Human Resources

Everyone Wins: 4 Tips for Employee Training Transfer

By Susan M. Heathfield

Updated November 07, 2016

Results, measurement, return on investment, testing, behavioral change, performance improvement,

expectations, accountability, and learning applied on the job are this century's language of education, employee

training, and performance development.

Successful performance technologists, managers, consultants, and training professionals provide real-time

connection between the classroom and the workplace.

If not, why provide training at all?

In my earlier articles, I gave concrete suggestions for training transfer to the workplace. These suggestions

focused on actions and best practices that should take place before and during the employee training session to

promote the transfer of learning to the job.

Equally important to training transfer are the activities that start during and occur following the employee

training session. You can help create an environment that fosters the ability of each employee to assimilate

learning and apply employee training on the job. Just follow these four guidelines. You can help employees

apply training on the job.

Your second mission is to continue to assess the effectiveness of the employee training over time. Determine

whether the trainees feel able to apply the training on the job. Talk about specific behavioral changes, ways to

apply the training, and different approaches to try as a result of the training.

Share evaluation data from the employee training session, and consider ways to improve the employee training

session. For this longer term evaluation, you will want to use a written tool as well as ongoing discussion.

You will want to meet with the trainee and the supervisor several additional times over the three to six months

following the employee training.

Four Training Transfer Tips

 Meet with each trainee, their supervisor, and possibly, their coworkers, following the employee training

session.

The purpose of the meeting is to assess the difficulties the training participant will experience in

applying the training on the job. You want to help the supervisor, especially if she did not attend the

training, understand the results she can anticipate from the employee training.

You also want to help the participants discuss work environment changes that will enable training

application. Because you also met with the supervisor prior to the training, this is part of an ongoing

discussion.

 Remind the supervisor, particularly, or coworker that one of the most powerful methods for helping

others apply training in the workplace is to act as a role model using the training or skill.

Coworkers can offer suggestions, when requested, about applying the employee training. The supervisor

is expected to assist with the application of the employee training. This presumes the supervisor is either

skilled in the training content or he attended the employee training. Another powerful approach to

training application involves an entire work group, including the supervisor, learning and then practicing

the employee training content together.

In a mid-sized manufacturing company, a group of managers, supervisors, and quality professionals

attended the same customized employee training sessions for several hours a week. A central component

of each employee training session was a facilitated discussion about the application of the concepts

learned the prior week.

 Follow up with the trainees and their supervisor about progress on the goals and action plans they

developed during the employee training.

In an effective employee training session, the group discusses how to apply the training back on the

job. They also talk about how to overcome the typical roadblocks they will likely encounter when trying

to apply the employee training. Persuasive evidence supports these as legitimate and effective methods

for training transfer. According to Marguerite Foxon, currently Principal Performance Technologist for

Motorola, in the Australian Journal of Educational Technology:

"There are several transfer strategies outlined in the literature which can be incorporated into training

courses, and research has produced some encouraging results.

"In particular, when learners are given goal setting and self-management instruction as part of a training

course, they demonstrate a significantly higher level of transfer (eg., Gist, Bavetta, & Stevens, 1990a;

1990b).

"Such strategies increase the likelihood of transfer because they acknowledge the impact of

organizational system factors while at the same time assisting the individual to focus on potential

applications and to 'make plans' for using the training.

"Both designers of instruction as well as those delivering it have a responsibility to address the transfer

issue – to help learners think through how to integrate the skills into their jobs and to plan in terms of

what will facilitate or inhibit the transfer. It is no longer good enough to leave it up to the individual

learner – if it ever was."

 Help facilitate a partnership between the supervisor and the individual who attended training.

They need to meet periodically so the trainee can share his application plan and progress with the

supervisor. This partnership also consists of praise, positive reinforcement, and rewards for learning and

applying the employee training.

This partnership ensures that failed attempts to apply new learning are viewed as learning opportunities

instead of failures. Never “punish” an individual for attempting to practice a new behavior or approach.

If your organization approaches performance reviews in a traditional manner, the system or instrument

cannot grade him or her down for practicing a new skill.

