As a business leader, you likely work hard to ensure that your company has goals, and measurements in place to see progress toward those goals. In addition, you are likely concerned with ensuring that employees are well trained. However, what many leaders miss is a simple step that can take your business to new heights. This step is tying those two important items together. Ensuring that your company training is tied to your business objectives helps equip your employees to meet the goals that make your company successful.
There are essentially three pieces to tying company goals to training objectives. The first happens when the company goals are set. It is important that senior leadership think about the skills that employees will need in order to make it possible to meet the goals. You can expect ill equipped employees to suddenly meet new goals. This might include things like new product knowledge or improved sales or technical skills.
These required skills must then be included in a training plan. For the company to be successful, it must ensure that the employees receive the training needed to develop to the level needed to meet the new goals.
The third piece of this puzzle is the one that is often missing. It is critical to ensure that when training is delivered, employees see how their new skills match to the company’s goals. As the training is going on, trainers should refer to company goals and objectives, making sure that employees see how the new skills or knowledge they are gaining equip them to provide their personal contribution to meeting the new goals. This will not only help employees have the required skills, but will also help them to personally relate to lofty company goals. When employees at every level are “bought in” to the goals, and see that upper management is committed to providing them the tools to make them successful, morale is improved. Suddenly, all employees have the same understanding of overall company goals, rather than this understanding only existing at management levels.
The most successful companies know how to integrate the critical goals into every level of the organization and into every activity provided for employee development. Once you tie your overall goals to the training you deliver to your employees, you will see your training program become even more valuable than it is today. And, you’ll see your employees more committed to achieving your company’s most important mission.