Create Your 2012 Training Plan

Last month I discussed how to complete a training needs analysis. Now that you have examined training from three perspectives: your overall organization, the jobs in your organization and individual performance, it is time to put a plan together to successfully implement your training. “What gets planned gets done” is one of my favorite sayings!

Are you ready to get started? First create a training plan spreadsheet to contain all the information you will need. Here are the eight steps I use for creating a training plan:

Step 1: Topics: In the first column list all the topics identified in your training needs analysis

Step 2: Objectives: Next to the topic list what the participants will be able to do after completing the training. You do not have to get too fancy; one to three bullet points are probably enough.

Step 3: Priority: Add a priority column and sort your spreadsheet by priority. How to determine the priority? Consider criteria such as biggest impact to the organization, the most number of people who need the training, the consequences of not supplying the training, etc.

Step 4: Timing: Add a column for the month to conduct the training topic. You can choose specific dates later when you see how many classes you need per month. Consider your organization’s busy and slow periods for choosing your months and dates.

Step 5: People: Identify the job titles and number of people in each job that will attend the training. If you have many people who need the training you may have to schedule multiple sessions of the same topic.

Step 6: Length: How long should each topic take? Answer: long enough to achieve the objectives set in step 2. If the topic is lengthy and your audience can only be away from work for short periods of time, consider breaking the training into multiple sessions.

Step 6: Methods: How will you conduct the training? Will the training be traditional classroom training or an ELearning option? It is important to understand your audience’s comfort level with technology and preferences for learning to determine which method will be most effective.

Step 7: Trainer/Facilitator: Who will conduct the training? Will you use an inside resource or hire someone from the outside with experience in the topic? Will you purchase an ELearning package or a program already developed for you to deliver?

Step 8: Cost: What will each of your training topics cost? The cost might be listed as total for the topic or variable by the number of people who will attend. Since you have listed your topics in priority order you can now consider eliminating or postponing topics.

You now have a training plan and a training budget. Last steps are to get key stakeholders involved to approve your training plan and then you will be able to start scheduling people to attend. Best wishes for a successful 2012 training year!