Ravinder Tulsiani: How to Align Your Training Initiatives With Organizational Strategy

What is the first thing that comes to your head when you hear people use the term ‘corporate culture’? Most people describe it basically as the way ‘things get done around here’. This is not exactly far from the truth. But there is a whole lot more that goes towards influencing or determining behaviour in the workplace. In other words, this definition barely scratches the surface. #business
Corporate culture becomes a focal point for attention during organizational transition periods. It becomes apparent during takeovers, mergers or alliances. It becomes crucial during period for organizations to embark on #training initiatives to redefine their strategies and chart new courses of change. #HR
It is a period where pre-existing culture becomes irrelevant and an impediment to progress. It becomes imperative to fashion out procedures that would boost morale and ward off cultural conflict. It is important to find a means of aligning training initiatives with organizational thrusts for success and increased output. If you do not do this, then corporate harmony would remain elusive.
Sustainability for the future is built on training programs that tilt towards leadership and talent. These programs harp on the diversity of strength but still find a local means of pooling resources together that meet urgent needs without fulfilling unnecessary protocol. This starts from the board or management team that ensures it trickles down to the people that work under them. They are the ones that will encourage training and provide the required drive or support.
A lack of alignment with the #management and the rest of the workforce is the reason why businesses do not make needed impact. It is in this vein that it is safe to assert that alignment from the leadership to the initiative team and spreading it down to the organization is critical to success.
The intent must be established and understood before training can follow. If this is not done, teams would be unable to come under one cause and move forward. Once an agreement is reached these teams must find a means to make the strategy work via effective training. This is what commits them to the cause and ensures that they dedicate their energy towards its success.
Strategy is the heartbeat of any business. If you do not strategize properly, your training initiatives would suffer. It does not matter how ingenious it might be or how much time it took to ponder over it. So when next you come up with a strategy and want to come up with training sessions that can drum It into the mind’s eye of your workforce, make certain that it meets organization objectives. In addition, make sure it is people-friendly and readily adapts to change and rewards learning as a mandatory ingredient for expansion.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: Benefits of corporate training on leadership skills

The main idea behind corporate trainings is that organizations are all about people and the way they respond to each other. Yes, businesses have a technical side to them too but the fact remains that in a typical organization people-related issues outnumber technical snags any day. This is a common occurrence since people in a particular organization have myriad backgrounds, different dispositions and come from different walks of life. #corporatetraining

The aim, therefore, is to pool in the resources for the mutual benefit of the company and the workforce, and resolving any issues that might arise in the course. This is where the leadership skills come to play their part. Effective #leadership is an inherent part of any organization and much of how the company looks and feels to an outsider depends on it. It can even be said that the health of an organization is a direct reflection of the kind of leadership it has. An attempt to sum up the largely diverse roles of an effective leader would look like this:

An out and out motivatorSomeone who practices what (s)he preachesSomeone who co-operates and inspires others to follow the suitA sound advisor for the #managementSomeone who lends his shoulders to push the wheels out of the mud

Corporate training focuses on the fabric structure of an organization and the various aspects associated with it, among which the leadership skills feature right at the top. As such corporate trainings have been widely identified and acknowledged as a medium for encouraging key leadership qualities and providing practical guidance towards putting those qualities to optimum use. In this respect, the virtues of corporate trainings are hard to miss. Some of the obvious benefits of corporate training in developing leadership skills are:

They empower you with a clearer vision as to where exactly you want to direct your actions. This is important as an elementary step to understand your goals.These programs help you to distinguish a realistic goal from one that you think will take you to the moon on a paper-plane. #HRThese programs teach you to remain focused and to stay positive when you are at it.An undeniable fact is: you have to have followers to become a leader. These programs help you to chisel those leadership traits that would make people want to follow you. #businessYou need to constantly grow and enhance your skills while playing your part as a management leader and these programs show you the way.

It must be remembered that in a corporate environment, leadership is seldom an innate talent and corporate trainings are a great way to find out the hidden gems of leadership in sources unexpected.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: Using Pre-Work as a Training Strategy

The problem is a common one. You have been scheduled for a training session to explain a new policy or procedure. Unfortunately, you have time and budget constraints that mean you do not have the time or resources to have a session of the proper length or breadth. Whether you as a trainer or you as an employer looking to engage a trainer encounter this issue, pre-work may help alleviate the strain on the budget or the time table, while invigorating the #training process.

