WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO TRACK TRAINING
Employee learning and training has developed the into most important factor if organizations desire to achieve their business goals. Organizations can deliver training through live classroom training, virtual classroom training, webinars, e-learning modules, or through mobile devices.
Some organizations use a Learning Management System ‘LMS’ to organize and track performance of all the trainings. That said, there are many more intuitive systems now available that far exceed a typical LMS.
So, why is tracking important?
Tracking is important primarily for three main reasons. First, you can improve the efficiency of your courses and training programs on the whole. You can ensure courses are relevant and add value to learners as they give you an opportunity to seek feedback and improvise. Let’s look at them one by one.
Improve efficiency: Manual tracking is difficult for each training program. It is not only time consuming but may also result in incorrect data being recorded. If the organization is spread across regions or states, it becomes very difficult to track the training at the central source. In this case, training will be organized and tracked separately in the respective divisions of the organization, resulting in a lot of duplication of efforts, time and manpower.
Make courses relevant: Learners can be assigned courses according to their progress. Once courses are assigned to learners, their progress against the expected path can be tracked, reviewed and changes made accordingly. A combination of instructor-led and eLearning courses can be offered along with an integrated tracking system through a learning management system. This provides scope for improvement and customization as per individual learning needs.
Seek feedback and improvise: Learners can record their feedback about training, which gives an opportunity for managers to assess the effectiveness of courses. Sometimes, courses may not be relevant or of immediate use to learners, and if there is no evaluation or feedback from learners, unpopular courses continue to be hosted which do not serve any purpose. With feedback and evaluation, these courses can be either modified or replaced with more relevant ones.
All training methods require considerable amount of investment on the part of the organization in terms of analyzing current training needs, available budget, planning, implementing, reviewing and so on. Just as you need a well laid out plan, you need an equally sound implementation and evaluation of your learning programs. A robust system is essential to organizing, tracking the performance and evaluating all your trainings initiatives. How do you track the effectiveness of your training programs? Do share your ideas and experiences.