNING

THEORY

According to an Aberdeen Group Learning and Performance Study, featured

in the April/May 2013 edition of Elearning! Magazine, 59% of all Best-in-Class organizations indicate they are using some form of video content.

Some of the advantages of video include:

• Easy and convenient

• Short

• Multiple devices

• Shareable

• User-generated comments and ratings

• Higher learner retention and engagement

POST EVENT - MANAGERS

TIPS FOR MANAGER SUPPORT:

• Work with managers before the

event to emphasize the

importance of their support.

• Reach a shared understanding

among all of the stakeholders

about what a successful

training event will look like 30, 60

and 90 days after the event.

• Develop resources to help your

managers support your training

efforts.

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Power/Impact Use/Frequency Disconnect

PRE

Trainer 2 2 0

Employee 7 8 -1

Manager 1 5 -4

EVENT

Trainer 4 1 3

Employee 5 3 2

Manager 8 6 2

POST

Trainer 9 7 2

Employee 6 4 2

Manager 3 9 -6

The chart below shows us that the third most influential combination of impact for role and phase is the manager after the training event.

But the same research tells us this is the least utilized role/phase combination in actual practice. This is a classic “good news/bad news”

type of situation. The good news is that we have a perfect opportunity in front of us to make a big improvement in the application of

training to job performance. The bad news is that currently, most organizations are not engaging managers effectively after training

events.

If you think back to the interaction we suggest between the trainer and the manager before a training event you will see strong

indicators of exactly what the manager needs to do at the post event phase to impact training transfer.

Make sure you have developed the tools, job aids or any other resources necessary so the managers are ready to support your training

efforts by providing immediate opportunities for employees to apply what they learn as soon as possible after the event. This type of

manager support will prove invaluable as you move towards greater training transfer.

Your marketing efforts should continue after the event or course completion. Go back to the

definition of marketing we suggested earlier.

Marketing is creating a value proposition for a targeted consumer that prompts an eventual

purchase.

After the event you might be tempted to say that you’re finished marketing because the

“purchase” (attend the training session) is complete. But that’s not entirely accurate. The

“purchase” you are trying to get is not just attendance. It also includes the application of the

learning objectives to each participating employee’s day-to-day job performance. So, to

complete the purchase, you have to continue marketing the value and benefits of the training.

Success stories can be impactful.

Get employees who went through the training share what they learned and how they’ve used

the training to perform better. Get managers to share their observations of improved

performance. For employees working with customers, either external or internal, get testimonials

or examples of how the lessons from the training made their experience more positive.

Job aids and follow-up communications can be effective and impactful. Everyone loves

training takeaways. So why not provide them 30, 60 and 90 days after the event too? We’ve

found that things like FAQ or checklists are good follow-up tools when appropriate to the

training content and lessons.

• Pre-launch: purpose is to build

excitement.

• Launch: purpose is to drive

utilization.

• Process/Instruction: purpose is

to communicate processes and

instruct on system navigation

• Reminder: purpose is to sustain

utilization and expand

audience if needed.

• Follow-up (every 3 months

minimum ongoing): purpose is

to re-energize the program,

drive utilization and

encourage/drive feedback.

Provide means for feedback

even if that is only referencing

the existing course evaluations.

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MARKETING

PHASES

POST EVENT - MARKETING

For more on developing a marketing plan, download the a sample

marketing action plan. Click here.

Your technology tools become extremely important during the event for any online delivery of

training resources. There are many excellent learning management systems on the market,

including, by the way, CompanyCollege from BizLibrary. All of the better systems have similar

core functionality. However, your technology tools will become really powerful in offering

appropriate learner and manager support after the training event.

How can your LMS drive and support better transfer? Here are some ideas…

Send a pre-training email to employees that summarizes what they will learn and how they are

expected to use it to do their job.

Send a pre-training email to the employee’ supervisors. Summarize the key learning objectives,

remind the supervisors to plan for the time required to complete the training and encourage

them to plan for the new behavior or skill when the employee completes the training.

Send a link within an email of a short video from the CEO or senior leader describing the

importance of the training and how the new skills or behaviors will impact the organization.

Use the LMS survey tool to find out how skills are being used 60 and 90 days post-training.

Sending follow-up e-mail messages can be an excellent way to keep the training lessons visible

and timely for your employees. When you can couple regular follow-up e-mails with job aids,

follow-up quizzes and assessments, you can begin to encourage training transfer, and you can

also begin to build important data to track just how much training employees are applying at important intervals like 20, 60 and 90 days.

Use the social learning application. Social and informal learning are powerful. Create discussion

groups before the training event or course. As training or HR professionals, we need to learn how

to keep the learning objectives in mind, and learn to facilitate ongoing conversations in social

and informal learning settings around these same objectives. A social learning platform can

help you do exactly that. You can share relevant files. Employees can share their successes, ask

questions, post comments, etc. Our best advice – don’t fight the power of informal learning.

Learn instead how to facilitate your employees’ learning along learning objectives regardless of

where and how they learn.

Social learning isn't new. In fact, it's

how most of us learn. What is

changing is that many

organizations are beginning to

work to incorporate social learning

tools into their employee learning

strategies and programs.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK, How To

Embrace Social Learning And

Improve Employee Performance

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SOCIAL

LEARNING

POST EVENT - TECHNOLOGY

3 PRACTICAL STEPS TO GET SOCIAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING TO WORK FOR YOUR

ORGANIZATION

1. Identify the right technology tools for your employees.

Start with your employees’ perspectives to ensure broad utilization. Changing demographics

and behaviors have a big impact on learning in organizations. You need to make sure the tool

– or tools – you select are easy to use. You also want to ensure that you provide a secure

environment for an open and complete exchange of company content.

2. Build a community and set an example.

You will have a hard time getting your employees to use a system you don’t use yourself. So –

get engaged in your chosen tool right from the start. The next step is to find your “early

adopters.” These will be the foundation for your vibrant community. Remember – informal and

social learning are true “grassroots” developments.

3. Locate great content to share in your technology platform.

Your employees are not going to use a platform effectively and efficiently unless they find

value. Value for employees means content – answers to questions, searchable posts, links, files,

tips, best practices, suggestions, etc. You can jump start the content several ways. For instance,

start collecting links to articles and online resources that you believe are helpful in your business. Find files and documents that you know have broad use and application that are currently in

your system some place. Post them on your tool, and make sure employees can readily search

for that information.

Training transfer can be a complex and tricky thing to accomplish. Our colleagues come to

employee training and development with all of their internally held preferences and biases. Our

job as training professionals is to reach them anyway, and we can do that if we approach

each phase of the training with the ultimate stakeholder in mind, and that’s the individual

employee. The success of each employee benefits the whole organization. So, we have to take

training transfer seriously as a critical element of the success of every training initiative we launch.

Whatever training your employees

need, you’ll find it with BizLibrary.

Content and technology all in one

place. BizLibrary provides its clients

with the industry’s largest and

fastest growing collection of high-

quality training videos and

eLearning courses, covering 25+

topic areas.

Additionally, the cloud-hosted

LMS, Performance Management

and Social Learning applications

help smaller organizations

streamline and simplify important

talent management processes.

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