Critical Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For An Employee Training Program
Failure to plan is planning to fail. The plan you create for an employee training program must start with the end in mind. What are the goals? What are the expected results? Training enables employees to evolve, increase productivity and reduce costly mistakes. Developing goals and metrics for your employee training program can be very challenging. However, you can start with these 10 simple steps from BizLibrary’s free eBook 10 Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For Your Employee Training Program.
1. Why
First, you’ll need to understand why the program, partnership or resources were purchased to begin with. This is especially important if you weren’t involved in the buying process or are new to the organization or program. Why is the training program in place today? Here’s a little secret. The answer is not “because we have to provide training.” There is a logical reason, a decision that someone made or a plan in place as to why training is being offered. Goals describe how your organization will look one or more years from today. When written with input from managers and employees who will be involved in accomplishing them, your business goals have a greater chance of being reached. Achievable goals are formed with respect to the results of any industry research you’ve conducted, customer feedback you’ve received, or changing regulations that your organization is subject to. Your goals ideally don’t conflict with each other, but do align with your organization’s mission, and motivate people to focus and work together.
2. Importance
The next step is to agree that developing goals and metrics for your employee training program is an important and necessary component. 23% of BizLibrary’s clients today do not have any defined goals or metrics for their program. Do you know why? They don’t see the importance, or they are taking a wait and see approach. Maintaining your goals is important for several reasons and the free eBook 10 Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For Your Employee Training Program is here to guide you through all of them. First and foremost, goals propel you forward. They transform insurmountable mountains into walkable hills. Proper goal setting can help break larger, intimidating aspirations into smaller, more achievable stepping stones. Goals help you believe in the mission. Setting goals for yourself is a way to fuel your ambition. Goals hold you accountable for failure and tell you what you truly want.
3. Alignment
So, with that perspective, what do you truly want for your program? What does your organization want? Business alignment is not unique to program management or leadership buy in. It’s the cornerstone of creating appropriate goals and metrics for your employee training program. It's also what it will make it successful.
4. Visualize
What the mind can’t visualize, the mind can’t achieve. Thoughts are things and the more time you spend describing and visualizing your goals, the better your chances will be to actually reach them. “Beginning with the end in mind” is a technique that has been found to be very effective in sports, but also applies to business. Visualization of success is what can advance you through the milestones necessary to achieve targets.
5. Start
A classic mistake when setting goals is to be overzealous and try to change too many things at one time. It's better to set one goal at a time. Then as you get that goal under control, slowly add more goals into the mix. Getting started is the most important thing. You have probably heard of smart goals. But do you always apply the rule? For goals to be powerful, they should be designed to be smart. The free eBook 10 Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For Your Employee Training Program features all variations of what smart stands for.
6. Milestones
Goals define where you’re going and milestones let you know if you’re actually getting there. Goals and milestones complement each other like bread and butter. Having one without the other will render one ineffective. A goal acts as a source of inspiration and a sense of objective that is shared by the whole team. Each member will have an idea of what needs to be done to achieve that goal. Milestones are actions and achievements necessary to make progress toward goals. They’re moves that need to be made to win the game, and they help you determine if you’re on the right track to reaching your goals. BizLibrary’s free eBook 10 Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For Your Employee Training Program provides further analysis on the subject of milestones.
7. Measurement
Reaching your goals will be next to impossible if you don’t have a system to track and analyze them. Find a way to track your results daily or weekly. By tracking and analyzing, you can also help to ensure that your plan is working in your favor. It will help keep your targets visible and in front of you. It will answer crucial questions like "What are you doing daily that’s helping you to move closer to your goals?" and "Are you moving further away?"
8. Agility
We can set a plan to achieve our business goals, act on that plan, and track progress, but if we’re not getting the results we’re after, then it’s necessary to adjust plans.
9. Visibility
One of the most important chapters in any goal setting book would be about sharing, making your goals visible, public, verifiable and open. Sharing goals with others helps to hold you accountable. Because you know people are watching, you will hold yourself more accountable, and so will they. Every time you tell the world about some of your goals, you modify them. You take something from a discussion, something else from another one, until out of this ping-pong game of sharing your plans back and forth, your goal will emerge in a new form. Most of the time, this form will be a much clearer one. Progress measurement is not about being accountable, but more about metrics. As you get closer to your goal, you’ll want to measure how long you have until you reach it. That information can be precious in many contexts. For instance, you may want to set up a new goal or evaluate the resources you’ve already used. Sharing your goals will make progress measurement easier. Sometimes you may even deliberately use your peers as guides or supervisors. Sharing your goals with like-minded people may help you grow your social circle. Goals aside, the mere fact that you take the time to share something, to give details, to bring updates and keep in touch with other people; all these tiny actions will create a connection.
10. Celebrate
Ideally, everyone in your business is working toward the same goals. There are a few things you can do to positively reinforce your team’s work toward the same goals. Notice what your team’s successes have been and how you have all contributed to them. Share your observations with the team. Give others the gift of listening to them. Acknowledge and show appreciation for their individual success. Think about how your team can consolidate and build on success, then these ideas to make your new goals!
Creating a training program can be a lot of work. With clear goals and metrics for your employee training program in mind, you'll be able to see what success looks like, and ensure you have the right program in place. The free eBook 10 Steps To Developing Goals And Metrics For Your Employee Training Program presents best practices that are bound to make your employee training program a total success.
