Training Tip of the Week: Transfer Lessons to Your Job - Grace Hill

Training Tip of the Week: Transfer Lessons to Your Job

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Grace Hill

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Grace Hill Training Tip of the Week

Measuring Training Effectiveness: Transferring Lessons to Your Job

 

This is the fifth post in a series about how to measure the effectiveness of your compliance training program. Read Part 1Part 2Part 3 and Part 4.

 

The ability of an employee to successfully apply what was learned in training to his or her job is called transfer.

The great hope of training is that it results in behavior changes that improve employees’ job performance and ultimately positively impact your business. The ability of an employee to successfully apply what was learned in training to his or her job is called transfer. To successfully transfer lessons learned in training to an employee’s activity on the job is the ultimate goal of training.

 

In this series on measuring training effectiveness we’ve looked at measuring implementation (Did employees complete the training?), learning (Did employees master the learning objectives?), and reaction (Did employees find the training valuable and feel they benefitted from it?).

 

To help reinforce new learnings, consider a post-training plan that focuses on measuring and supporting transfer of what they’ve learned.

But how do you measure what happens in the weeks and months after training? Employees may leave training excited about transferring new skills to their job, but when back on the job it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and fall into old habits. To guard against this, consider a post-training plan that focuses on both measuring and supporting transfer.

 

Here are some tips for a post-training plan to gather information on how employees are using strategies learned in training and simultaneously create an environment that supports and reinforces transfer.

  • To measure use of strategies learned in training, leverage mechanisms you already have in place.  Instead of creating a new set of measurement tools, think about aligning existing performance review forms, mystery shops, or observation protocols with training.  This allows you to gather information without putting extra tasks on the busy managers and employees.
  • Use informal tools to measure and support transfer.
    By positioning training as ongoing, rather than a one-time event, learnings are more apt to stay fresh in their minds as they are regularly reinforced.

     Regular, structured discussions between managers and employees can provide insights into implementation of training strategies. They are also an opportunity to signal that the things addressed in training are important, and to offer support to employees who are having trouble applying what they learned on the job.

  • Hold employees accountable for behaviors in addition to outcomes. It is common to track outcome such as leasing rates, customer satisfaction scores or incident/claims rates. Think about also holding people accountable for the behaviors that influence those outcomes. For example, choose a few observable strategies from training, and make them an element of performance reviews.
  • Position training as ongoing, rather than a one-time event. Think about a post-training plan that regularly reviews job aids or key points from training to ensure things stay fresh in employees’ minds. Consider running employees through practice scenarios to help show or reinforce the application of skills in real-life scenarios.

 

For many learners, applying what they learned in training will take ongoing encouragement and reinforcement. Having a post-training plan in place to measure and support the use of strategies learned in training will increase the likelihood of transfer, and ultimately the overall impact of your training.

Grace Hill’s marketing content team aims to create informative resources that help multifamily and commercial industry professionals elevate their performance. From blog posts and ebooks to infographics, checklists and webinars, the Grace Hill team has a singular focus: creating meaningful and engaging content that resonates with real estate professionals across the industry.  However, what makes Grace Hill so unique is the range of collective experience and collaborative spirit of its marketing content team. A group of talented writers with expertise in the real estate industry, overall management effectiveness, marketing strategy, and operational efficiency, the team provides new ideas to take performance to the next level. As a thought leader, Grace Hill's content team constantly pushes the envelope, experimenting with new resources and tools to keep industry professionals ahead of the curve.  Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out in the real estate industry, the content team at Grace Hill is creating resources to help you succeed. Learn more about Grace Hill on LinkedIn.

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