One of the benefits of internal/in house supervisor training is that you can implement it as part of a process of performance improvement. By this I mean it could be integrated into performance appraisal, coaching, productivity improvement projects, administrative support, presentations etc.

It’s a bit harder to do this when supervisors are sent to a public/external course, but it’s not impossible. If you want to get the most from supervisors attending public courses, discuss the expected outcomes with the course providers and arrange for pre course briefings and post course implementation and reviews.

It is our desire that delegates do not simply enjoy our courses (which they do). We want them to implement the skills and insights gained from participation. To this end we have developed a few add-ons to our Leadership Skills for Supervisors course - assignments, coaching etc. We offer most of these for no additional cost to clients. Some that will involve us in ongoing support will carry a reasonable fee.

There are off course some decided benefits to public courses. One is that there is less likelihood of participants being called away to attend urgent(?)issues. Another is that delegates benefit immensely from interacting with participants from diverse working environments.

Contact us if you would like to know more about our Leadership Skills for Supervisors course and the added value add-ons (plug-ins for the computer minded)

Tags: supervisor training

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your training? One of the best known frameworks for distinguishing between different types of evaluation comes from Donald Kirkpatrick. He constructed a four level hierarchy of evaluation, each of which is relevant and provides useful information to measure the success of a training intervention.

At level 1 learner reaction to the training is measured, at level 2 learning during the course is assessed. Level 3 measures behaviour change back on the job and level 4 evaluation deals with the impact the training has on the organisation. This is the difficult one to measure, but it’s not impossible.

Those who attend an Impact training for trainers course regularly give us great feedback on what they think of the course (level 1) and demonstrate their new skills by presenting during and at the end of the course. (level 2) They and their managers report improved approaches to course development and presentation. (level 3) As for level 4, we as training consultants are not called upon to undertake before and after impact studies, and most people don’t, so we cant say.

Trainers, like teachers are in a unique position to impact the people in their care, and well trained staff are undoubtably having an impact on their organisations.

I would love to hear, and report in this blog, how some trainers have gone about measuring and documenting the success of their training interventions.

Tags: train the trainer , Impact

The TV news has been full of fires lately, tragically some of them have been house fires, resulting in loss of life.

We do a fair amount of health and safety training in industrial/commercial environments and we always relate what we are teaching to both the work and the home environment. It is interesting however, that whilst people can see the relevance and application and may even be committed to safety in the workplace, they are often not so studious in the home.

With this in mind, during this last year, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and upgrade my safety systems around the home. I started with buying a domestic fire extinguisher, followed up by a few more smoke alarms, of both types, and more recently as part of my Christmas stocking to myself, I bought a residual current device for use with my power tools.

Perhaps a training workshop, dedicated specifically to health and safety around the home, wouldn’t go amiss. Reduced absenteeism would surely justify a few hours of company time, not to mention the spin off of heightened safety awareness in the workplace. And then of course there is the thought that one may be saving at least one family from the trauma of the loss of a loved one. Give us a call and we can put something together for your work teams.

Tags: safety training