Training materials can make a big impact on participant engagement, whether they are being used in the classroom or outside of it. Within the classroom, materials should leave a “mental mark” on the participant, that is, he or she should be able to recall important information the next time the materials are open. Outside of the classroom, training materials must serve as a real-time reference that may help participants on the job.

One of the most obvious types of training materials are user and classroom manuals. For a long time, we felt like classroom participants had to have something to hang on to while they were in class. But if your classroom training has evolved into a series of job experiences, you may not need manuals or user guides. On the other hand, if you are providing education on technical or operational processes, you may want participants to follow along in a manual – and take the manual with them when they leave. If this is the case, manuals should be self-explanatory and at least contain an index where participants can quickly reference material. In addition, consider using outsets or removable pages with a condensed version of the process or operation for quick access. Keep text to a minimum and use bullets and numbering as much as possible – a “wall” of text in a printed user manual will probably keep in on the shelf or in the desk when the participant needs assistance.

If you’ve provided tutorials in both live and virtual classrooms, these materials make great references going forward. A tutorial should truly reflect the keys to engagement we discussed earlier in this series. The main keys for a tutorial are that it should be manageable and interchangeable. The manageable component ensures that each tutorial covers just the right amount of information without overpowering the learner. But the interchangeable component ensures that tutorials can be “mixed and matched” for appropriate audiences.

Along with tutorials, job aids are very important and need to engage participants after they leave the classroom. A job aid or quick reference guide can be a printed or online piece of collateral that instructs the participant in one or two technical or operational processes. To engage participants with a job aid, keep the processes within the job aid limited. In other words, use separate components or pages for each process. Also keep in mind that bold text, numbering, and bullets should be used on job aids to draw the user’s eye to the important pieces of information. When training is going on, consider teaching the process using the job aid. This way, participants will be able to better remember the process and remember the job aid that goes with it.

With tutorials or job aids, a best practice for engagement is to combine the overall process with a technical operation if it exists. For example, if you are teaching the sales force how to use the CRM system, place the sales process in the job aid along with the technical steps. This melding of process and technical operation serves to engage the participant through familiarity as well as through the presentation of the benefits of following the process as written.

Finally, you can use social media applications as materials, as well. For example, if a discussion thread on customer service has occurred and been closed, consider “editing” it for content and reusing it. Post the discussion to class participants as a great example of the customer service process. Alternatively, if learners are participating in a blog or discussion after training, have the moderator post the job aid or tutorial. Have participants discuss the job aid, come back with any suggestions, make revisions, and re-post it. This way, participants will be further engaged in the after-training social media as well as the accompanying job aid.

Again, the key to making materials engaging is to remember our keys of engagement: accessibility, relevance, applicability, manageability, and interchangeability. If your materials and job aids pass the “key” test, they will engage participants and continue to be used after training has ended.

Copyright 2010 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: You’ve built the University, opened it, and now it’s up and running. It’s never too early to look at the maintenance of the University and its programs, so let’s decide which areas should have your focus.

The first area you should look at is the evaluation of the learning programs themselves. Your evaluation of the programs should start at the basic level, with immediate reaction surveys. These surveys, sometimes referred to as Level One on Fitzpatrick’s scale of evaluation, measure the participants’ responses immediately following training. Did they feel they learned new skills? Did the instructor have the appropriate professional outlook and enthusiastic presentation skills? Were the materials useful? All of these questions will give you an idea of how courses are immediately perceived.

But don’t stop there. In order to get a true idea of how the learning programs are adapted on the job, you’ll need to evaluate further down the line. Start with behavioral evaluations at 30 to 45 days after the training. In these evaluations, you’ll need to ask participants if they were able to apply what they learned in the course. Use the course objectives as a roadmap for the survey questions, using the same action verbs as the objectives. To get a further view, survey the participants’ managers or supervisors to see if they have an idea about the application of skills on the job. Remember that many times how things are trained and how they are accomplished in the field may be different – if you encounter these differences, be sure to investigate them thoroughly. The whole idea behind this type of evaluation is to find out what is useful and what is not – in other words, what parts of the training programs are helping participants achieve the organization’s strategy?

