I need some suggestions about how to motivate employees to attend training. Any ideas?

Some information about where I am coming from...My manager and I recently joined our organization and prior to our being here the training function was vacant for 2 years. We have done a needs assessment and have a posted calendar of 22 courses based on the needs assessment and past performance appraisals. At a site of about 400 employees we would like to have about 10 participants per class but are lucky to have 5 enroll.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

The best advertisement is always word of mouth. With that being said, if you did your needs assessment correctly, you should have the best marketing tool that you need - providing learning opportunities that will help people perform in their job. I would guess that a two-year absence of a training funtion does little to help your situation. Some targeted marketing to your audience (and their supervisors) may be a way to get the programs off the ground.

A few questions that may help guide you in the right direction: Are employees and supervisors able to see the link between your course offerings and their job performance? Did you design your courses to make sure that there is a direct link between the learning and performance? Do you have any action planning in place (employees meeting with their supervisors to discuss their training and how it will be applied)? Have you made your learning activities learner-centered?

Sounds like the training function is operating a little bit in a vacuum?? Talk to the people and their managers. Tell/show them how you can help improve performance. Make sure what you offer is a value-add activity and the attendance issue will take care of itself.

Good luck!

If your company has been without a training function for two years, you probably need to spend some time building relationships with your immediate customer: the managers. Depending on the culture and the prevailing sentiment about training, you probably have your work cut out for you. It will be worth the effort though.

Consider setting up meetings with the key managers -- by group if that makes sense for your organization. Let them know ahead of time what you'd like to accomplish.

Also, why a training function after two years? That could be a starting point for discussion. Address it head on and ask them what they need from a training department. Keep the meeting focused on them and their needs. They are your customer. The training department is there to support them and help them and their teams be more successful. Consider something like that as your mantra until you've proven your worth.

You've done a needs assessment -- did you assess employees? Managers? Or both? Do managers know the results of the needs assessment? That may be another good discussion point. Do managers clearly understand the connection between the needs they identified and the courses you're offering? Do they understand the connection between the needs they identified and the company's business needs?

Also, consider prioritizing your offerings based on the needs of the business. It may be that you are offering too many courses at one time. You may be able to get managers on board -- and therefore, more employees -- if they know their employees have an identified training need that impacts an identified business need.

One last thought... make sure you and your manager know the business. Depending on your industry, look for opportunities to shadow or work side-by-side with the employees.

Good luck.
Michele Eby
www.media-partners.com

Hi

Those are geat ideas up there. After you have done the due diligence suggested, there are a few other that motivate people to go to trainig programs other than good solid learning:

- Is training perceived as an enjoyable event
- Will they enjoy meeting other people who would be attending, is there opportunity to network
- Is it going to be same ol' clssroom or is this different
- Are timings convenient
- Is the location appropriate, is the food/coffee good
- Did past participants have a good/worthwhile time
- Is the training mandatory/regulatory
- Did the supervisor ask them, did the supervisor express interest in the program

hope this helps

If employees and their managers are fully aware of the link between the learning, their performance and reaching business goals, the employee is far more likely to be interested, and the manager is far more likely to support the employee's attendance. I've found the book High Impact Learning (Brinkerhoff) to be an invaluable resource for addressing this issue.