To understand how well the company has organized the training and development of employees, it is enough to look at the vacancies for management positions. It’s a good sign if most of them are closed by promoting in-house specialists. If, however, the company attracts managers from outside the company, it’s time to review the training strategy.

A corporate training strategy is a plan of action for the company in the long term. It includes information about what results the company wants to achieve, in what ways, and with what tools it will do so. For example, a manager wants to introduce new technologies and methods of work. So, the training strategy should include training specialists in the new principles of work and retaining them in the company.

Despite the fact that the company’s corporate strategy is built for a long time, it isn’t created once and for all, and of course, it’s different for a modern business, like Netflix , and an old-fashioned construction company. The strategy can and should be reviewed and adjusted to the changing needs of the business.

Why an Effective Training Strategy Is Needed

In order for a company to achieve its goals, it’s important to set them first. A modern learning strategy allows for both current and long-term goals to be considered simultaneously. With short-term planning, a corporate management strategy allows you to train employees in the skills they need in the here and now. For example, this might be creating small courses to handle a new product or to improve sales skills.

Long-term goals help improve the performance of each individual employee and the team as a whole. One long-term goal might be to create a talent pool. That is, training employees in skills that will help them take on leadership positions in the company in the future. It’s also possible to train people in related specialties, to avoid burnout and ensure horizontal growth in the company. With a well-constructed corporate development strategy, a company can solve the issue of a shortage of qualified personnel.

A training strategy helps to better present each employee’s path in the company. A person knows what courses he needs to take, what knowledge to acquire and what indicators to achieve in order to move up the career ladder. This allows us to retain the most motivated and talented employees, for whom continuous development is important.

Obligatory Elements of a Training Strategy

The training strategy starts with setting measurable goals. Write down what indicators should be achieved in what period of time with the help of training.

Another important element is the analysis of the situation inside the company and competitors. It is important to understand how far the current situation is from the planned goals, what advantages competitors have, what methods of training and development of employees they use, on what platforms they place educational content.

Choosing a platform is a necessary element of building a training strategy. Courses will be placed there. Testing results, knowledge level reports, bonus programs, contacts, corporate news and other important materials will also be stored there. In order not to transfer this amount of data to a new training platform, it’s important to initially choose something that is perfect for the company.

Collecting statistics and analytics is another mandatory element of a training strategy. With its help, you can regularly monitor whether the company manages to achieve its goals, and, if necessary, adjust the program.

Stages of the Corporate Strategy Development

The work on the educational strategy development can be divided into several stages. The main steps of the corporate strategy development are outlined in the ADDIE model. This acronym stands for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

Analyze the Current Situation

To begin with, testing can be done to check the level of knowledge of employees. Reports can be used to evaluate the results. The results obtained should be compared with what the company plans to achieve. Also at this stage, you can conduct a SWOT analysis. That is, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company, which can be improved with the help of training, as well as opportunities and threats.

Decide What Needs to Be Done to Achieve the Goal

After assessing the gap between the desired and actual state of affairs, you need to understand which of the goals can be achieved by improving employee knowledge. After that, you can begin choosing the means of training. At this stage, you can choose whether the company will conduct regular courses with mandatory testing of knowledge or limit itself to one-time training aimed at a specific task.

Choose Training Tools

More processes are moving online. And corporate training is no exception. So, even if you plan to conduct part of the training offline, choose a convenient online training platform. With its help, you can improve the knowledge of any number of employees in the company departments all over the world. When choosing, consider the functionality you need at the moment and the features you may need in the future. A learning platform is chosen for the long term, since transferring data can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. The more features a platform provides and the more frequently it’s updated, the better.

Prepare Training Materials

The best training materials are those that are made individually, tailored to the specifics of the company. However, creating them takes time and money. That’s why companies often buy ready-made courses, which are also good at solving their tasks.

Get Down to Implementation

Don’t wait until you’ve built the perfect training system. Run courses to make small adjustments already in the process. To do this, make sure employees are aware of the upcoming training, that they have enough time. And most importantly, that they understand what the training is for, what the goals are for each employee and for the company as a whole.

Evaluate the Results

You can survey employees to see if they find the training useful. Feedback can be obtained both anonymously and with names and positions. Employee knowledge tests can also help assess the effectiveness of training. Besides tests, you can ask people to do hands-on exercises based on the material they’ve learned.

What else should you consider when creating an employee training plan? The training strategy is connected to other strategies of companies. So, it’s important to consider the corporate social strategy and the corporate financial strategy.