Is management training a waste of money?
Companies and organisations spend millions of pounds each
year on management training, but research shows that much of it has little
effect on improving performance ? how do we stop this enormous waste of money?
There is nothing like a training course to get you out of
the office for a few days. Usually you get to stay in a nice hotel, eat some
good food and socialize with like-minded people, all at the company’s expense!
It’s an added bonus if the course is interesting and stimulating and starts you
thinking about ways to tackle problems back at work.
When you return rested, and full of bright ideas, what are
you met with? The more cynical of your colleagues tell you how they have been
busy doing some “real work? whilst you’ve been away. The rest give you some
knowing looks whilst you try a few new techniques, thinking ? correctly ? that
you’ll soon be back to your old ways. Soon the training course is a dusty
memory.
Is this a cynical view or a realistic one? In 1993 research
by US Academics Detterman and Sternberg reported that 90% of all training is a
waste of time and money. A lot of business training is not producing the
performance improvements that the organisation desires. How do we tackle this
problem?
One approach is to properly evaluate the effectiveness of
the training that is being carried out. Donald L Kirkpatrick put forward a
useful model in his 1975 book Evaluating Training Programs. He suggested thinking about how effective a
course had been on four levels:
1.)
What was the reaction of the student to the course, how did
they feel about it, did they enjoy it, did it feel useful to their job role?
This can be measured by an evaluation form.
2.)
What did the student learn? This can be discovered by setting
an exam or conducting an interview.
3.)
How has the individual’s behaviour changed as a result of the
course? This is more difficult to measure and needs to be done in an objective way
over time by either the individual’s manager or their peers. One approach is to
use a 360-degree review.
4.)
How have their business results changed? Once again this needs
to be done over time and in an objective way. In some jobs, results are easier
to calculate, for example in sales. For other roles, more thought is required
to identify the key performance indicators.
By adopting this sort approach we can start to develop a
structured and objective way of evaluating how training is helping the
organisation. This should help to weed out unnecessary expenditure on courses
that have been authorised for the wrong reasons.
Another problem with training is that it does not work in
isolation. People need back up over a period of time to help implement new ideas.
What seemed great in theory in the classroom can seem dauntingly difficult to
implement in the workplace. It’s useful to have continued support, maybe by
regularly doing , overall business results can be improved.
© 2008 David Hinde
About the author
David Hinde is a recognised expert on executive coaching and
management development. He founded his consultancy www.orgtopia.com which specialised in
improving management and executive performance through coaching, training and
consultancy. He has worked with organisations such as the BBC, BskyB and the UK
Government’s Department of Education to improve their management performance
through consultancy, training and executive
coaching.
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