Employee training can have a variety of different intended outcomes. Whether managers aim to develop their team's general soft skills in areas like communication and teamwork or a specific skill like competency with a new piece of equipment, training objectives are equally critical.
In addition to instilling focus and purpose in training programs, specific learning objectives demonstrate to employees that the competencies they expect to develop are achievable and realistic.
In this article, we’ll outline the five-step process you can follow to create realistic and effective training objectives:
1. Define your objectives for training
Developing realistic and effective training objectives requires understanding what employees will learn from the program. To do this, managers could benefit from an initial evaluation of the employees involved in a training initiative.
To develop training objectives, consider the types of employees who are involved. Team leaders and experienced employees will often take a more active approach to their development due to higher confidence levels. In contrast, newer staff are usually more inclined to be guided by trainers. This means you should define objectives of varying specificity and difficulty depending on the employees being trained.
When writing each training goal, consider a skill shortage or knowledge gap the training will resolve in your organisation. Managers should implement the SMART goal-setting system to ensure that training objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
Tip: Use Bloom’s taxonomy for higher-level training objectives.
Bloom’s taxonomy is a way of classifying learning goals into different levels of complexity and specificity. Business leaders and managers can use the hierarchy to create training objectives that align with the employees undertaking the training program's existing skills, experience and expertise.
The five stages of Bloom’s taxonomy from bottom to top are:
- Knowledge: Trainees will learn, remember and recognise specific pieces of information without developing a deep understanding of the concepts. For example, product knowledge is at this stage of the hierarchy. Regarding training objectives, action verbs such as identify, memorise and select may be used at the ‘knowledge’ level.
- Comprehension: This stage involves employees developing a more profound understanding of the terminology and facts from the previous stage. They should be able to describe and explain various concepts in satisfactory detail.
- Application: To further develop the competencies of trainees in a particular area, they must be able to apply and demonstrate their learned skills in a practical setting. They should also be able to solve problems related to the concept. Training objectives that target the ‘application’ stage include verbs such as apply, use, demonstrate, perform and solve.
- Analysis: Once employees have an in-depth understanding of a concept, they are at the analysis stage. With the knowledge of how a particular thing works, staff are better prepared for senior roles that involve planning, strategising and reviewing.
- Evaluating: At the top of Bloom’s hierarchy is the capability to think critically about a concept and challenge existing practices. Only the most experienced employees reach the ‘evaluating’ stage, which means they effectively critique, assess and argue proposed changes within an organisation.
Strong managers and leaders consider Bloom’s hierarchy when writing training objectives to identify realistic outcomes.
2. Align the training goals with your business goals
With a range of learner-oriented training objectives already developed, the next step is to ensure they align with the organisation’s broader objectives. This will increase the return on investment from employee training, as the developed competencies and skillsets will directly promote achieving key business goals.
Consider each of the individual training objectives and amend details on the business objective it supports, and how it promotes their achievement. If you struggle to add this information to a particular training goal, it may not be closely aligned enough with business objectives. The training objectives may need to be removed from the list in this situation.
3. Find suitable training options
Following the development of multiple business-aligned training objectives, the focus should shift to researching suitable providers for this training. Managers need to decide between on-the-job and off-the-job training and whether the training will take place in person or online. Another consideration is whether courses improve employee performance or act as certification training.
While on-the-job training is cheaper and more accessible for providing employees with complex skill mastery, it does not bring new skills and knowledge into the company or contribute to its overall development. External providers can bring extensive industry and academic experience, developing technical skills and competencies that elevate the organisation.
4. Fix any learning barriers
As a training initiative commences, trainees and trainers may identify one or more issues preventing optimal levels of development and learning. As a manager or business leader, you are responsible for finding a solution to these barriers to maintain a positive return on investment for the company and support employee morale through training.
One common barrier to learning in corporate development is limited access to resources. With limited budgets, managers and business leaders often struggle to source funding for the latest technologies and tools required for an effective and optimal training process.
This can be overcome through an interconnected business and professional development strategy that strategically positions training as part of the organisation’s operations rather than as an external expense.
5. Analyse results
After the completion of a learning module, it is critical to undertake an analysis of the results of the training. Measuring the success of a learning initiative requires you to revisit the SMART training objectives developed before the program's commencement.
Specifically, the ‘Measurable’ aspect of these goals is important. If a training objective was to develop software proficiency to increase productivity by 5%, then the relevant aspect is the ‘5%’. In this case, managers should instil some strategies for measuring productivity compared to before the training.
Whether or not the training was successful will depend on whether the desired measurable outcome has been achieved or improved upon compared to the company’s performance before training. These results can be used to improve the relevant learning objective.
Plus UTS offers corporate training for organisations seeking to upskill their team members rapidly. Employees learn from world-class academics, providing rapid skill development at a level similar to university courses.
Our training is carefully aligned to each company's specific needs and objectives, ensuring employees receive relevant and business-aligned professional development - enquire now to see how we can help you.
