Training Delivery Methods

A good balance of training delivery methods will usually include a high emphasis on job assignments and coaching that focuses time, development, support and effort on the job. Delivery methods that take employees away from their work should be well planned and timed to ensure they minimize the impact of time away from the job. Organizations are now starting to look at how they can support informal learning that takes place through the growing use of social networking.

Considerations

When selecting the right delivery methods for the training we are seeking to undertake within the business, there are a number of considerations to make to ensure that the training is appropriate and relevant to the organisation as well as engaging the learner.

These considerations include organisational fit and the learner themselves:

Considerations for Organisational Fit

• Previous results: from similar training undertaken before enables us to measure the impact on the business and to the learners. Identifying the successes and the learning to ensure any similar training undertaken in the future is applied with these insights in mind will help maximise the learning and help you determine the success of using a particular delivery method within your business.
• Scope of learning: should consider the true scope and scale of the training, the identification of the current organisational barriers that exist around the acquisition of new skills and seek to overcome these prior to the training. For example, ensuring a new process or system is consistently delivering the right results before conducting the training.
• Number of learners: that need to be trained should be calculated including those that may need to apply the new skill or knowledge on an adhoc or temporary basis. This number of learners is likely to affect your selection of training delivery methods based upon logistics and cost to the business. This is where delivery methods such as on-line learning have really become efficient ways of reducing time, costs and travel. However, consideration here needs to taken around ensuring similar levels of learner engagement that can be sourced through face-to-face group learning.
• Time span for learning: is an important consideration which may affect the number of training interventions you wish to use to support the learner’s knowledge and skill acquisition over a period of time and where a blended learning approach may be invaluable to sustain their learning. However, if the organisation requires learners to acquire new skills very quickly due the launch of a new product or service, for example, you may select a training delivery method that can be introduced and supported at speed such as on job training, group learning or coaching rather than the investing in the tailored design of an on-line learning application that needs to be tested and supported. Much will of course depend upon the resources and budget accessible to you.
• Cost per learner: is a useful financial calculation to make to help identify the most cost effective delivery method/s balanced with the quality outcome you are seeking. Coaching sourced from an external provider for example is a higher cost per learner than many other training delivery methods. However, the return on investment can be of equally high and therefore the best delivery method for some learners.
• Sustainability: is an important consideration nowadays which fits with many organisations’ sustainability agenda and the impact on our environment. Considering how you can deliver face-to-face training for example, without requiring learners or trainers to travel long distances is critical, as well as utilising training resources that do use high levels of our natural resources.
• Resources and support: for your preferred training delivery methods should be identified prior to making your decision as these can stretch people resources such as internal coaches to support the learning back at work. You will also need to consider the physical resources needed such as technology to support the learning and the costs involved with these, who will fund the resources needed and in what time frame. Your budget for learning as well as your influence and negotiation skills to source the delivery method elsewhere will also be an important factor to consider.
• Cultural fit: will be an important consideration based on your organisational values and the typical lifestyle of your employee base. Running a two day residential training course in an organisation where your employee base has a high percentage of part time employees who value the work/life balance the role gives them may not be the most appropriate delivery method, for example. Short "bite size" face-to-face learning along with a little self study or e-learning package may be far more acceptable as long as the employees have the right technology support.
• Organisational challenges: such as your peak sales season, financial year end, operational issues, that exist around the time of the planned training need to be considered before selecting the delivery method/s to ensure that the learning can be conducted and applied easily to ensure you maximize the investment in learning.

Considerations for the Learner

• Learners' commitment: and motivation to the planned training is an important consideration for selecting the right delivery method. Questions you may ask yourself could include - How much time and effort will they need to put into the learning? What are their current commitments to work and home life? How might the intended training delivery methods impact on these? What might be a better fit given their commitments and timescale?
• Learners' learning preferences: are important considerations before embarking on the selection of delivery method although some methods such as face-to-face learning can accommodate all of these learning preferences. Even if you haven't conducted an audit on your learners’ learning preferences you may well be able to judge certain group's general preferences between active and reflective learning for example from working with them and build in delivery methods that will accommodate their learning preferences whilst gentle stretching them out of their "comfort zone" in order to ensure their learning is complete.
• The learners' current skills set: is a critical consideration for the learning objectives themselves along with the training delivery methods to be utilised. This aspect includes the consideration of where the learner is now to where the learner needs to be in terms of organising the learning itself as well as identifying delivery methods that are flexible to adapt to the needs of the learner. Other skills, such as technical skills for use of on-line learning applications for example, need to be determined and accommodated for.
• Accessibility to learning: needs careful consideration where arranging learning and the respective training delivery methods. Accessibility considerations need to be made in the context of the learners' physical accessibility to how and where the training is sourced or located. The easier the accessibility the more likely the learners are to take up the learning such as travel distance to a group training course, the availability and reliability of the technical equipment for on-line learning  or how easy it is to make contact with the learner's mentor for example.
• Accessibility for learning: is more about considering and adapting the chosen training delivery methods to all of your learners regardless of their level of physical and learning ability, race, sex, age, work patterns and personal commitments, i.e. making your learning delivery methods inclusive to everyone. Simple adjustments such as printing training materials using large font rather than relying on screen access can assist those with poor eyesight for example. Having a mechanism for encouraging yoru workforce to make their own suggestions for adjustment can ensure that the delivery methods chosen are inclusive with the right adjustments made in advance of the learning.
• Appropriate timing: for delivery methods is about ensuring a reasonable window of opportunity that the learner will have to undertake the learning, the realistic duration to complete the learning as well as the provision of sufficient advanced notice to ensure that the learner can prepare themselves and manage their workload to accommodate the learning.
• Learning environment: is likely to vary dependent upon the training delivery method or methods to be selected. However, consideration needs to be made for the likely learning environment the learner will be in when using the selected delivery method. For example, if you are considering mobile learning as a delivery method, will your learner have a head set easily accessible so that they can hear properly if they tend to use this method whilst commuting? If you are selecting coaching as a delivery method, do you have a quiet, confidential area that the learner can speak to the coach? For self study, you may consider providing a dedicated quiet learning area for learners to study at various times of the day, especially where learner work in an open office area, customer facing areas, or noisy production areas for example.
• Complimentary balance of methods: are often a great way to accommodate a number of these earlier considerations to ensure the learner is readily engaged in their learning. For example, you may select a self study or e-learning module to raise knowledge and provide tools on delegation; a bite size learning session that answers learners’ questions, assesses their knowledge, provides skills practice and feedback followed by a one to one coaching session with the learner’s manager to review how well they have delegated recent tasks and projects as well as their key learning and future application. Where resources permit, you can consider offering a range of training delivery methods that better suit different learning preferences and accessibility but you will need to ensure that each method achieves the same learning objectives.

There are many considerations to be taken when selecting the right delivery method/s for the training or learning you are organising. However, taking the most important and relevant considerations to your organisation in the early planning stages of training will maximise the training’s impact on the business. As it is good practice to "pilot" any training rolled out into the business, initial evaluation of the training delivery methods can be made, taking into account the feedback from the learners as well as assessing the organisational fit.