An employee training plan is a strategy set forth in order to increase one’s development with continual support, coaching and learning. It is unique to the needs and potential of a person and requires in-depth analysis. A company should be ready to invest the time and resources available in order to embark on such an elaborate yet rewarding process.
Typically, it is requested when an organization sees potential in an applicant and wants a deeper look into their capabilities, strengths and natural tendencies in relation to a specific position. We also see a company’s need to evaluate an existing employee to see if he/she has what it takes or at least the blueprint to build on, in reference to an internal position (usually upper level).
Things to consider to build an effective employee training plan
In order to accurately and objectively build an employee training plan, professionals need to firstly have the means necessary to assess the person as whole. This means combining the candidate’s natural reflexes and innate personality traits, actualization and experiences as well as the type of environment, tasks and responsibilities the person will have to undertake.
In the end, the goal isn’t to tug on one’s weakness strings but to first and foremost underline strengths, and then to identify skill gaps and areas to improve in order to select the best developmental training plan.
At AtmanCo, we offer a Professional Career Profiling (PCP) which combines a series of assessments and professional analysis that will help to build an employee training plan tailored to a specific person. The evaluation consists of the following:
Psychometric test: the first step to an effective training plan
Having the candidate complete the Atman test will reveal one’s innate personality traits (what we like to call “natural reflexes”). These hidden characteristics may not be evident on the surface and can sometimes go unnoticed in interviews.
Nevertheless, they remain very valuable insights into someone’s core disposition, which is very difficult to change or develop against the grain. The results of this test gives us a good foundation of how a person is built, but our analysis does not end here.
In-basket exercise
Aside from the Atman test, we also have candidates complete an in-basket exercise in order to put them in a situation (usually managerial) where they need to act on their feet and handle numerous demands from internal and external sources.
With a limited amount of time to set priorities, organize workload and take action, a candidate’s true capacities emerge. Again, we try to assess the positive elements before highlighting areas that were much less natural to manage.
Conflict resolution: a training plan must
Having a candidate complete an assessment on conflict resolution helps us identify strategies and styles a person will tend to use when conflict with another arises.
We also keep in mind that there are many different ways to respond to conflict situations. Whether it be a collaborative, competitive or passive approach, to name a few, we will look at the environment and context in which that person will be working in to determine if their style is more or less suitable.
Decision Making: to be considered in the job training plan
We also have the client complete a decision-making exercise, where we uncover their thought process and approaches in this area. We can determine the degree to which a person will consider others before deciding, whether they will postpone or prolong decisions due to lack of data or knowledge, whether they are direct, etc.
Again, the goal isn’t to pick which style is better, but rather to identify the person’s approach and link it to the work context, type of team and company culture.
Of course there are strengths attached to each style, its just a matter of determining if it will be more beneficial or threatening to a specific working environment.
Intellectual Resources exercises
When embarking on an employee training plan, it is important to determine HOW a person learns. The series of intellectual resource exercises we conduct allows us to gather information on how a person assimilates information, whether they are more comfortable with concrete or abstract data, their ability to tap into their more creative or logical senses and many other aspects of their learning capacities.
We can then build a coaching and teaching approach that will correspond best to that person’s intellectual needs. It also helps to determine what type of work (e.g. global analysis or directly in the operations) a person will be more at ease doing.
Interview process: the ultimate step of a good business training plan
Of course we cannot create a job training plan without actually having a discussion with that person, giving him/her the chance to expand on their CV and experiences as well as the role and responsibilities in question.
This is also the opportunity to look at body language, how the person reacts to questions, and at times, role-playing scenarios. We can find out if certain competencies have been actualized and if the person is aware of his/her own strengths and areas that need improvement. The experiences the person deems valuable to share are also interesting elements to add to our repertoire of data.
Building the Professional Career Profile
We then gather all the assessments mentioned above, along with a few other self-reflection exercises, and go through an in-depth analysis of the person as a whole.
Evidence of certain tendencies must be found in more than one area of testing in order to deem it as a valid interpretation. We typically find a lot of parallels between tests, especially relating back to their core personality reflexes found in their Atman test.
In the end, we provide a verbal feedback to the client and an extensive report highlighting strengths and specific areas of development. The Professional Career Profile is fundamental in building an effective employee training plan.
Learn more about our Professional Career Profile