Reengineering training for performance improvement

Summary form only given. Training Magazine estimates that 1995 direct expenditures for formal training were $59.8 billion, a staggering performance investment in the human capital of our workforce. Inspired by the Japanese, leading manufacturers now spend 3% to 5% of their payroll for training as a matter of policy just to remain competitive and conversant with rapidly emerging technology. But the issue of return on that investment remains. What return should companies expect? How much? How soon? How will they know that they achieved the target payback? Or any payback? Clearly the answers to these questions lie with the design of training, its deployment, its relation to employee performance and measurement of its results. However these considerations themselves are thorny issues to resolve and are easily (and often) dismissed as the province of the training expert. The real issues then are delegated to the human resource department who is simply asked to provide training on a generic topic. We must understand how training amplifies and improves performance and how effective it is in doing so. We must be able to measure its results, adjust our efforts, and determine whether more, or less, training improves our bottom line. That can be accomplished but it requires the same amount of attention to detail that we unflinchingly dedicate to the machines, the processes and the information systems in our plants and operations centers.