How to Create an Effective and Efficient Training Model

As any successful leader knows, a business is only as good as its employees. To keep your employees performing at their best is critical to invest in their training and continual learning. This will benefit your company through the addition of new skill sets along with others such as:

• High employee retention
• High job satisfaction
• High employee motivation
• More efficiency in operational processes
• Increased capacity to learn and implement new technologies

Over time, hundreds of methods for organization and training have been preserved and passed down to succeed. For example, the Roman army was organized in a considerably straightforward way. 5,000 Legionaries (Roman citizens) would form one Legion. The Legion would then be split into Centuries (80 men), led by a Centurion. The Centuries would later be divided into smaller groups with various specialized tasks to perform. An organization like this is great, but what made the Romans successful in battle? Constant and rigorous training kept them in peak condition, ready for action at any time.

The start of every project, process, or experience has an immeasurable impact on every organization. That being said, training is key to a company’s success. The challenge presents itself when we must create and implement educational content for a specific field and then train others using it. When it comes to training in logistics, but surely this is true of any industry, we often struggle with the following two points:

• How to efficiently convert knowledge into a training syllabus and plan.  
• How to measure training effectiveness.

How to Convert Knowledge to Effective Training

Knowledge can only come from one’s lived experiences (positive or negative) that become learning opportunities that allow us to react more soundly should the same circumstances arise again. So, how does one successfully convert their experiences and knowledge into training material that can be efficient in a class setting?

To carry out this especially important goal, we need to invest in practicality; meaning, every topic you plan to cover during training, should also match specific skills we aim to develop in our trainees. These skills are what will allow the trainees to perform their daily tasks effectively and with confidence. In the trucking business, we find endless fields of expertise. For example, if we are to teach “tracking” per se, we will need to narrow it down to LTL (less than truckload.) Training material such as tracking, TL tracking, and container tracking are a few of the practical examples that can vary drastically at times. Utilizing practicality in your training approach eases the burden of converting knowledge to training material, but it also gives employees an advantage in their specific job role.  

How to Measure Training Effectiveness

In a classroom, the odds of having a synchronized learning pace for all in attendance are very low as everyone learns differently and at a different pace. However, it is possible and beneficial to set a learning pace standard. The learning pace standard will become the main driver in measuring training effectiveness.

The learning pace, compared to the complexity of the topic, provides a clear picture of how long it should take an average individual to grasp and master a subject. Once the timeframe for each item is set, you can utilize other drivers such as testing, score setting, performance reviews, feedback, and KPIs. One should understand the relationship between learning timeframes and the complexity of subject matter to optimize training effectiveness. Having a realistic timeline for a subject will significantly increase an employee’s ability to leave training with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform at their best.  

There are many more aspects that play a vital role when training staff. However, the ones mentioned above are especially critical to the onboarding and success of an operational setting. Remember, your company culture is created each day anew by its leaders and employees. With the implementation of the two key methods mentioned above, companies and their employees can start capitalizing on these efficiency gains. With a substantial commitment made at the forefront of your business, an effective employee training model can energize the employees you hire today and attract the talent you will need in the future.

A Day in the Life of Lean Staffing Solutions Training

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