In the cost and productivity conscious world we live in, the role of Learning and Development continues to come under scrutiny.  Like all divisions of a flourishing business, the Learning and Development department needs to show how it justifies its cost and can show a measurable return on investment.

For some organisations this is quite a leap.  Many companies still publish a range of training courses, which are run irrespective of the fast changing needs and challenges of the workforce.  This in turn means that the training of trainers focuses almost exclusively on delivering training courses.

We know that 86% of unsupported skills training fails to transfer to the workplace.  It is the role of the modern training department to change this depressing figure.  This means that training the trainer has to include more than good facilitation skills.

A valuable trainer must have the skills to do three things well.

1. Consult to the business – this means the trainer needs to be able to understand the business challenges the workforce face and have the ability to determine which of these are training needs.  The training needs analysis then needs to be able to turn broad business challenges into measurable learning objectives.  The trainer then needs to be able to build a training program that not only addresses the needs of the immediate group, but also involves management in specific pre and post training activities.

 2. Deliver skill development - this means having the training skills that will allow the participants to prove to both the trainer and themselves that they are now competent in the specific skill.  This implies the ability to be able to structure exercises and feedback in a way that allows the trainees to practice to the point where they are genuinely better.  Much training these days has too much content and not enough practice (people only improve through practice and feedback, not by listening to trainers or looking at endless slides).  Train the trainer programs should put greater emphasis on managing the learning of others and not presentation effectiveness.

The best trainers we have seen (those who get others to achieve skill development objectives in the shortest time) do not use powerpoint slides or large expensive manuals; they use the brains of the people in the room.

3. Assess training effectiveness - good trainer training helps trainers to apply a process that will measure the application of new skills in the workplace and the correlate these changes in practice to changes in results.  This means having the ability to build a practical ROI calculation tool.  Some of these are based on Kirkpatrick’s model of learning evaluation, while others can be customised for specific performance improvement measures.

• Prosell offers a program that combines sales training and sales coaching.  It is based on recognised research, which tells us that training alone has limited impact and that when supported by skilful coaching, has 74% more chance of being implemented.
• Prosell has resources to deliver these programs across Australia, covering Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra.