Training should be one of the pillars of every company. In the same way that we take care of the green spaces, to have the accommodations up to date, to be able to offer a diverse animation and to be well-placed in the network, we should consider that without a well-trained staff, we will not be able to give the service that our client deserves.
Training must be part of the most important priorities of any tourist company. When hiring a worker, it is vital to submit the Welcome Manual, the Internal Document and the Training Plan. This fact positions us as an ordered, proactive, results-oriented company and involved in the personal growth of its employees.
Why are these documents important?
In every company it is essential that each and every one of the workers who have a relationship with the daily operation, be clear about the type of company they represent, the type of product, the sales and service guidelines, what is their job, of those who depend, who is in front of each department, what to do in case of an emergency, who is in charge of the workers department or if they are prepared to handle or not specific machinery.
These three documents must be submitted to each worker’s initial training period. What do we want to achieve with it? Inform the worker on a writing document of everything related to the company. We want to give a serious image. An image of transparency and rigor while allowing the worker to see that their training is very important to us.
Today we will focus on the COMPANY TRAINING PLAN. Later on, we will discuss how to prepare the WELCOME MANUAL AND THE INTERNAL DOCUMENT.
We will summarize this Training Plan in 5 phases.
1. ANALYZE THE SITUATION OF THE COMPANY.
The first step is to make a careful study of the current state of our company in terms of productivity, challenges posed, future investments, external competence, internal operating systems, current level of training for our employees at the three levels (Commands, responsible for department and basic staff) and will evaluate everything that may seem positive or negative to our day to day.
These is, without a doubt, the most important step to be taken. From here we can develop the rest of the Plan effectively. That is why this study needs to be done careful and with the collaboration of an external agent.
We need the vision of an external professional who is not affected by the internal operation of the same company and that can bring us new points of view and different systems.
It is very important to create a work commission where all this information is shared in a free, open, honest and selfless manner.
From this work committee, a first draft of training needs to be drawn up to aimed and obtain a competitive improvement of the company.
2. DESIGN THE TRAINING PLAN.
Once the work commission has done its work and we have clear the deficiencies where we want to arrive, we will have to transform the needs identified in a training plan that will provide the necessary skills to solve the deficiencies detected.
To do this next step you will need:
a) Identify the training needs. How did we do it so far and how do we want it to be done from now on?
b) Specify the competencies to be developed for each of the levels. It will have to reflect the knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes necessary for the development of effective and quality work. The competencies indicated for each level will establish the desired qualification standard for the template. Basically, this could be summarized as follows:
Know: acquisition of knowledge.
Know-how: development of attitudes
Know how to be: acquisition of skills
c) Training objectives. Marking training objectives allows us to measure the evolution of the implemented plan at all times. That is why we need to take as a reference the objectives and business philosophy of the internal document and analyze if what we are considering is affordable for each level and will cover the shortages of the worker.
The objectives of the training must be formulated, according to criteria of homogeneity of the capacities that reflect the desirable qualification. The results of this process will refer to the capacities to develop in the workforce to reach the desired level of qualification and face the future challenges.
3. MANAGEMENT OF TRAINING.
This is the most concrete part and with less discussion in the design of the Training Plan. With the identified shortcomings and clear objectives, we need to take a step further.
In the hands of the training consultant we will have to;
a) Specify the training contents. What theoretical and practical knowledge should be given to overcome the detected needs and acquire the indicated abilities?
b) Decide the levels of training. Identify the specific and common formations for each one of them and for each of the departments.
c) Number of people: How many people would be targeted?
d) Training timing. We must decide which time of the year would be the best to implement the training for each of the levels, considering internal operation of the same company.
e) The duration of the training. Many times, this will be marked by the type of program or course that we have been able to adhere to. It will be necessary to consider the needs of the service and the conciliation with the professional and personal life of our staff.
f) Formative typology. Does the training need to be in person? Can we implement on-line training with continuous support or do we need an in-company training of 8 hours a day?
g) Where the training will take place. Does the training need to be done in the company? Can we make use of the facilities of the training company? Will workers be able to do it via the network from their home or during work hours?
h) Election of the teaching team. Will the specific training be carried out by the company itself and the general of an outside company trainer? Do we give all the training to a consultancy in the sector that adds value to us?
For companies of a certain volume it is always recommended that the training be given to an external consultant always with the supervision of the department. This allows us to have a more open and general vision of our company when it comes to making the final assessment. Providing training to a consultant allows trainers to work without presuppositions or pre-established valuations. It allows everyone to work professionally and improve in all competencies.
4. EVALUATE THE RESULTS.
These four step will have to be used to measure if the training objectives established in the first point and the results obtained are the same.
For this reason, the trainer will have to make a report detailing to what extent quantitative and qualitative has been achieved or not. It will be necessary to assess whether the contents have been adequate, if the schedules were the best ones. If it were necessary to implement another system …
The main indicators for measuring training activities are the following:
Satisfaction: assessment of the educational action regarding materials, organization, teaching staff, workplace utility …
Learning: degree in which the knowledge or skills received during the formative action have been assimilated.
Transferability: It allows to assess to which level, the trained person, puts in practice in the workplace, the acquired knowledge.
Return on investment (ROI): measure the economic profitability of the training through the comparison between the amount invested in the formative action and the increase of the profit of the company as a result of this training.
5. TRAINING FOLLOW-UP.
To finish with our Training Business Plan, we will have to spend some time in order to assess whether the concepts, ideas, strategies, procedures, practices, work systems, process improvement … have been applied correctly and have had the wanted effects according to the needs discovered at first.
In this monitoring we can say if the training has been effective and to what extent has affected our company.
From here we will have to decide if we need to make improvements in our Training Plan and then, return to the first point; Analyze the situation of the company.
We cannot put aside the formation of our staff. The staff we have at our disposal is the mirror of our company. If we have workers with the right training, we will obtain more profitable processes with more happy staff and more loyal customers.
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