Customer satisfaction is another area of focus, but don’t confuse this with program evaluation. You’ll want to find out what the University’s service is like to the participants. Have they made phone calls to the University and what type of experience was that? When they visit locations in person, were they greeted promptly and shown into clean facilities? If the organization has customer service surveys, consider modeling the University’s surveys after those. In fact, if the organization utilizes a mystery shop approach, consider implementing one for University participants. Your goal is to have a picture of the customer service abilities of all the staff at all times. This is another way to show that the University is not isolated and out of touch, but is completely aligned with the organization’s service mission.

Customer satisfaction can also sample the technical aspects of the University. You should certainly evaluate online courses from the content perspective, but add to that a quick survey about the online experience. Did the user have trouble signing in? Was he or she able to locate the course or information needed easily and quickly? Was the navigation user friendly or not? Was the speed of the online course progression too fast, too slow, or just right? When you survey for technical satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction, you’re getting a good picture of all users – not just classroom attendees.

What about the University staff? Part of maintenance is the coaching and development of the existing staff. Are certain staff members in need of certifications, such as instructional certifications or design certifications? Do the online designers need to be trained on a new version of Flash? Do the content designers or instructors need to go to educational conferences or continuing education? Determine if staff members are receiving regular coaching and feedback on their performance from managers or supervisors. If not, be sure to circle back with those managers to find out why. In the midst of all of the maintenance, don’t forget to start your succession planning process, as well. Are any senior staff members in need of leadership or management training to make them ready to take over if necessary?

Finally, your maintenance inspection should include resources and costs. Are the locations fully used or are the classrooms sitting empty? Use your Learning Management System (LMS) to determine if instructors are being used efficiently to teach classes, learn new classes, and enter class data into the LMS. If not, go back to the managers to find out how to make the usage more efficient. From a budget perspective, conduct a good audit on how the money is being used – and don’t be afraid to spend earmarked money if it’s necessary. You don’t want a budget cut in the next fiscal year because you didn’t spend necessary funds.

After considering these aspects, you’ll have a consistent picture of how the University is functioning.

Summary: It’s time to consider the staffing needs for your Corporate University. You’ve assessed learning and determined resources, so you have a good idea of what parameters you’ll need to work within. Here are some ideas on hiring the right staff to move your project forward.

When considering the staffing needs of the University, there are two major considerations to make. First, go back to your original learning assessment and look carefully at the range of knowledge, skills, and abilities the University’s programs will be teaching. When you look at development and delivery staff, think about how you can match their knowledge, skills, and abilities to those uncovered in the assessment. Do you need a large group of strong sales trainers and designers, or is the need more operational? Is there a pool of strong coaches, achievers, or experts that you might be able to pull into the University?

Second, consider the infrastructure you’ve taken the time to create. How does the staff you’ll need to hire fit in with the reporting structure you’ve built? Does the available talent pool work with that structure, or do you need to make some changes to move forward? Do the needs of the population warrant a phased approach to your staffing, i.e. can you hire the operations group first and get them rolling, and then move to the sales group, the customer service group, etc? Once you’ve taken time to consider your original assessment and the infrastructure, take a look at hiring for individual job groups.

When looking at an instructional design area, you’ve already decided on the need for online and content designers. With online staff, the best thing to do is find your Learning Management System (LMS) manager first. He or she will be able to point out the skills needed to create training interventions that work with particular systems. Online designers with an instructional design background are the best to find – they can edit the content for the adult learning environment while creating the technical platform. But overall, you’ll want to look for people with skill in Flash, HTML, and content builders such as Captivate or Rapid Builder. These designers should also have a good eye for color, use of graphics, and appropriateness of fonts. Content instructional designers can typically come from many different backgrounds. As long as they know adult learning principles, instructional design processes, and can manage projects they can usually design anything with the right subject matter experts. For either type of designer, ask for a portfolio or samples of the work they’ve done in the past.

