Best Practices in Training

I (Sarah M) attended  a workshop this week on Best Practices in Training and Development. Content came from The State of the Industry report, a review from ASTD of workplace learning and development trends. Frankly, I’d never heard of ASTD before but they look kind of awesome.

My takeaways:

In successful organizations:

1. Learning has value at all levels and is in the organization’s culture - meaning opportunities are provided for everyone.
2. Learning is present everywhere, or is “enterprise-wide” and is aligned with the organization’s strategy. Before/after any training, questions should be asked like:
1. Did learning transfer to the job? 
2. How did learning impact business goals?

A few stats that I found interesting:

1. Across industries, the investment made in learning and development averages 3.2% of payroll.
2. In 2011, the average ratio of employees to learning and development staff members was 315:1.

Top 3 content areas of training at organizations:

1. Managerial and supervisory (this doesn't include a seperate category called leadership development)
2. Profession or industry specific
3. Processes, procedures, and business-specific

Some things to keep an eye on:

1. Impact of technology. Formal in-person instructor-led vs. tech-based training is currently split about 70/30. How will this number change? Do we want it to change?
2. With so much learning happening outside of formal training on a day to day basis, is there a way to formalize the structure around this informal learning experience. This of course brought communities of practice to my mind and how they can fit in.

At one organization:

Tracy Nelson told the story of Summit Credit Union who in 2011 and 2012 won ASTD “Best” awards. A few nuggets from her were:

1. At Summit, it took about 5 years to get a strong learning culture.
2. They called themselves Performance Consultants, not Trainers.
3. Managers who ask for training for their staff are asked a series or questions about goals, how they will support the training, etc. 

National ASTD has lots of resources, and the local chapter has some great upcoming workshop topics to check out. Up next is Idea Generation Tools: Move Beyond the Brainstorm to What Really Works on April 18.