2 October 2018

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Does your organization have a strategic plan or goals? Does it have a mission or vision? (If you have not established these yet, I recommend reading Dave Ramsey’s, EntreLeadership, for how to write a mission statement as a starting place.) If you have these directional statements or strategic goals for your organization, these should set the path or be aligned with your training for their foundation goals.

Aligning Strategic Goals with Training

When you review your organization’s strategic plan, do you think of the future of the employees training? Usually, strategic plans are written in four to five year increments. In that time frame, what is the focus for your organization’s goals? Is it technology, increased sales, improved customer service, etc.? Based on the focus, how will you support your employees’ training to help achieve these goals?

Developing A Training Ecosystem Foundation

As you begin developing a training ecosystem, it is important to begin with the employees or learners. What are the end goals for the learners? Remember, these should align with the strategic goals. If your strategic focus is technology, you may have goals like,100% of employees will achieve a specific certification within a set time or the organization will adopt a new computer program by 20XX and all employees will be trained by XX. 

At the same time, these goals should how best to accomplish the goals for the employees. Most organizations want to grow and retain employees. Considering this, a mentorship and/or leadership growth program may be a recommendation as a compliment to the training. Also, an opportunity for employees to be cross-trained in other areas. This reduces silos within the organization and allows for understanding across company branches.

Conclusion

As you build and grow your organization’s training ecosystem, it is important to keep going back to the beginning. Have we aligned the strategic goals with training? What are your goals for the learner? What is the best solution or method for the employee’s achievement of these goals? If you answer these questions, you will establish and build a solid training ecosystem.

As always, Quality Analytics Associates is available to answer questions and assist you in starting or helping improve existing programs.