Why is it that month after month, year after year, despite dozens of soft-skills and computer training courses, employees don’t seem competent on the job? If this describes you or your company; you are not alone. In the 16 years I have been training, I have heard this complaint many times (usually from the students themselves!), the result being employees who are not able to handle core competencies on the job despite large training investments.

Let’s take a look at what goes wrong with training, why, and how to fix it so you can begin to obtain the results you are paying for.

1. Training Not Job-Specific

The top reason employees are not able to translate training into tangible business results is that the training is not job-specific. While it may be pedagogically correct to learn all 93 ways to navigate a program, it is essentially a waste of time. Employees do not have the attention span to wade through hours of concepts to finally get to 1 or 2 actually useful ideas.

These days, it makes more sense to learn the specifics of what you need to accomplish rather than to learn endless details that will dilute the whole experience to the point of uselessness. Therefore, always customize courses to your employees and their job tasks. Exercises should be similar to actual job tasks, and even use actual or sample company files in the classroom.

2. “Hands-OFF Training Sessions”

I have been called upon to deliver training sessions in which I simply demonstrate software to a group as a presentation, with little to no actual student involvement. Students do not have their own computers. I call this a “hands-off” training session, and in my mind this is usually a waste of time and money.

When you have a trainer demonstrating the software, employees naturally tend to turn off, like watching a movie or a TV show. It is much harder to concentrate when asked to simply sit and watch a presentation than when you are expected to actually follow along and replicate what the instructor is doing, as is the case with “hands-on” training.

Therefore, never hold training sessions that are simply demonstrations. Even if it costs more, keep in mind why you are holding the training in the first place. If it is simply to placate management that all employees have been through a training session, then by all means, hold these types of sessions. But if you require hard-hitting, powerful, effective training for your employees, use “hands-on” sessions. This will improve your “dollars and sense” ratio.

3. Instructors are not “Entertraining”

When we are bored, we turn off our brains; this is a fundamental law of being human. You need to engage peoples’ minds and entertain them while you train them. I call this “Entertraining.”

Of course, I’m not suggesting you hire an actual comedian for your next training session (unless you think it’s funny), but you do want an instructor who can present material in an entertaining and humorous way or your dollars and sense ratio will suffer.

4. Lab Time During Training Sessions

The very word “lab” sounds so flabby, boring, and unproductive. It’s hard to imagine a duller scenario: a bunch of people quietly muddling through an exercise or two while the instructor just “lounges.” What a waste of training dollars! Right?

Wrong!

Consider that it is not possible for an instructor to actually teach an employee anything. The best the instructor can do is present the material as clearly as possible, and the employee must process the data, understand it, and make it theirs. The only time this really begins to occur is while they are trying to use the program without help.

I am not suggesting that the whole class suddenly grind to a halt and take 45 minutes to do a lab. Labs can be smoothly integrated into a training session, as easily as offering 4-5 minutes here and there for students to try out a concept on their own, take notes, or replicate a previous exercise.

For your next training session, insist on labs throughout, to reinforce and solidify key concepts.

5. Overly-Long Training Sessions

To get the most bang for the buck, the longest possible training sessions make the most sense. After all, the longer students are in the classroom, the more they’ll learn, right? Yes–to a point.

Think back to the last long movie you rented. Think, “The Green Mile” or “Gone with the Wind.” Did you watch it over at least a couple of nights? (Be honest!) There is a limit to how much you are able to absorb at once, and this is especially true in your corporate training sessions.

Generally students turn off after about 5 hours. Oh, they’ll sit there politely while the instructor barrels ahead, but the glassy-eyes and slow moments indicate their lack of involvement (and I’m dynamic!).

Training sessions are best kept to shorter lengths, with a maximum of 5 hours. Better still, schedule training as half-day sessions over several days. Nothing beats a fresh student, a fresh teacher, and plenty of time–spread out over time–for a successful training result.

6. Lack of Follow-Up and Follow-Through

Any successful learning involves feedback: knowing if you are on the right track, and if not, taking action to get back on track. You need to communicate with your employees and colleagues about recent training, discover if their needs have been met, and if not, find a way to meet their needs. Maybe it’s just a matter of purchasing a reference book, or having the trainer back for general questions, or to consult on a particular job-related issue.

An easy way to accomplish this is to use paper or electronic surveys before and after your training sessions. This will help you to evaluate effectiveness and determine areas of improvement, as well as dramatically improve your dollars to sense ratio.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed 6 easy techniques you can use to dramatically improve your dollars and sense ratio. Use them to make your next training session much more powerful than the last, and have your employees raving about the quality and effectiveness of your training efforts.

(c) 2009 Michael J. Phillips

Michael J. Phillips is a technology and creative consultant in Orange County, CA with over 16 years of experience. Get more insider computer training tips at http://PCTrainingExperts.com.