The University’s instructors are like ambassadors and marketers all wrapped into one. If participants have a good learning experience and feel like they can come back because of an instructor, you’ll have no problem filling the classrooms. When you look at your learning assessment, think about how much of the content is heavily internal to the organization and how much of it is general, like sales or customer service. This is one of the ways you can look for instructors. For the heavily internal content, like operations, look for those internal people who show a flair for coaching, mentoring, and communications in general. Ask the key managers and supervisors for recommendations – but do it carefully because you don’t want anyone to think that the University is raiding their talent pool. For the general content, you can look inside and outside the organization. Top sales and customer service trainers can adapt to any organizational standards, but it’s their personalities and abilities to connect with your audience that makes them stand out. For either group, it is imperative that you and other University managers ask for a brief presentation from each candidate in addition to their interviews. You’ll get a great picture of their presentation and communication skills that way.

Your managers will be the glue that holds the group together. If you already have an existing group of instructors, consider which ones have the talent and drive to move into management positions. This is an easy transition and you’ll have a manager that you may have already coached. Training and Development managers on the outside can be expensive, but in some ways you could be saving yourself time and money down the road by choosing one. In the same way you look for instructors, look for managers – both internally and externally.

In general, Corporate University associates should be “coachable”, well-respected in their fields, highly polished and professional, driven, willing to grow, and adaptive to change. When you find training professionals that have these competencies, your University will be well on its way.

Summary: You’ve assessed, determined resources, and now you have the buy-in of your executive team. The next step in building your Corporate University is to create the infrastructure for operations. Let’s take a look at what items to consider.

Your first consideration for the University infrastructure is staff. You’ve estimated your staff needs and now have an idea of how that will unfold based on the funding. There must be an organizational staff structure in place that creates smooth, efficient, and quick operation. To create this structure, look at the University’s design, delivery, management, and administrative areas.

If you have an instructional design area, determine if all of the designers will report to one person or if the unit can be divided into online and content designers. Will designers serve all functional areas, or will they be specialized? Look at the specific skills and abilities of each person and determine if across the board design services will work for the University. In the delivery or instructional areas, determine if the breakdown will be by “college” or by discipline. For example, you may want to have sales instruction delivered by one area, no matter what part of the organization is being served. Or, you may want to have a “college” concept that mirrors the organization itself. Let’s say you have an entire retail division, so the University will have a retail delivery division, specific to that discipline. If the organization is large, it may be a good idea to look at the “college” concept to begin with. With this system, you’ll be able to efficiently utilize your instructors over various disciplines. Don’t forget management – how will the instructional areas be managed? Will they have a “working” instructor who manages the team, or will you be able to devote a manager to each area?

Another staff consideration is standards and professional development. Determine what standards each department will be held accountable for – try starting with professional organizations like the American Society for Training and Development or the Society for Performance Improvement to find minimum standards for instructors and instructional developers. Also, the University’s career mobility should mirror that of the organization as a whole, so decide what career paths exist within departments and between departments – and determine how you’ll publicize that to University associates.

The University’s Learning Management System (LMS) is a consideration unto itself. First, you must decide how the LMS will be administered. In the best cases, a person who has both technical LMS experience and training experience will be a good one to manage the entire system. But beyond the actual staff are determinations as to whether the access to the LMS will be controlled, that is, limited to the LMS manager or administrator, or whether instructors and their managers can access the data. In relation to data, the LMS manager should decide what standards will be used, i.e. how will course times be entered, how will names be reflected, and how will descriptions be standardized. In addition, the LMS should have a front-end “look and feel” that is distinctively branded to the University.

Policies are a tedious matter but your University must have a written set. Your policies should outline a minimum performance standard, i.e. what is considered to be a passing grade across the board. The policy should outline class sizes, stating minimums and maximums in order to be effective and within the limits of the physical locations. Along with class size comes a cancellation policy for classroom instruction: how many students does a course need to have before it is a “go” or a “no go”? Instructional managers should be given standards for annual audits of their courses, as well, to ensure that nothing is stale or outdated. Another consideration is whether the University should charge for training and cancellations. If you have trouble making a business case, the suggestion to charge individual business units for big-ticket training such as new hire courses is always sure to get a nod.

Finally, think about the workflow the University should have. Who will make changes to courses and when? How would a request for new training be handled – and in what time frame should it be required? Who would sign off on new training courses or major revisions?

