4 Smart Steps to Ace the Transfer of Training

There is little reason to invest in training your employees unless you expect that their new skills will be applied on the job. Training for training’s sake has little value in terms of business results for the company. Once you have defined just what skills improvements are needed, then you must take the next steps to ensure transfer of training to the workplace.

1. Teach the key skills. Give employees the knowledge they need to make the behavioral changes through instructor-led programs or carefully constructed, interactive e-learning.
2. Create coaching or mentoring partnerships so employees have an expert guide to advise them as they practice the new skills.
3. Provide opportunities to test and apply the new skills on the job so the learning continues in action-based scenarios. The learning is no longer intellectual but becomes experiential. 
4. Measure levels of skill adoption to drive accountability and target performance coaching.

This four-pronged approach is what provides the setting for improvement on the job…knowledge, guides and plenty of practice.