How to make employee training effective

What is motivation?

Motivation to learn is a two-way process . On the one hand, this is the inner desire of the person to seek and obtain new knowledge and skills, on the other hand, it is certain actions of the manager or training specialist, encouraging the employee to acquire and apply the acquired knowledge and skills.
What internal motives direct a person to gain knowledge and skills? What external influences induce a person to learn, and what causes him to refuse to learn? We will try to answer these questions in the article.

What determines the motivation to learn

There are three groups of factors - the individual characteristics of people, demographic indicators and situational factors - which primarily affect the desire of people to learn. This is the conclusion of scientists from Ohio State University and the University of Florida, who summarized and analyzed twenty years of experience with empirical research in this area.

Individual characteristics. According to scientists, there are people who are initially inclined to learn - they can not be specifically motivated, it is enough to create the necessary conditions for advanced training, and they will gladly take courses and trainings. Qualities for which such people are easy to identify:
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• Focus on achieving success helps such people to actively engage in self-improvement and, in particular, with pleasure to improve their skills.
• Internality, or the tendency to associate their success or failure with their own qualities, knowledge, with the efforts shown, as well as belief in their own effectiveness. People who consider themselves responsible for the state of their affairs, show greater zeal for learning.
• Active engagement in the work. Specialists who like their business and who fulfill their duties with great dedication, are unlikely to refuse to improve their skills.
• Commitment to the values ​​of the organization. Interest in training is usually demonstrated by employees who believe in the company's goals, invest a lot of energy in its development and intend to work for a long time in this organization.
• Career planning, focus on career growth. Even if a person does not associate himself with the company, but sees his position as a step in his career, he is likely to show interest in learning.

Demographic factors. As the researchers found out, neither gender nor nationality have an unambiguous effect on people's motivation to learn. However, age indirectly affects the interest in advanced training. The older people become, the more they want to deepen their knowledge in the area to which they decided to devote themselves, which means that they willingly attend trainings and courses in their chosen specialty. Young people, if they show zeal for learning, are often scattered in the interests.

Situational factors. The climate in the company has a strong influence on the motivation to learn. Researchers believe that several factors influence the desire of employees to improve their skills and apply the results.

• The specific benefits of training in work, the compliance with the results of expectations. The employee will show more interest in the training if he realizes that new knowledge and skills will really help him in his work.
• Stress. Anxiety significantly reduces the specialist's desire to learn. Therefore, courses and trainings are best postponed until the stress factor disappears.
• Organizational culture in the company, promoting the use of knowledge gained during the training in the workplace. An intracorporate culture that encourages the immediate application of newly acquired knowledge in work processes can push an employee to learn and apply new skills in work.
• Management support. The psychological, material, and organizational support of the leadership significantly increases the motivation.

As you can see, the motivation of employees for training is a multifaceted process in which the manager needs to remember many factors, and before making a decision on choosing a training program, it will not be superfluous to answer the following questions :

• How is work done now?
• Why does an employee need new knowledge?
• What exactly will he do better, better and more effective with this skill or knowledge?
• Does this knowledge apply to the specifics of your business?
• Do you have compelling examples of how this skill helped in similar situations?
• What will happen to the business if we do not train the employee to do this now? In a month? In a year?
• Who is the customer of this knowledge / skill? Who will stimulate the use of acquired knowledge in practice?

How to motivate employees to learn

The main conclusion that suggests itself after studying the results of research is to hire only those who are already motivated for their own development and growth within the company.

However, you should not immediately dismiss those who resist learning and urgently recruit new ones. A manager can create an environment in which employee motivation to increase their competencies will increase.

Here are some recommendations :

• Create a learning-friendly atmosphere in the company. There are groups in which a healthy competitive spirit is developed, trainings and advanced training courses are at a premium.
• Link training to motivation and loyalty programs.
• Initiate employee career planning. Talk with him about the fact that raising his qualifications will be useful in the workplace, will improve the business results of the company, and then the specialist expects career growth and, as a result, an increase in salary.
• Literally “sell” employee training - pay attention to the goals and values ​​of the company, link them with benefits and benefits personally for the employee. Show links with the knowledge and skills that he will receive in the session. Sometimes, employees do not think about the direction in which to “pump up skills”, and your task is to help them see the forest behind the trees.
• Carefully choose a coach . It is believed that the success of learning is 100% dependent on the talent of the teacher. In most cases, a professional trainer can show benefits and prospects, demonstrate not only excellent mastery of the skill, but also inspire an employee to learn and apply this knowledge in practice.
• Together with the employee, make a plan of "first steps" for the implementation of the acquired knowledge and skills in the workflow. Monitor the implementation of this plan, ask how is the introduction of innovations in the work.

Naturally, investing in a specialist is justified if he applies the acquired knowledge and skills in the organization, and does not leave after the completed course. Eliminating this risk will help the student agreement, in which it is necessary to prescribe a mandatory period of working out after training and the procedure for reimbursement of expenses incurred by the company, if the employee nevertheless decides to change jobs.

Finally, the most important and difficult is to achieve consistency in the process of motivation with each of the employees - before, during and after each training session. A drop sharpens a stone not by force, but often falls. And the motivation to learn is situational and changeable, so the efforts to form and maintain it will pay off in a continuous process.