Pre-work is work that is assigned before a training session begins. It can provide the groundwork of the training session, be a way for employees to self assess their knowledge of a particular topic or practice before the training session begins, or simply lay out some of the basics the training session will cover in a more in-depth manner so that the employees have some sense of what the session itself will be about. Regardless of what the pre-work actually is, it is an effective way to drum up enthusiasm for the training session itself, while staying on time and on price point. #management

Studies show that typically during a training session, learners spend 70% of their time speaking, and 30% of their time listening and learning, which when time is of the essence, is not efficient. It is also important to energize and excite the learners about the material that will be studied and illustrate to them the ways it will benefit them in their work. Sending out content before the training session begins in the form of studies and reading, or pre-work, not only helps shift the paradigm of the learning/speaking balance of learners, it creates enthusiasm for the training session and encourages the learners to come to the session already engaged in the subject matter. Pre course activities can be as simple as some reading a self assessment questionnaire, or as complicated as a series of worksheets. Regardless, illustrating the relevance of the lesson to the work and the applications of it should remain a priority.

Once the #learners come in excited about the material, it is important to keep them engaged and enthusiastic. This can be done by considering the type of material you are teaching and what key information you want to impart to the learners. Consider approaching the training with real world applications, so the learners will know how to apply the knowledge you impart on them into real world work scenarios. Also try asking questions and constructing interesting engaging activities to reinforce the classroom lessons.

Learners need to be committed to the applying the learning process, and trainers need to enforce that enthusiasm through verbal cues such as relating the training procedures to successful real life individuals, and non verbal cues such as putting up training course work where others can see it for encouragement. #HR

Pre-work, and training, like many workplace strategies typically needs to be adjusted on a case by case basis for your business’s needs. However, when done successfully, using the tips we’ve outlined, pre-work can become a crucial part of your #business training model.

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Ravinder Tulsiani: How to Evaluate the Impact of Training

In these tough economic times there are many companies that feel that they are wasting money on training their staff. They feel that it is only a necessary luxury when things are rosy and when there is plenty of money to burn. This is a wrong notion as training is the lifeblood of any business. If you increase the capacity of those who work for your company, you invariably increase the potentiality or value of your company. #training

And this has become crucial for sustainability in the marketplace. You need to adapt and remain competitive if you want to be in business for the long haul. And this starts with equipping your staffers with skill sets and attributes for the journey that lies ahead. But how do you know that the money that you spend is put to good use? How do you evaluate the impact of training organized for your workforce? If you work in a department responsible for this, how do you defend yourself against having your budget allocation trimmed down or scrapped altogether? #leadership

There are some smart ways that you can evaluate training results. Firstly, make sure that you can gauge participant satisfaction at the end of the learning period. Printed or electronic surveys can be handed out to attendees to find out how they felt about the course. Did you enjoy the training? How is the course relevant to your work? Would you recommend this course to someone else? These are some of the questions that you can ask to evaluate a participatory response. #shrm

The second level of evaluation should be an examination. It is important for an examination to come after the training to help determine if knowledge was acquired or not by those who attended. Many training specialists try to avoid this in order to justify their pay check and prove that their session was not an epic failure. However, this evaluation needs to be considered. It points out the people who have acquired knowledge and points out people who need extra #coaching or #mentorship.

If participants know that there is an examination at the end of a course, they tend to take it more seriously. If they know that after a week of training, they will be tested and their grades would be forwarded to their superiors, they brace up. #business

But when it comes to evaluating the impact of a training session, you need to look beyond surveys and examinations. You need to measure the impact that it would have on a business. This is a long term evaluation. But it is easily the most effective. In this case, you find out if what has been learnt is being applied in the workplace. In addition, you confirm if behaviours and skills are being adapted or altered towards the benefit of the organization. #HR

This demonstrates how well participants can apply their knowledge in the real world. And help management realize the people who are adding value to the organization and the people who are liabilities. Training is all about generating an improvement for your business. Ensure that you use key performance indicators (KPIs) to improve the results of your training.

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What 'Type' of Training Do Trainers like to Deliver? TJ and Academy28 Ran a Survey into the Behavioural Preferences of Trainers, What Impact They Have on the Design and Delivery of Training and Whether They Match the Preferences of Learners. Clare Howard Summarises the Main Findings