Once you’ve established your infrastructure, you’re ready to actually build your staff.

Summary: Before you can put your Corporate University assessments and resources into action, you must obtain buy-in from your organization’s executive team – or the executive who controls funding. Since getting and maintaining funding is difficult for training, let’s look at how to present your case.

You’ve taken quite a bit of time and effort to assess your organization’s learning needs across the board as well as make estimates of your resource needs. For you, it’s a highly detailed picture of what to expect as you build your University. But you can’t present your view to the executives and expect to get their buy-in. Instead, you must put your business case together in “executive-ese”, that is, drill down to the specifics of how the University is going to positively impact the organization as a whole.

You’ve determined what needs to be trained and have probably decided how that needs to be trained. The question your executive team will have is, “why,” and your answer must tie into the overall strategy and mission of the organization. First, take the hard data you’ve gained from your assessment and lay it out in general terms. For example, you can say that regular customer service surveys show that clients are not as satisfied as they could be with the organization’s service. You can say that sales are great, but there are definite ways to improve them, from X percent to X percent. When you put this in strategic terms, you can estimate that by teaching every customer-facing associate the ins and outs of how to deliver a top-notch experience, the organization’s customer service numbers will improve by X percent. In relation to new hire training, you can report that the organization hires X number of people per month, spends X amount to train them, and will spend X time and money to replace them if they leave. Along with this, you can report that the training program will address X out of X issues reported by supervisors and managers within X days of hire – and thus save the organization X amount of time and money. This is obviously a quick glance through setting up the numbers.

When you get to your business case, attack each area of your proposal with strategic implications – talk about how each course or competency area can impact strategy and overall business. If the University’s plan is to train all customer service associates on the proper form for each experience, you can link that directly to the organization’s customer service mission. And if training can improve the customer service experience, it stands to reason that the training can impact the organization’s overall image. If the help desk presently spends a certain amount of time on certain technical issues, make the link between “quick reference guides” and the ability to focus the help desk on more important issues. Your business case must not leave any part of the University’s proposed courses in “limbo”. Each one must have a specific purpose and link to the overall strategy.

As with any business case, especially at executive levels, think about presenting information in the most efficient, least wordy fashion. Don’t go into great detail unless you’re asked – training departments sometimes get the reputation of being “out of touch” with the rest of the organization, so your sharp, to-the-point Corporate University presentation will show that this training area will be in touch.

When you put your presentation together, focus on how the University, after the initial expense, can save money or time in every strategic area. In addition, focus on how the University can improve efficiency both in what is being trained and how it’s being trained. For example, online learning is one of the most cost-efficient methods to deliver knowledge training that doesn’t necessarily need a human interaction element – show that in your presentation. If you can, think about how the University can create a dollar impact by helping the organization meet its goals – again, it can be an estimate but it will put the dollar figures into the heads of the people with the purse strings.

Summary: Now that you have brainstormed your ideas for the vision and strategy for 2011, it’s time to tighten the vision and determine if it fits in with the overall organizational initiatives.

The results of your brainstorming session are in: either on your own or with your staff, you’ve decided on the most important components of a vision and strategy for training in the upcoming year. In some cases, you’ve even developed a variety of options or choices for the vision and its implementation. Now it’s time to create a true vision for the training department for 2011 and create a strategy to go with it. Let’s look at determining the fit and then we can look at how to develop a vision and strategy.

You essentially have two sets of information: the information you’ve obtained from your assessment of the industry, your organization, and your customers, as well as the information you’ve gathered from the training department internally. How do you know if the two are a fit?

First, look for components of your vision that fit directly with the initiatives that you will be impacting over the upcoming year. For example, if a new CRM system is being implemented, your choice for using a simulation software such as Captivate to develop tutorials is probably right on. In fact, you may be able to pilot the simulation software with a key project like a CRM system implementation. On the other side of this, if many of the organizational initiatives involve the need for classroom training that is heavy on personal interaction, this may not be the time to look at rolling a simulation program. But don’t forget to consider the alternatives.

