Not Seeing Eye to Eye with Your Employee's on Training?

Why people do and don’t want to embrace workplace learning

The idea that training is an essential ingredient of a successful organisation can be a surprisingly hard message to sell.  People resist because of previous bad training experiences (‘waste of time’), the time to be invested and an ever increasing focus on fitting in more work with short term deadlines – often at the expense of the longer term. It’s a challenge that trainers and learning/development managers need to fully understand.

Reasons why training is not embraced:

1.   Boredom.

This is by far the most common complaint. And the cause is trainers that either deliver under-stimulating material, or deliver appropriate material but in an under-stimulating fashion. Trainers need to be aware that delivery and content need to be matched to the individual’s or group’s needs and interest.

2.   Audience already has the skills being taught

Although this is a common complaint it’s not always true. Sometimes it’s the people that are the least interested that need the training the most. Once again the trainer must really understand the audience’s needs. Covering old material is a huge turnoff.

3.   What’s in it for me?

People in the training industry know how important it is to continually upgrade skills and expertise, but to those working in the coalface the emphasis is always on getting through the existing workload. Always keep in mind that the material must benefit the group in practical ways that they can implement straight away. Anything less will be seen as a time waster that is preventing them from fulfilling their duties.

Understanding these road blocks is essential to improving the outcomes of your training sessions. But the opposite view must also be taken into consideration. When you can understand the positive mindset of the individual that embraces training you can work on shifting those in the ‘resistance’ category into the ‘engaged’ category.

Why do people want to embrace training?

1.   A desire to be better at their job

Most people define themselves, in part, by the work that they do. Those that see training as a means of improving their workplace performance are often those that embrace training the most. As a trainer it’s important to make the link and to present the value to the individual. 

2.   Wanting to understand themselves

Some go beyond their responsibilities and see training as a way to improve themselves overall. These people love the challenge of building new skill and getting better at something new. This is often seen in broad scope training, such as communication or leadership training.

3.   Compliance to management requests

Another common motivator are those that are following directions of their manager, eg to close performance gaps identified in a review, or after a complaint, or for a new role.

As a trainer you have at least two key clients (and often more stakeholders) – the manager and the employee - and you must ensure the needs of both are met and both are engaged in your training process and delivery.

This blog was written by Eve Ash, Eve is a dynamic speaker and regular keynote presenter on creating a winning mindset. Eve understands the business of communication, relationships and success.

She is a renowned international expert on creating a powerful culture at work where people are switched on and engaged.

View Eve Ash's full range of Training Videos here.