To train or not to train

I recently read this HBR article about training, https://hbr.org/2022/02/more-training-wont-solve-your-companys-problems. The title alone will grab anybody who is in the training industry to take a gander, like I did. If you read a little further into the article, the author clarifies that training “alone” won’t solve your problems. I 100% agree.  

As an aside, I’ll be speaking from an on demand and ongoing training perspective; not one and done courses. 

Ongoing Training aka learning and development is of interest to most organizations as the pool of qualified candidates is limited. One of the drivers for a limited pool is the pace of business has been accelerated by rapid digital transformation. Every workforce study shows workforce problems happening now and increasing in the future, especially in the IT and cybersecurity job roles therefore investing in the right training is crucial.

 Some takeaways for me: 

• “40% of employees and managers are unsatisfied with on-the-job training”. My first thought was “only 40%”.  Does that mean 60% are “satisfied”?  If 60% are in this other category what does that tell us?  Is the bar we’re looking for satisfied or something more?   

Also, “on-the-job" training is a broad stroke. Does this mean onboarding and learning processes for your organization and/or industry skills and knowledge that would apply to a similar role in another organization? 

• The author notes “...participants won’t be engaged if you’re reusing the same dated videos from years back.” Cue the 90s sexual harassment videos that somebody made a ton of money on and didn’t prevent any sexual harassment.  

Updated and relevant videos are more important than ever with how quickly technology and privacy laws, etc are changing. Imagine IT employees learning from videos created three to five years ago. That doesn’t seem like a long time, but when it comes to certain topics like IT, Cybersecurity it might as well be 30 years. Why are companies settling for poorly developed, dated and low quality video training? 

The author goes onto offer three questions to consider before investing in training. She finishes with stressing the importance of getting managers and executive leadership on board with any training initiatives.  

“...if providing an employee development process through training is a good step, it will not result in major implementation unless senior leaders clearly and repeatedly express it as a priority.” 

I’ll take liberty here and note that “express” probably means more than a memo about how important training is. She goes onto to say leadership should encourage managers to follow up with their employees who take part in training about their learning and how it relates to their career progression.  

She notes that training isn't always the answer, but I'd add that the right training is more than likely the answer. IMHO, it's not a matter of if you should train, but what types of training are necessary based on the organization's needs and employee skills and aspirations.