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Effective training has the power to lead companies to new levels of achievement, efficiency and success. Is training doing that for your organization? If not, the cause could be one of these problems that we have seen take hold in many companies. Have they affecting yours?

Problem One: The Trainers Your Company Uses Don’t Have Real Training Skills

In other words, your trainers are not real trainers. In one common example, some organizations use field technicians as trainers when teaching technical skills to new employees; those companies seem to believe that “if people can do it, they can train it.” As a result, effective transfer of knowledge never happens because trainers aren’t equipped to teach that information.

Solutions: Train your trainers . . .  have your internal experts (the people who possess the knowledge you want to teach) work closely with training development pros to make sure the right skills and knowledge are identified and taught.

Problem Two: Your Company Only Uses Training to Fix Immediate Problems

There is sometimes a need to use training to address problems that need to be solved “today.” One example? Some of your products that are already in customers’ hands have a quality defect, customers are already calling – and your phone representatives need to learn what the problem is and how to solve problems and address customers’ concerns.

There is a place for that kind of “band aid” training. But when company management starts to see training as nothing more than a solution to immediate problems, the overall quality of training declines and training no longer addresses bigger priorities like sales or technical support.

Solution: Encourage your company leaders to see the long-term benefits that accrue from training that is proactive, not reactive.

Problem Three: Ineffective Previous Training Has Caused Low Expectations

If training has cost you too much and achieved too little in the past, chances are that it has become a low priority in your organization. How widespread is this problem in American business today? Very. In fact, some research has found that only about 20% of leaders in many organizations believe that training has any impact on the bottom line. That could explain why training departments in many companies never get the people, finances, training and time they need to create exceptional training.

Solution: Make it a point to report the financial gains you have made through training in the past . . . stress those benefits to company leaders and in time they will see training as a profit-builder, not a cost.