YOUR TRAINING PARTNER

When selecting your training solutions from a host of competitive vendors, what should you do in order to separate the wheat from the chaff?

If you are searching for a training vendor to support you with your training initiatives, the rest of this posting will help focus you on the criteria that should result in a good training partner.

Most importantly, you should be searching for a vendor that focuses on customer-driven program development. And, just what does that mean?

You should be looking for a vendor that begins the development process by listening to its customers. Ask the vendor the following questions:

• How many customers actually use your solutions?
• How many of those users did you survey before beginning program development?
• How many of those users actually reviewed your finished product?

In other words, are the programs you are considering research-driven or customer-need driven? If a vendor confines their program development to internal research of the topic, there is a very good chance that the finished product will not be applicable to your workforce. You want programs that were actually developed by talking to customers and not programs that were merely the result of book research.

In addition, to the courseware being developed in conjunction with industry experts, were they also produced in authentic job environments — which will make the student’s transition from the training to the actual job much easier. Real industrial settings, with real industrial operating equipment while using actual plant workers practicing the best in work and safety practice.

Secondly, does the vendor you are considering offer a variety of successful strategies for training employees in a timely, economical manner — using the latest in training technology? And, are these strategies built around multi-sensory learning (full motion video and optional word-for-word audio)? You will effectively reach only about half of your workforce if multi-sensory techniques are not utilized.

Finally, you are looking for a complete training system that allows employees to train more efficiently. Trainees should be able to interact with the lesson, making the program more interesting while increasing comprehension and retention, as well as reducing traditional training time requirements. And, all of that is a province of multi-sensory design.

By applying these criteria, you will more likely make a winning choice — both for your organization and for your trainees. Choose your partnering vendor very carefully. It’s likely to be the most important decision you will make.