9 More Tips for Training Transfer: Strategies After

Training

By Susan M. Heathfield

Updated March 16, 2015

Successful training and employee development efforts provide a real time connection between the classroom

and the workplace. Without this connection, most of what employees learn and experience in training sessions

never shows up at work.

In earlier articles, I provided concrete suggestions for helping employees transfer training to the workplace.

These suggestions focused on actions and best practices that should take place before and during the employee

training session to promote the transfer of learning to the job.

Equally important to training transfer are the activities that start during and occur following the employee

training session. You need to create an on-the-job environment that fosters the ability of employees to apply

what they have learned in training to their jobs. These nine guidelines will help employees transfer knowledge

learned in training sessions to their jobs.

 Work with the supervisor to make certain the individual who attended training has a chance to

practice the new skills. As an example, if a group attends training in how to run an effective meeting,

each person must schedule and run a meeting within a week of the training.

This is not to encourage more meetings, but with frequent practice, the individuals need the opportunity

to apply their learning quickly following the employee training session.

 The training provider, the trainee, and the supervisor all need to understand that a learning curve

is involved in every attempt to apply training on the job. The person who attended the employee

training needs time for the new ideas, skills, or thoughts to sink in or become assimilated and connected

to what she already knows and believes.

 The follow-up mentioned earlier, the sharing of the application plan and the follow-up on the goals and

action planning, will help keep the integration of the learning progressing.

 Tie the employee development goals closely into an organization-wide performance management

and development process. This enables the employee to participate in establishing the goals. The

system helps create accountability for follow-up and learning. I can’t stress this tie-in enough. Employee

training that is provided as part of a bigger picture, as important to a staff person’s development and

progress, is the most useful training at work.

 The trainee should work with her supervisor to plan additional needed training or coaching based

on her experience of applying the learning on the job. Both peer and supervisory 360-degree

feedback, formally or informally, can help the individual assess progress and needed assistance.

 Testing is not a favorite workplace word, but testing the application of training following the

training sessions, at stated intervals, can assist with transfer. In one client company, staff members

are developing a testing process that will certify employees as trained in a particular work process.

Periodic reassessment is planned, along with job rotation, to ensure that all people perform each of the

work processes regularly.

 As part of most employee training sessions, participants receive training manuals, training

resources and job aids, and a bibliography of additional sources of information. The person who

attended the training needs to make use of all of these materials to reinforce their learning. Facilitate

access, if possible.

I am seeing a trend in organizations that is exciting. People attending employee training sessions are

receiving books in addition to the training materials. Whole work units are purchasing the same book

and reading it together and holding discussion meetings, frequently called employee book clubs.

In a health care center, tapes from a national conference were viewed during work time by all members

of the organization. An old-fashioned popcorn machine, with all of the accompanying aromas and

sounds, provided a positive incentive for people to feel good about attending the employee training

sessions.

 One of the most effective methods I have found for reinforcing learning is to establish a “norm”

within a workplace that every person who attends employee training or a conference is expected to

train others, share the training materials and the learning experience, upon their return. This is

one way to ensure that individuals who attend employee training spend a significant amount of time

understanding and applying the material. One of the best measures of learning is the ability to teach

others.

 Provide supervisory staff with job aids or follow-up lessons and brief readings to reinforce and

support the training concepts with employees on the job. Training staff can provide these as part of

the training materials and can co-facilitate until the supervisor is comfortable doing employee training.

The goal is to encourage supervisors and coworkers to train each other.

 Following the employee training, people who attended can form an informal network for support

and encouragement. Assigning a training partner at the session is also useful. Reviewing expectations

of the network and the training partner at the session is also valuable.

The training presenter can facilitate this process of follow-up for employee training. In these days of

electronic communication, people can share a forum, an email mailing list, or a weekly online chat, as

well as meeting in person.

 Pay people for using the knowledge and skills learned in the training class.

Implement more of these ideas to follow up on employee training to ensure the likelihood that trainees transfer

classroom training to the workplace. I know, I can hear the groaning over the time and effort and care taking.

But, think about it for a minute.

Isn’t that the business we’re in? The business of building productive, exciting workplaces in which people

continue to grow and develop – in service to both themselves and their organizations. Sounds like a win-win

time investment to me.

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