4 Steps to Verify Training Spend

You’ve decided to make the investment to upskill your staff. Whether it’s the tight talent pool or a commitment to develop your employees, you join the ranks of many companies looking to increase the capabilities of existing employees. An investment in training typically involves more than the price of the class for an employee. When you factor in the time spent away from work, the downtime until they reach full productivity and the time others are needed to cover their workload, the investment can be significant. US companies spent over $90 billion in training in 2017: on average over $1,000 per employee to upskill and right-skill talent. How can you be certain you’re getting the most for your training spend? Follow some basics to make sure you’re investing in the right training, for the right employee and you’re getting the right results. First step: What do you hope to achieve? What training is actually needed to achieve the results you want? A clear vision of what skill you hope to improve is needed: many companies send their staff to generic training to increase their overall comfort level with tech. But does that really address your needs? If you hope to improve an employee’s capacity with Excel, do they need the entire Office Suite training program? For higher tech training, set a clear path on what skill set you want the employee to acquire, and make sure the employee is agreeable. Whether it’s Word or cybersecurity, make sure your goals and the employees are aligned and planned for carefully. Step 2: Start with a baseline You want to up their Java skills - great. But how do you determine where you’ll get the most training bang for your buck? For an employee who has basic Java skills – you’ll want to look for classes at the intermediate or advanced levels. For someone newly moving into the cybersecurity space, entry level might be more suitable. Knowing where they start is important if you want to measure where they've finished. Start with a baseline of what they know today to make sure your training spend is worthwhile. A quick test from Rankdone can tell you what they already know, so they’re not wasting valuable time in classes that offer no benefit. A  baseline will also help measure the effectiveness of the training when they’ve completed it: a quick investment in time and resources can easily help you track your training return on investment. Step 3: A path that’s measurable and achievable Create a training plan that you can measure to verify skills learned, and achievable to keep employees motivated. With your baseline information in hand, look for courses that fit the employee’s capabilities when they enter, and challenge them to learn throughout. Achievable goals are critical: placing an entry-level staffer in a program too advanced not only wastes their time; and it can demotivate the employee from further learning. The alternate is also true: putting an advanced employee in an entry level class will not only bore them and waste time, it may have them questioning whether you have confidence in their abilities. Neither are worthwhile. Step 4: Verify post-training knowledge When the employee has completed their training a new baseline is in order. It will verify your training spend, and measure return on investment. It can also help the employee: they will have more than their “certificate of completion” to offer. They have demonstrated their credentialing for your company as well as for themselves. Validation can be a confidence booster that can manifest in all aspects of the work they do. A few minutes of pre-and post-testing can not only help verify training expenditures are paying off, they can boost employee engagement. Contact us today to find out how Rankdone’s skills testing can help.