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Tag: Leadership

How to Measure The Effectiveness of Corporate Training?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

What is expected at the end of any corporate training? Improved skills and productivity, greater retention rates and an improved brand should be the end result of any corporate training. It is vital to measure whether the training has a positive or negative impact on the learning and development of the participants.  The training involves a significant investment in terms of time and money.

To evaluate the effectiveness of corporate training the technique that is to be used is known as Training Effectiveness measurement. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training, it is essential to evaluate Why Who and What is trained.

Earlier the learning was measured based on multiple-choice questions. Such measurement of learning was focused on short-term retention of knowledge. Also, there was no long term ability to apply this knowledge. Hence, the goal of the training should not only be to look after the return of investment but also to improve the skills of the participants.

The effectiveness of the training can be measured by evaluating the effectiveness of the training in helping learners to gain relevant knowledge and skills. In addition to this, by measuring how well could participants apply the learned information at work and last but not the least by listing down the other benefits of the training.

During the 1950s, the University of Wisconsin Professor Donald Kirkpatrick developed the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model for evaluating training. This model includes a simple, 4 level approach that helps to measure the effectiveness of corporate training. The four levels are:

  1. Reaction
  2. Learning
  3. Behaviour, and
  4. Results

Level 1: Reaction

This level measures how participants react to the training, the relevance, the importance, usefulness as well as of the convenience of the preparation of the training. How to measure the participants’ reactions? It is possible to do measure their reaction by using surveys, questionnaires or talking to them before and after the training. The trainer can incorporate this to collect their feedback on the learning experience.

By asking questions on the relevance of course content, learning as well as key takeaways, strengths, and weaknesses of the training, accommodation of the participants’ pace and learning style by the trainer. Measuring the effectiveness of the training at this level can help the trainers to look for any gaps present in the content.

Level 2: Learning

At this level, measuring the knowledge and skills gained by participants as a result of the training help to test the effectiveness of the training. At this stage of evaluation, you can determine whether the training has met its set objectives. What are the specific skills that can be developed and the scope for improvements in terms of content and method of delivery can also be identified. These can be done by giving the participants assessment of connected learning ventures.

Level 3: Behaviour

It is essential to understand how the training has impacted the participants’ performance and their attitude at work. This can be evaluated by measuring the impact of training on their performance and delivery at work. It is possible to evaluate these by using the self-assessment questionnaire, informal feedback from peers and managers, on-the-job observation, customer surveys, etc. When you assess participants, you must include questions on how are they implementing their learning at work and also whether they are confident enough to share their new skills and knowledge with their peers.

Level 4: Results

At this level, it is possible to measure the tangible results of the training that include reduced cost, improved quality, faster project completion, increased productivity, employee retention, better marketing leads, increased sales, and higher morale. How can you say the training is effective? If the outcomes include increased employee retention, increased production, higher morale of the employees or improved business results, then the training is said to be effective.

So, what is the conclusion? Corporate training plays an important role in improving the learning and development of employees. This also influences the overall performance of the organization. To improve the learning and development of the employees, it is essential to understand the roadblock in the training which is offered to the employees.

Apart from these, you can also consider skill assessment as one of the most essential ways of measuring the effectiveness of the training. Evaluate how an employee carries out a certain task before the training and then reevaluating the same employee after training and then giving him/her the same task. This helps to establish what the employees have truly gained from the training. You can also measure whether the employees have developed any new skills or improved their skills.

Future of Leadership Development – Virtual Reality and Corporate Training!

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Most of the companies sense an urgent need for leadership development. It is because all the companies want to survive in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. This has made them realize that they need leadership skills and organizational capabilities. These skills and capabilities must be different from those that helped them succeed in the past.

When we say “leadership development”, it is all about living at the intersection of preparation as well as opportunity. It is of utmost importance to ensure that all the leaders are well-prepared, able to find or create the right opportunities that will further reinforce their development as well as readiness for even bigger or more challenging roles.

The question which arises from this is,

How to improve the future of Leadership and Development?

The current state of the leadership development industry is upheaval. Such a state of leadership and development industry needs to be improved to adequately build critical skills and organizational capabilities. There is a soaring requirement of courses that impart the hard and soft skills required of corporate managers. The most critical areas of opportunity and growth in leadership effectiveness can be unlocked by incorporating corporate as well as leadership training.

The technological advancement has enhanced the scope of corporate training. Do you know what brings unlimited opportunities for corporate training? Yes, you guessed it right! The answer is Virtual Reality (VR). Today, new-age learners are confronted with virtual reality even before they can implement their knowledge and skills at the workplace. There is a need to embrace the actual use of the web while providing custom eLearning solutions and leveraging advantages of this dynamic virtual environment.

