What makes training highly effective?

Skills are in the critical path to business results

First and foremost, the topics to learn and skills to master have to drive business outcomes forward, so it's important to know how this training creates increased business.

Mapping the skills and knowledge to business outcomes also provides a solid foundation to develop metrics for evaluating price and effectiveness.

Everyone can get it because it's inexpensive

Let's face it--despite its clear contribution to business results, formal training often gets cut. Projects often go over budget, and since everything else is already committed, training takes the hit.

All other things being equal, the less training costs, the more likely it will stay in the budget, and the more likely it will be available.

Everyone who needs it can get it now or later

During major upgrades and rollouts it's common to train everyone on new systems, and that training is usually a part of the project budget.

However, due to the realities of people's schedules and the limitations on project budgets, some people who need the training don't get it.

Training that provides for absent users and people who join the company after the project is finished raises effectiveness by raising ongoing training coverage.

Effective training matches how people like to learn

Studies clearly show that when training uses the "holy four"--reading, hearing, seeing, and doing-- uptake, satisfaction, and results are very high.

Video training is especially effective because you get pictures, sounds, text, and step-by-step demonstrations.

People can repeat the training whenever they want

Over 90% of training we see once, we forget completely. One-shot trainings are far better than no training at all, but if that's all people get, effectiveness will suffer.

Effective training incorporates repetition because repetition is the mother of retention. When users repeat their exposure to training material their skill and knowledge go up dramatically.

If it's convenient, it gets used

If you have to dig out a book, sort through your notes from a class, or search on the internet, at the minimum you'll have to stop what you're doing. At worst it may be a long time before you get back, and by the time you do, you may have forgotten what you were doing in the first place.

In a perfect world training pops up exactly when and where you need it, and shows you exactly what you need to keep going.