How to Develop a Training Plan and Program for Employees?

Those interested in the development of their companies understand the importance and role of the staff training in this matter, as well as the crucial role of the human resource (HR) manager in this process. The importance of continuous professional learning is essential due to the following factors:

• Every day new technologies, methods, and techniques at work are introduced as well as the approach to professional communication and other elements at workplace change constantly;
• Growing global competition between companies and countries. Those companies in the UAE and globally that introduce modern personnel training systems gain a competitive advantage;
• It is economically more efficient for an organization to train existing employees than to attract new ones with the necessary qualifications.

For the process of employee learning and development to pass as effectively as possible, you need to write a comprehensive document – a corporate training plan. What it is, what the template for this document looks like, and what you need to consider when planning the staff training activities, you will find out all this here.

What is a staff training plan/program?

Any plan is a described procedure with actions aimed at achieving a specific goal or objectives. A staff training plan is a list of activities for employees to gain professional knowledge and skills needed to work in a particular area in a specific direction, for a defined period, for example, a month, a quarter or a year. When you are creating a personnel-training plan, it should provide the following information: who will be trained, in what form, which result are to be achieved and when, as well as a subsequent evaluation and analysis of results and (possibly) adjustments at the workplace.

Methods and types of staff training

Depending on the chosen training form, the learning process can be organized both within the company and with the involvement of specialized training centers.

• Employee training within a company. This approach will be effective if you need hard skills training, your company work is specific (for instance, production of certain types of goods), besides there is an opportunity to distract senior specialists for training, and this will not affect the productivity of your company. In other cases, it is more reasonable and efficient to use outsourcing services for training.
  1. Instructing. A new employee receives general information about the job: for example, the application of specific equipment, information on safety measures, etc. as a rule, every new employee passes instructing at the very beginning.
  2. Rotation. This is the transfer of an employee to another department for some period to gain new experience or professional qualifications. Example: work in one of the most successful branches of the company to get new practical knowledge and implement it later in own division.
  3. Mentoring. Work under the supervision of a more experienced employee. Mentors are selected from among ambitious, experienced employees who are interested in sharing their knowledge and skills and moving up the career ladder.
• Training outside a company. This approach assumes that a third-party company will conduct the training and in most cases (except those described above), for certain skills, this approach is more effective and gives the best result. Higher the level of skills and employees – more appropriate it is to use the public courses solution.
  1. Courses or training. This type of training includes lectures, case analysis, business games. It can be both effective and appropriate. It depends on subject, duration and training techniques of a training company.
  2. Conferences and seminars. These are events for sharing experience and forging business connections. They positively affect the image of the company as a whole, strengthen the business reputation of the participating employees and provide valuable professional ideas and insights.
• Self-study. Ideally, every specialist is engaged in self-study: reading specialized literature, participating in webinars, and communicating in professional forums. However, often, this is not the case. An HR manager and company management can encourage self-education with various bonuses and incentives.

The choice of a particular training method should be determined by the specifics of your company's work, the budget available, the time required, and the opportunity to involve a particular specialist in training. A helpful tool to prioritize which trainings to choose is the use of the ROI calculator when comparing various training needs and solutions. We have prepared the guide on such ROI calculator.

How to create a company training plan?

To organize everything correctly, you must first draw up a personnel training program, which includes certain steps, following which you will achieve optimal results. Here is an example of the sequence of staff training planning:

• Determine the purpose of the study, what exactly are you want to get. What is the purpose of this education? Either an increase in employee motivation or the creation of a personnel reserve, an increase in productivity and quality of work, or the training of employees to change the direction of their activities.
• Select and approve the training format. What forms of staff training will be used? It is essential to determine this because this factor influences the efficiency of the process.
• Create or select training courses. Some companies have their training centers, where they develop their training programs. If there are no such centers in your organization, contact special firms that are professionally engaged in the development of this product.
• Find and prepare trainers. To hold the event, you need a specialist in staff training and development. It is necessary to estimate the level of training, so before you choose the one, be sure to read the reviews, ask for documents confirming the qualifications and level of professionalism.
• Train employees of your company. Start with the approval of the schedule and the program. Training organizations can provide a sample of a staff training program. The process is to be controlled by someone; for example, the personnel director: employees will be trained more responsibly, knowing that they are monitored.
• Fix and evaluate the material covered. To determine whether the activities carried out were useful and effective, you have to check the knowledge gained by the employees. You can check it in the form of tests, which will allow you to identify and correct the weak points in the retraining.
• Analyze the results and summarize. According to the results, you can issue questionnaires to employees, which shows the level of satisfaction with the course completed. Also, according to the results, you can arrange staff shifting, change wages, form personnel reserve med. So you can stimulate your employees to further professional development.

If you experience difficulties in planning and implementing a personnel training system in a company, you can get in touch with us and our admin team would help you with all the info you may need- We also have various courses for HR including the course ”Professional in Training ad development”, which will deal with this issue and you can get a clear idea of how to properly design and implement this process in a company.