Before you think of a training strategy, let us first understand whether you need trainings or not. Imagine, you are driving your car and suddenly some noise comes from the rear. You are also wobbling while driving the car and you feel something is not normal. You stop, come out and look at the rear. You notice that the left right tyre is running short of air. You feel happy that you caught the issue early and quickly take corrective action either by making your stepney take the charge or quickly call the nearby garage.
You were saved by your presence of mind!
Now imagine the same for your organisation. You are running it and everything seems ok. But how do you find out those early signals which might affect the running of your organisation? What symptoms should you look to avoid any issue that might pop up in future? What is it that warrants you to go to a ‘training’ garage and come out ‘good’? In short, Do you really need trainings?
Here is a list of 7 signs that will help you find out whether your organization needs a revamped training strategy or not :
1) Overdependent on few rock stars :
You have few people who are your rock stars. You are very happy with them. They are the ones whose heroic efforts not only save you but also helps you run at full throttle. Always.
2) Few of your people are overburdened :
You always see few of your employees working. They just can’t take leave, even a recess. The are not exactly your favorite rock stars but are really hard working people. Luckily for you, they are highly committed to their work.
3) Not Growing :
Even though your engine is running, it is not running the way you would have liked it. The organization growth is ok but not surpassing what you dream of.
4) Average KPIs : Efficiency (productivity issues) as well as effectiveness (quality issues) :
The key performance indicators of your organization are ‘average’. You have worries both from the efficiency as well as effectiveness. Sometimes you find out that you could have produced more of your goods/services per day and sometimes your customer complains about the issues from your products/services.
5) Attrition :
You have ‘above normal’ attrition rate. Your people are leaving. Few are leaving because they are not looked after, few because they are not learning.
6) Very fast Growth/ Sudden dealing with a lot of stakeholders :
Everything is going as per your dreams. You organization is growing very fast, much faster than you imagined. Suddenly a lot of new orders are coming. The growth is so fast that you need to recruit new people overnight. You also have an increasing number of external stakeholders in terms of dealers, franchise, distributors and so on.
7) Change is in the offing :
You have recently upgraded your organization. It might be with a new ERP or a completely new org structure or a drastic change in your positioning of your products. You need to quickly and efficiently train all your employees about this all important new change.
Conclusion (Do you need a revamped Training Strategy or not?)
As a leader of your organization, you need to identify early signals. Early sings will help you take actions so that the organization runs smoothly. One of the main job of top management is to TRAIN PEOPLE AT SCALE. Above symptoms will help you identify whether it is time for that or not. If your organization is showing at least one of the symptoms above, you need a revamped training strategy.