The high level of interaction could be great cause to roll out a web conferencing system and program for training. The comparison of these two sets of information will begin to create your strategy. But what about the creation of a vision? Keep in mind that a vision statement simply describes why your department or organization exists. In fact, you may already have a general vision statement for your training department. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t create a vision statement for the upcoming year.

Plus, your vision for the upcoming year does not necessarily have to be a “vision statement” in the truest sense of the word. Your vision for the upcoming year should serve as a guide as well as a reality check as the year progresses and projects and initiatives change. For example, if your organization is making heavy changes to customer management for the next year, one of your vision statements for 2011 could be to support the goals of customer management for 2011. Your vision statements can focus on your department, as well. For example, if you know that 2011 is the year for innovation in training, make this a vision statement. The idea here is to create a set of statements that keep you and your staff on track, especially as things become nebulous.

Once you’ve created this vision, “connect” it to your department with a strategy. For example, which projects come first and which ones are going to be year-long components of your work? If you’re not sure how you will be able to assist in some of the major initiatives, it may be time to create an assessment strategy. Consider the CRM initiative we discussed earlier. This is literally an earth-shaking initiative, so in order to figure out where to start part of your strategy will be to assess the departments that are involved in literally to get involved with them as the project develops. As you are developing this strategy, you’ll begin to see pieces of it falling out, due to lack of human resources, financing, know-how, and technology. Be sure to note these items, because our last discussion in this series will be about the nuts-and-bolts execution of the vision and strategy.

Now that the vision and strategy is laid out, does it fit with the organization as a whole? Most likely it does, because your planning has centered around the organization and its initiatives. If there seems to be a disconnect, go back to your vision and strategy in order to make corrections.

Next, we will examine the creation of the execution strategy.

Retention can be a difficult task for employees at any level, but retention at leadership levels can be more difficult. As employees develop their leadership styles and abilities, new doors may begin to open for them. Through networks and industry knowledge, high professional and high potential leaders have knowledge of positions that the generally public may not have. For these reasons, it is necessary for us to take a closer look at the training role in retaining leaders.

One of the first points in leadership retention is similar to our first point in general retention: ensure that new managers and supervisors have all of the tools they need to be successful. Your best subject matter expert, aside from managers and supervisors themselves, may be human resources. For example, many organizations create a course package that includes HR law and policies, the hiring process, the corrective action process, and the HR documentation process. After supervisors move through this package, they can move on to deeper management and leadership instruction.

Leadership and management are the next two components of the training role in retention. Both poor management and poor leadership can lead to a loss of employees, especially if those employees are fairly new with the organization. In terms of management, training should be ongoing and cover operations, financial, personnel, and project management, as well as motivation and influence. Leadership, on the other hand, is an opportunity to explore what characteristics successful leaders have within your organization and establish programs that create those characteristics. This is where HR and training can collaborate to create not only the leadership program competencies but also the plans for building an effective leadership bench.

Keep in mind that retaining leaders through training does not necessarily have to be confined to managers and supervisors, especially in this economic environment. Some organizations have come to rely on their lateral leaders because of a lack of promotional opportunities. In other words, you should definitely keep an eye on the people who lead as colleagues and would be great additions to the leadership bench. To do this, consider adding training interventions that target this high potential audience. Topics can include leading laterally, teamwork, taking the lead in ambiguous situations, and even industry or organizational knowledge pieces. This vital population should not only be retained but should be prepared to step into management roles when they become available. In fact, some organizations choose lateral leaders to go into the management course package or the leadership pool both to retain them and to get them ready to move up.

Another way to retain leaders is to ensure that managers are involved in the training department’s efforts, from the bottom to the top. Pay special attention to career paths and job-based curricula that highlight the path for mobility. By doing this, the leaders will understand that they can be succeeded if necessary and that they can use the career path as a motivational tool. When leaders get involved in the advertising of training, you are creating another way to retain them, as well.

In this series, we have examined the role training plays in HR functions, namely recruiting, employee selection, development, and retention. The training role in these functions can be direct or indirect, depending on your organization and its structure. It’s also important to remember that no assistance with HR functions should be unwanted or forced. One of the ways to ensure this is to understand how training can help and offer assistance as it’s necessary. Alternatively, consider meeting with HR on a regular basis to determine where they are and what they need. But also keep in mind that your assistance will come at a cost to your own projects and initiatives, so this is a space where your ability to balance will come in handy. Finally, remember that the current environment is calling on all of us to do more with less – and this is a great marketing perspective for involving training in some human resources functions.