It makes convenient to work from basic manual laboring techniques to high-level executive leadership development. Virtual reality provides an invaluable context to any situation and the opportunity for the employees. It simulates both, new and existing environments which include a new production line, a large busy office that is difficult to replicate without significant cost. Nowadays, several companies have started exploring VR as a supplementary tool for corporate training.

The corporate world needs higher success rates with lower costs which can be possible by implementing virtual reality into corporate world training. The argument for virtual reality in corporate training is whether it helps to increase the employees’ engagement and retention levels. Engaged employees is considered as the result of successful corporate training.

Virtual reality wins the argument as it is possible to do so by training employees in a safer and more cost-efficient way. It brings in practical experience for the employees. Virtual reality offers everything you miss in ordinary audio/video material. In addition to this, it has lower costs than face-to-face training.

Can you guess the benefits of using virtual reality in corporate training?

So, how to use virtual reality in corporate training?

Not only the potential for virtual reality in both corporate and leadership training is enormous, but the problems it can solve are everywhere. Skills such as public speaking, sales, negotiation, and networking are a few essential enterprise skills to keep the business running. Even managers demand these skills in new candidates and employees. One of the vital elements of the virtual reality is that it allows employees to practice what they have learned in the courses in realistic simulations.

Today employees need more integrated learning in the flow of work. Virtual reality makes it possible to give them a state-of-the-art learning experience. It can be used for training employees on complex equipment, tasks or procedures. This is possible using virtual reality to provide a realistic environment. This environment incorporates both, scenarios and multiple paths for trainees to experience as well as learn from varying outcomes. As per the statistics, 95% of the leaders perceive the effectiveness of virtual reality.

The power of virtual reality makes it possible for the leaders to get the benefits of on-the-job learning. Conducting leadership training in a safe virtual environment leads to an opportunity of learning, trying, failing and growing without any risk factors.

Virtual reality creates a space for leaders where they can practice common leadership skills. It is possible to provide performance evaluations to them. This virtual world makes the learner experiment with different approaches to leadership. This, in turn, makes them lead more effectively in real life. Such leadership training is used to reinforce leadership skills, including soft skills.

The leaders can engage in situations that require proficiency in skills such as self-awareness, empathy, communication, cultural awareness and more. Apart from these, it is also possible to measure leaders’ soft skills and provide objective feedback on the same. One can use speech technology, eye-tracking technology to offer tangible feedback.

Having virtual reality in use, there is no need for training professionals to feel daunted. It is because virtual reality can overcome the potential challenges if the L&D leaders actively plan for potential issues that may arise in leadership or corporate training.

What is The Key to Inclusive Leadership?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

What is The Key to Inclusive Leadership?

Do you feel included in your organization? Companies generally have diverse, multidisciplinary teams. These teams combine the collective capabilities of women and men, people of different cultural heritage, and younger and older workers. But one cannot say that his/her organization has high performance as it involves a mix of people working together.

There is a need for leadership that assures that all the team members feel equally treated, respected and valued. Such leadership is known as inclusive leadership. Organizations should actively work to achieve an inclusive workplace for their employees. It is the responsibility of the leaders to create an inclusive work environment which can recognize and leverage all the unique traits, talents as well as experiences of the team members.

Inclusion is not about diversity. It’s about competitive advantage. And it’s a choice.

Inclusion involves fostering the structure, culture, and mindset of a leader. Incorporating inclusive leadership, allows and encourages each member of the team to have a voice and bring out their best by performing to their potential.

How can you be an inclusive leader?

