Continuous training in the company: what, how and why?

“Life must be a continuous education”. This quote from the French writer Gustave Flaubert should be applied to the personal as well as the professional sphere, for continuous training in the company is synonymous with job satisfaction, high performance and productivity..

For the time being, it seems that the Spanish business fabric is on the right track. Thus, as the report Essentials, published in October 2016 by the BBVA Foundation, against the backdrop of falling public spending on occupational training, spending on lifelong learning by organisations has doubled between 2007 and 2013, 7.32 billion. However, there is still a long way to go.

What is lifelong learning?

In simple terms, for Francesco Avallone, author of Psychosocial training: methodologies and techniques, continuous training “means to bring about changes in the work performance of employees”.

More comprehensive is the definition by William McGehee and Paul W. Thayer, who describe it in their work Training in Business and Industry  as “the formal procedures that an organisation uses to facilitate learning, so that the resulting behaviour contributes to the achievement of the organisation's goals and objectives".”.

For his part, Irwin L. Goldstein, in Training in Work Organisations, conceives lifelong learning as “the systematic acquisition of attitudes, concepts, knowledge, knowledge, rules or skills that lead to an improvement in work performance”.

Similarly, the Ministry of Labour refers to lifelong learning as “the The set of training actions carried out by companies and aimed at their employees, which are characterised by the fact that they are financed directly or indirectly, partly or wholly by the enterprises and aim at improving or adapting the professional skills, knowledge or qualifications of their employees, provided that they are related to the activity or profession they carry out or will carry out in the future in the enterprise itself”.

Why include training plans in companies?

The implementation of lifelong learning initiatives in organisations involves benefits for both professionals and companies, for, as C. Lemoine points out in Evolution of Training in Organizations, The human capital of the company is a key factor that enables the strategic adaptation of human capital to changes in markets and companies.

In this respect, the workers who can access training programmes gain the following advantages:

• Acquire new competences and skills linked to their professional career.
• They feel more satisfied and motivateds by perceiving that the organisation cares about their development.
• Increases its trust to perform their duties and take on new responsibilities.
• It is conducive to greater participation and innovation, The result of this increased self-confidence and empowerment is that they are more self-confident and empowered.
• See reduce errors and accidents work.
• Improve their adaptive capacity to change and reduces work-related stress.
• It facilitates the coordination among employees.
• They offer greater effectiveness in their functions.
• It enhances the possibilities for internal promotion of professionals, by adding new skills.
• They get a better performance which has a positive impact on the company's overall productivity.

In turn, the return on investment of continuous training for the companies is reflected in the following aspects:

• It provides an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the workforce, which enhances a optimal allocation of functions.
• Strengthens organisational culture, with professionals who feel satisfied and integrated within the company.
• The company's values and mission are consolidated among human capital.
• By increasing motivation and satisfaction, staff turnover rates are reduced, The new system will allow talent to be retained.
• Boosts reputation and employer branding of the company, by enhancing the attracting the best profiles to the company.
• It generates a savings, The company has a high performance structure and reduces labour errors.
• Increases the innovation of the teams, helping to create a competitive advantage over the competition.
• Increased staff productivity translates into better economic performance for the organisation.

How to develop training programmes in the organisation?

However, as he points out Goldstein on his work Training in Organisations, “training is not a cure-all remedy; this must be systematic and planned and form part of a sequential and logical process., The ”European Commission's new "European Union" programme, made up of a series of steps to be taken into account".

Therefore, in order for investment in continuous business training to be successful, it is necessary to plan programmes according to the following steps.

- Identification of training needs

Why would we organise a software management course for the whole staff when only a couple of employees work with it? The company's training initiatives should be aimed at meeting the needs of each employee, preparing teams for possible changes or market demands or adapting staff to technological updates., It is therefore important to identify areas for improvement.

To achieve this, companies have the following options at their disposal tools:

• InterviewsDirect meetings with professionals allow us to know at first hand what the employee's expectations are in terms of training: in which areas they feel less prepared, what their career plans are, in which areas they feel interested, etc.
• SurveysThe questionnaires can also be used by HR departments to discover the training interests of the workforce.
• Performance evaluationthrough performance assessment instruments, the company can detect areas of improvement for each employee.
• ObservationThe following is also possible for direct superiors to report on the strengths and weaknesses of the workers in their charge.
• Tknowledge estsAnother way of finding out which subjects are a priority for their training is through short tests or quizzes on specific aspects, such as language level or the use of software.

- Design of the training plan

Once we know what aspects need to be improved at the personal and organisational level, the next step is to specify the continuous training actions to be carried out, who will benefit from them, when they will take place, and the methodology chosen in each case.

In terms of methods, there are currently various techniques for carrying out continuous training in the company. These are some of the alternatives most commonly used:

• In person. This is the classic option for learning development and involves the completion of a course or programme at an external specialised entity, which means that workers have to travel to the academy to receive the training.
• In company. The methodology used is the same as in the case of face-to-face training, with the particularity that in this type of training it is the teacher or tutor who travels to the company to deliver the programme. It is widely used nowadays as it allows a better adjustment of the contents to the needs of the company, as the person in charge of the training can get to know the environment and functioning of the organisation.
• On line. Because of its flexibility, e-learning is also a very widespread modality in the business world, as it allows staff to access theoretical and practical content from an electronic device and to take the course according to their availability.
• Blended learning. It is a hybrid between online and face-to-face training, as it combines distance learning content with face-to-face classes on those aspects that need to be reinforced.

- Analysis of results

In order to know whether or not the continuing education programme has been successful, it is essential to using big data for assessing the impact of actions. In this way, the company will be able to determine which initiatives have had the most positive effects and which have not for further planning.

How do we determine the success of lifelong learning? These indicators unveil the results of the programmes:

• Management: are those related to the organisational aspects of the training programme and measure, among other things, the cost per course, expenditure per employee, student/tutor ratio...
• In effect: The aim is to analyse the employees' assessment of the training, which is why indicators such as number of participants per programme, percentage of participants compared to the total workforce, drop-out rate, etc. are evaluated.  
• As a result: the aim is to determine the degree of success of the continuous training after its completion, focusing on parameters such as the ratio of workers who have passed the programme, qualifications obtained, conclusions of the tutor or assessment of the trainees, among others.   

Impact: aims to reveal the impact that continuous training has on workers' performance in the medium to long term, such as increased productivity, reduced accidents at work or increased staff satisfaction.