In terms of retention, HR and training can work both together and separately to ensure that the talent acquisition cycle does not have to run repeatedly for the same groups or positions. In general, retention from the training perspective involves fine-tuning and monitoring all programs, as well as using those training programs as a potential source of advertising for retention. Let’s take a look at how the training department can assist HR with employee retention.

One of the first items to look at in regard to general retention is new hire training. Obviously evaluation of new hire training should be a continuous operation for the training department, but don’t forget to evaluate the managers who supervise new hires. You should certainly evaluate new hire performance via their supervisors, but be sure to examine the program itself from the managers’ perspectives. In other words, ensure that new hire training is what the managers need. If you are teaching the wrong skills or the wrong procedures that lead to the skills, new hires and managers are likely to mis-connect. And unhappy new hires tend to be in great danger of leaving. Of course, a new hire who just wasn’t the right fit will eventually self-select anyway, but you definitely don’t want those perfect fits leaving because they did not get the training they needed. New hires’ managers can give you quite a bit of insight on how well prepared they are.

Next, consider cross training as a retention tool. This is another area where you’ll want to get buy in from both HR and managers, but in today’s environment this may be fairly easy. Cross training does not necessarily mean that training or line managers are attempting to prove an excess of staff. It simply means that employees can learn to do more with less staff – and to be prepared to take over wherever needed. But how is cross training a retention tool? Employees with more knowledge about the organization and its operations are more likely to stick around.

Also, be sure to “listen” to training evaluations. In any discussion of training evaluation, we know that an evaluation, at whatever level, is useless unless you do something with it. For the most part, trends in training evaluation are telling you something and you should act upon that knowledge. As your programs are constantly aligned with employees and jobs, you’ll find that this alignment may impact retention.

Another way to look at general retention through training is to truly examine the bottom line. In today’s economic environment, it’s likely that training managers are forced to do this anyway. But look at the competencies your programs teach and figure out how those have impacted the organization. For example, is customer service better? Is turnover in certain positions lower or higher than this time a year ago or two years ago? Have operational errors become lower? If you can link training to these items, you may also impact retention.

Finally, try to make training as accessible as possible. If certain programs lend themselves to online delivery, take the plunge and make the change. Employees need access to information and training at all times, but, as we’ve discussed, many of them are being asked to take on more responsibility in the same amount of work time. If you can cut out travel to and from a training location, not to mention time away for the duration of training, this is also a positive impact on retention. Consider alternative methods to training, as well. For example, we’ve discussed social media roles in training, as well as coaching and mentoring. The combination of these methods can push knowledge out and ensure that the workforce stays focused – and happy on the job.

In regard to HR, be sure to get the department involved in advertising training – and using it as a retention tool. As part of recruitment and selection, the training program can be a big draw, especially if a potential employee understands that he or she will have a career path and the training interventions to support it.

Next, we will finish our series on training roles in HR functions with a discussion of retention at the leadership level.

The development of human capital is a primary role for training. Development can come in many forms, which we will review. However, we will take a different view on development by determining how we can best leverage HR in this all-important facet of day-to-day business.

First, let’s examine formal training programs, such as classroom, online, and social-media based learning. Depending on your organization and its scope, you may have formal training in place for just about every position. Or, you may have a formal training program that serves as a “funnel” for the rest of the organization. Your formal training program may be a blended approach, where participants attend class and then go to online learning interventions, but it may also use one approach or the other. However your formal training is structured, you can rely on HR to help you evaluate and improve each component. You are probably already evaluating training from the participant and supervisor perspective, but have you ever considered going in tandem with HR to evaluate training?

The HR department is usually privy to descriptive numbers, such as position turnover, promotions, voluntary termination, and involuntary termination. In cases of involuntary turnover, HR will usually know the reason. If this is the case at your organization, you can obtain a profile of what’s happening after training. For example, if you find that involuntary terminations occur often because of certain procedural issues, perhaps training needs to be improved in those areas. On the other hand, if terminations are involuntary because of issues with managers or supervisors, the problem could lie with management or leadership training. Obviously the data HR can give you will not spell out the problem letter for letter, but it will more than likely help you narrow down some improvements to the overall training program.