  • Are you able to recognize your unconscious bias? It is impossible to understand all the values, beliefs, rituals of each employee at work. But you must work to understand your own unconscious bias. To be an inclusive leader you must be aware when you are making assumptions.
  • Do you respect individuality? To become an inclusive leader, you need to respect as well as embrace individual differences, different ideas, and ways of working of your team members. Do not ever expect your employees to be the same.Recognize the value of your team that composes a wide range of skills, passions, and viewpoints. Kristie Rogers, a management professor who researches respect in the workplace, explains how respect for individuals delivers a range of benefits: “Employees who say they feel respected are more satisfied with their jobs and more grateful for, and loyal to their companies.Hence, being an inclusive leader, if you are having respect for individuals in an inclusive workplace, it will not only benefit the employees but also benefit the organization.
  • Does your organization has cultural norms? When these norms are not written anywhere, new employees can know them. Under inclusive leadership, it is the leader’s responsibility to proactively look for ways to make employees feel comfortable. It also focuses on not overlooking the small things. You should get back and amplify your team members’ points with a comment.
  • Do you respect the uniqueness of your team? As an inclusive leader, you must notice and talk about the differences of your team members without making any team members feel objectified. As a leader, you will be more successful when you see and respect the unique qualities of each team member.
  • Do you trust your team members? If yes, then it is a sign of being an inclusive leader. Having an inclusive leadership makes you commit to “We” before “Me”. How will you bring expertise to work?Your team members must trust you and the same way, you should trust them too. Fostering trust between each other enables your team members to feel safe and make them contribute their unique perspectives.
  • Do you adjust your leadership approach? You must proactively adjust your leadership approach to meet the needs of your team members. Inclusive leadership demands an ability to recognize team members’ preferred way of communication.Inclusive leaders can prove their adaptability by not only being flexible but also being open in making adjustments that enable team members to perform at their best.
  • Do you recognize that collaboration is essential to achieve team goals? Inclusive leaders know the importance of sharing ideas, resources as well as energy to execute team goals and create an inclusive environment. Inclusive leadership will demand your team members to work with and not against one another.It is also required that all the team members look out for others on the team so that no member of the team fails. You, as an inclusive leader, must build collaboration both within and across your team, gather the diverse perspectives of your team members, and leverage a range of experiences.While doing so, an inclusive leader can create an environment where your team members feel empowered to offer ideas and expertise to each others. This will make your team members accountable for giving their best effort to ensure the success of the team.

If you as a leader wants to effectively lead your team members and build strong workplace culture, inclusive leadership is considered of utmost importance.

In short, inclusive leaders recognizes the individual differences in the team, listens to his/her employees’ voices, and utilizes their talents as well as skill sets to achieve greater organizational impact. When the leaders know how to create an inclusive culture, the organization can gain the most from each individual’s knowledge and experience.

Retention and Training Go Hand-in-Hand!

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Today’s corporate world is very vigorous; to stay ahead in the game businesses need people who are multi-talented and dynamic who can handle the technical as well as the non-technical evolutions in the industry and can come up with creative solutions to those challenges.

Realizing the importance of human resources, corporations have started incurring huge expenditure on account of the training and development of their talent. In this competitive industry retaining a talented workforce is another challenge for corporations, training and retention stats have shown a positive correlation in the past. Let’s delve into the importance of training at work and how it helps with employee retention.

Why is training important at work?

It’s not to assume that trained personnel will be better at doing the job when compared with an individual who hadn’t got any training for the job. From a broader perspective, training can be seen as a method to instill discipline to perform a given task in an organized manner. So, how does it change things?

Imagine doing a task without any predefined instructions or training manual, you might be able to complete the task but what’s important to observe here is the time taken to complete the task. That’s how efficiency is defined and measure, for big corporations it’s not about just doing the task it’s all about efficiently doing the job that would save time and money for the company.

Training new employees in the company help them to understand the work culture and the company’s expectations. It helps to align their performance and expectations from the work creating a pool of satisfied workforce. Initial training programs are work-oriented, they give emphasis on skill development and knowledge building that will help the employee to do the job effectively. Apart from developing new skills training also helps in honing the old ones. The improved know-how to do the job benefits the corporations in the long run by the means of increased employee productivity.

In addition to this, training also helps corporations to save money that they would otherwise spend on hiring new talent from outside by developing a competitive in-house human resource pool. Leadership is among one of the most important factors when it comes to the longevity of the business, a robust training curriculum also helps with nurturing the leadership qualities in employees who can expand the business even further.

How does it help employee retention?

Employee retention can be understood in the context of employee turnover ratio, the employee turnover ratio can be defined as the percentage of workers who leave the organization and are replaced by new employees. It can be calculated by dividing the number of employees who left the company by the average number of employees during a given time frame. Employee retention can be understood as the ability of an organization to retain its talent pool.

So how exactly does training help with employee retention? Well, starting with on-board training experience, research studies have shown that a well-designed on-board training experience increases the probability of employee retention for companies.

Imagine a scenario where the newcomer has to find out about everything without any guidance, compare this to a situation with a well-balanced onboarding program that provides the recruit with all the information about the company and the departments within. Naturally, the second scenario will lead to a satisfied and productive employee.

As per statistical data, the worldwide turnover rate is around 11%, the turnover rates vary for different industries with the securities industry having the highest turnover rate at 100%. This further increases in the case of nascent stage start-ups with a turnover rate of over 400%. Start-ups are not very structure and they don’t have a robust training program in place, partly due to budget constraints. This has an impact on their sky-high turnover rates.