Organizations that invest in technology and not in the capability to use it are organizations that repeatedly underperform their technology investments. Building a corporate technology training program is not an HR function or an afterthought — it is a strategic capability-building exercise that should be as carefully designed as the technology it supports.
Start With a Training Needs Analysis
The most expensive training program is the one that trains people in things they already know or things they do not need to know. A training needs analysis identifies the specific capability gaps that are limiting performance. It compares the knowledge and skills required for each role against the knowledge and skills currently held by the people in those roles. The gaps are the training requirements. Everything else is optional enrichment.
In practice, a training needs analysis requires interviews with managers and role holders, observation of current work practices, review of performance data where it exists, and engagement with the technology owners who understand what the system requires of its users. Done well, it produces a prioritized list of training needs with an associated audience for each.
Design for Transfer, Not Coverage
Training design that focuses on covering content produces graduates who can answer questions about the system. Training design that focuses on transfer — on ensuring that participants can apply what they have learned to their actual work — produces users who change how they work. The difference is in the design choices: realistic practice scenarios rather than abstract examples, spaced practice sessions rather than single intensive sessions, on-the-job application assignments rather than end-of-course tests, and manager involvement in supporting transfer rather than managers treating training as someone else’s responsibility.
Building the Delivery Infrastructure
A training program without delivery infrastructure is a curriculum that sits in a folder. Delivery infrastructure includes the trainers or facilitators who will run the sessions, the training environment — a system sandbox or demo instance that users can practice in without affecting production data — the materials that participants take away, and the scheduling and logistics that get participants into the training at the right time. Building this infrastructure takes longer than most organizations allow for it, and shortcutting it consistently produces poor delivery quality that undermines good content.