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Newsletter...
***Training Doctor News December 2009***
a service of The Training Doctor, LLC
In this issue:
1 Everybody says so!
2 Hey Good Lookin’!
3 News and Views – Collected from Here and There
4 It’s Not Fair!
5 Sign up for training today!
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1 EVERYBODY SAYS SO!
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We wonder how many organizations are cutting training
this year? In an effort to cut expenses, training
always seems to be a cost center. But when you look
at all the experts who caution against it and all of
the surveys about how employees are looking for
training and education as the one thing that they
expect their ideal employer to provide... we have to
wonder what will be the long-term “benefits” of
cutting training?
We did a quick search on “training during recession”
which revealed over a thousand internet articles or
blogs declaring the same thing: NOW is the time to
train! Take the wealth of knowledge that belongs
to your organization and begin to spread it around.
As your employees become more knowledgeable and skilled
about how your organization works and how they can
contribute – they’ll work more efficiently and
effectively and voila! cost savings will occur.
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2 HEY GOOD LOOKIN’!
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There’s more to visuals than dressing up your training
slides or handout materials. There is solid research,
conducted over the last 20+ years, that positively
links visual stimuli with the ability to assimilate
information more readily.
In short, here’s why: The Theory of Dual-Coding.
A learner posses a visual processing system and
an auditory processing system. Appealing to each
processing system allows the learner to make
connections between the two and further
anchors the information.
The Principle of Contiguity enforces the need for
pictures and text to be near one another in our
printed texts. Corresponding words and pictures must
be in “working memory” at the same time for the
anchoring effect to take place.
Linking words and animated visuals (e.g. eLearning)
further increases the learner’s ability to assimilate
and recall new information (by 50%).
Caution! Having a lot of text on your slide as well
as a visual actually overloads the visual processing
system since really, they are both visuals. Better to
have the “text” delivered verbally. This bolsters
training’s long-held belief that bullets on a slide
should be kept to a minimum and the bullet length
itself should be brief as well.
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3 NEWS AND VIEWS - COLLECTED FROM HERE AND THERE
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= In the 2009 Employment Dynamics and Growth
Expectations (EDGE) Report from Robert Half
International and CareerBuilder, 61 percent of employees
surveyed said tuition reimbursement or subsidized
training was the perk they most expected their
employers to provide or enhance once the economy improves.
= As of 2003, one of every four workers was
employed in a job category that did not exist 40 years
ago, according to a report by President Barack Obama’s
Council of Economic Advisors.
= While corporations spend an average of 36 percent
of revenue on human capital expenses, according to
online management publisher BNET, fewer than 1 out
of 5 report more than a moderate understanding of
the return on that investment. http://www.clomedia.com/features/2009/November/2784/index.php
= Digital Natives – anyone under 23 years of age.
Digital Immigrants – the rest of us!
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4 IT’S NOT FAIR!
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You’ve probably heard those words before (it’s not
fair) coming from your kids – but what if they come
from your employees?
If you administer testing after a training program
you MUST ensure that the test is “fair.” That is,
it doesn’t not penalize any particular group or
individual in some way and that it truly tests for
what you say it test for.
Questionmark.com is a company that markets testing
Software – but that’s like having a typewriter.
The fact that you have a “tool” doesn’t mean you know
What to do with it.
Questionmark offers a lot of free information regarding
Best practices in the design of testing; for example:
Criterion Validity – determines whether the test truly
tests learners against the criterion you established
for the job. It is expected that if you perform well
on the test, you will perform well on the job.
Content Validity – does the test reflect what was
taught during the training?
Construct Validity – are you measuring the right
things and in the right way? For example, we once
worked with a client that had a high failure rate for
its post-training assessment. A brief analysis
determined why:
1 – the learners spent 4 days learning how to DO something,
then took a paper and pencil test. Lesson: if you are
going to teach people to DO something – test that
they can DO it – not that they know it.
2 – the questions on the test had little to do with
actually performing the job. One question was “Define
a comma-delimited file.” Knowing the definition of
a file type did not apply to what the learners were
trained for – which was how to use a particular soft-
ware.
If you violate the above rules, you will have your
learners yelling But it’s not fair! And you may have a
legal problem on your hands as well.
So mind your P’s and Q’s
(Purpose of your test and test Questions themselves.)
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5 TRAINING DOCTOR COURSES & PUBLIC OFFERINGS
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We are currently working on our 2010 schedule. Stay tuned.
And be sure to follow us on Twitter because that is
the ONLY place we will announce coupon codes for
upcoming public classes. (@TrainingDoctor)
Don’t forget that all of our online classes are
available as private offerings which can be
customized for your organization. Call us to find
out more: 800-282-5474.
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