In a study by Pashler et al., the authors look at aptitude and personality as key traits when learning, as opposed to classifying people into categories of learning styles. Recent research has shown that classifying people into learning styles may not be the best way to determine a style, and most people have a different style depending on the information being taught. For our purposes, we will utilize a widely accepted learning style model. Understanding learning styles is an important component to any training program. Once we have set our learning objectives, we can utilize information on learning styles to then determine the best delivery mode for our training. Be able to effectively delegate to employees.Demonstrate ethics when handling customer complaints.Be able to explain the types of communication styles and strategies to effectively deal with each style.Explain the safety procedure in handling chemicals.Understand and utilize the new expense-tracking software.Perform a variety of customer needs analyses using company software.Be able to show the proper way to take a customer’s order.Be able to explain the company policy on sexual harassment and give examples of sexual harassment.Examples of learning objectives might include the following: Good learning objectives are performance based and clear, and the end result of the learning objective can be observable or measured in some way. A learning objective is what you want the learner to be able to do, explain, or demonstrate at the end of the training period. As a result, this may provide data as to where your training is lacking.Īfter you have determined what type of training should occur, learning objectives for the training should be set. One option is to use an online tool such as SurveyMonkey to poll employees on what types of training they would like to see offered.Īs you review performance evaluations turned in by your managers, you may see a pattern developing showing that employees are not meeting expectations. Researching training needs can be done through a variety of ways. We can also see how jobs and industries are changing, and knowing this, we can better determine the occupational and individual assessments. First, to perform an organizational assessment, we can look at future trends and our overall company’s strategic plan to determine training needs. We can apply each of these to our training plan. An individual assessment looks at the performance of an individual employee and determines what training should be accomplished for that individual.
This type of assessment looks at the specific tasks, skills knowledge, and abilities required to do jobs within the organization. Overall, this type of assessment looks at how the organization as a whole can handle its weaknesses while promoting strengths. This type of assessment considers things such as changing demographics and technological trends. In this type of needs assessment, we can determine the skills, knowledge, and abilities a company needs to meet its strategic objectives. There are three levels of training needs assessment: organizational assessment, occupational (task) assessment, and individual assessment: The first step in developing a training program is to determine what the organization needs in terms of training. How will you know if your training worked? What ways will you use to measure this? How will employees know the training is available to them? How long will it take to develop the training? Is there a deadline for training to be completed? What needs to be taught? How will you sequence the information? Who will be part of this training? Do you have a mix of roles, such as accounting people and marketing people? What are the job responsibilities of these individuals, and how can you make the training relevant to their individual jobs? Will the training be self-paced or instructor led? What kinds of discussions and interactivity can be developed in conjunction with this training? How much money do you have to spend on this training? What is the best way to get your message across? Is web-based training more appropriate, or should mentoring be used? Can vestibule training be used for a portion of the training while job shadowing be used for some of the training, too? Most training programs will include a variety of delivery methods. Making sure to teach to a variety of learning styles is important to development of training programs. Once you have determined the training needed, you can set learning objectives to measure at the end of the training.
This part of the framework development asks you to consider what kind of training is needed in your organization.