I must admit that I get concerned with the continual emphasis in the media that organizations need to attract the “Best Talent” to succeed in the world today. It is true that successful organizations need visionaries and exceptionally skilled people to be creative and carry out their vision. It is also true that organizations need everyday individuals to carry out many of the routine tasks that are necessary to run a business. Just look to the sports world where signing some of the “best talent” did not result in a successful team. So, what should you do to support and build the skills of all your employees to be high performers in an exceptional team? A Training and Competency Program can help lay out the path to success.
Before you focus on the skills of individuals, make sure you create an overall Growth and Development Strategy that considers:
- The organization – clear direction, skill and competency requirements,
procedures, processes, and tools to run efficiently - The team – the type of culture you want with the right mix of skills and personalities
- Individuals – a process to build the skills and competencies you need
A Training and Competency Program can be easy to create for organizations or departments of any size
- Start Simple – focus on the main competencies needed to execute the key procedures required for your organization to succeed. Creating a long list of competencies can be overwhelming and often leads to a superficial checklist approach rather than sticking to the key ones where you can focus on meaningful training and assessment.
- Engage Your Organization – the success of a training and competency program depends on how all trainers, leaders and employees support the process. Get everyone involved from the beginning to set your organization up for business growth and success.
- Use a Consistent Training Process – train trainers/assessors who use your procedures to train, coach, and verify the skills of employees and leaders. We developed our 4 STEPS/4 SKILLS™ approach and online courses to simplify the whole process so everyone can easily understand and follow the workflow.
- Measure and Reinforce – like any successful initiative you need to measure the results in a meaningful way. Assessors should capture the abilities of trainees with factual descriptions. Leaders should be able to see examples of success in how their employees carry out their work and more importantly, they should celebrate and congratulate the workers in their successes.
Build the “Best Talent” for Your Team With a Simplified Training and Competency Program Using a simple organized approach to training and competency helps build exceptional teamwork, working safely and efficiently, and positioning the organization for profitable growth. Take a moment to think about how many issues you currently deal with that could be eliminated with a better approach to training.