There are other ways to get involved with HR in employee development. For example, does your organization have an on-the-job training program? If not, on-the-job (OTJ) programs are an effective joint venture for HR and training. Because OTJ combines a learning intervention with job progression, both HR and training can take what they learn from OTJ results and improve programs. If the people that are hired can’t seem to make it past certain points in the OTJ program, HR may need to look back at the overall profile of the best candidates. Alternatively, training may need to improve the components of the OTJ program.

The key with formal development programs is to have HR on board with what you are trying to do. When you begin looking at designing and implementing a new program, get HR personnel involved. For example, if new hire training is under development or redevelopment, involve the recruiters in the process. Just as your area can give them feedback on the potential candidate profile, they can give you feedback on what skills managers are really looking for. If you are looking to implement training at other levels, such as employee selection, which we’ve already discussed, involve HR from the very beginning. This way, you are creating a team environment where HR is closely aligned with training – and vice versa.

With this in mind, let’s move on to the “other side” of employee development, which involves career paths, coaching, mentoring, and other informal training interventions.

If your department has been able to assist in recruiting, you may have been able to help bring in a pool of talented job candidates. But when it comes to selection, the major responsibility passes to the hiring manager and HR. How can training participate in this process, even from a less direct perspective?

First, your overall training program should include management training, which, in turn, should include training on the entire hiring process. In some organizations, you’ll find that managers and those wanting to be promoted must take a “core” of courses that teach the hiring process, the management process, such as coaching, corrective action, and performance evaluation, and then leadership. If your organization already does this, take a look at how the hiring training is set up. If not, now might be the time to create a program.

To start with, both experienced and inexperienced managers can use a hand on resume evaluation, especially in an environment where the pool of candidates could still be rather large. You may be able to create your own program in tandem with HR. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy and may even lend itself to an online piece. Or, you may want to outsource this type of training once or twice a year. But more importantly, you will want to train managers on interviewing. Believe it or not, interviewees are reporting all kinds of horrors, ranging from hiring managers asking inappropriate questions to those same managers taking phone calls or checking emails during the interview. As the educational institution within your organization, you want to make sure this is not happening. What if you narrow the candidates down to one or two and a manager makes interview mistakes? Those bright candidates may just have another job waiting for them.

In addition to the obvious, interviewing training should focus on teaching managers how to create job-based behavioral interviewing questions that will explain how a candidate makes decisions and works within a team. Also, interviewing courses should touch on how to create an effective interview template, especially if the manager is interviewing numerous people over a few weeks. It’s easy to forget “who’s who” after a series of interviews, so the template a manager creates should jump-start his or her memory. Finally, add communication skills and panel interview techniques to the training. When managers emerge, they will be able to conduct professional interviews, which speak volumes about them and their organizations, as well as have memorable “portraits” of each candidate.

Moving from the actual training role, your department can also offer support. Again, HR may be overworked trying to recruit and set up interviews, so your help internally may take some of the burden. For example, newer managers may need to discuss their interview questions, their templates, or even their interviews. In the absence of an HR presence, or even in tandem with a recruiter, your assistance can be invaluable for a manager who is trying to make a difficult hiring decision.

To augment this assistance, either during the hiring process or during the training, have your staff use their benchmarking to help managers. For example, your new-hire trainers may be able to coach managers in the initial stages of creating their interview questions and templates using the successful competencies they’ve uncovered over time. If you translate those successful traits into interview questions, the hiring manager will be more able to judge whether the candidates have those traits or not.

The one caveat to training involvement in selection is to remember that it really is an indirect, passive role. Try to avoid having training personnel in on interviews. Too many people in an interview may lead the candidate to believe that no one makes decisions at the organization. Plus, the interviews should be confined to those who will be making the actual decision, such as hiring managers, colleagues, stakeholders, or human resources representatives.

Next, we will move into the more obvious roles that training has in the hiring process: development and retention.