Mastering workplace skills implementations

The skills submissions period is one of the busiest times for companies’ Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs) as they compile the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) to be submitted to the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA).

Many might believe that the biggest part of this process is putting together the plan – which could deem the implementation phase as easy. This, however, is merely a perception as the rolling out of the plan itself is a substantial task that is best managed ahead of time rather than later.

With Annual Training Reports, there are various challenges that may arise that could possibly cause delays or variances, impacting your planned training. This article is aimed at introducing useful steps to follow in helping you master the delivery of planned training. Whilst not all always goes as planned, learning and improving rollouts with each new skills period is possible.

The planning phase for your organisation’s skills plan is the first critical step in the process, but without successful implementation, it renders ineffective.

The following success factors can help in improving implementation:

• Communication
• Monitoring
• Evaluation
• Analysis

Before unpacking these factors in more detail, it’s important to fully understand the importance of why we need to create and implement a successful skills plan.

Whilst WSP and ATR submissions help strengthen compliance for the organisation, it is also there to ensure, with the guidance of the SETA, that you identify and address the scarce and critical skills gaps within your organisation as well as its industry.

Once you are able to effectively implement planned training, you are further aiding in bridging important skills gaps and encouraging growth not only for individuals but improved performance for the company as well.

Let’s get back to unpacking the four elements to incorporate when mastering the management and rollout of the WSP for your organisation.

Communication

The first important success factor is communication with all affected personnel. This will help ensure management participates and supports you in the deliverance of the workplace skills plan.

Where employees are expected to attend training, it is important to communicate well in advance to ensure they have sufficient time to plan for these days they are impacted accordingly. Prior to this, supervisors will need to approve training if removed from their day-to-day deliverables.

Not only is approval and participation needed from management, but it is important that the staff themselves are invested in the training they will receive as well. Communication with staff as to why they are completing training allows them to become closer to these interventions and see their relevance and impact.

Monitoring

For regular feedback and insight into progress, continuous monitoring will help ensure training received is timeous and efficient, as well as if any additional interventions are required.

Real-time reporting is a fantastic way to keep on top of monitoring training rolled out to staff, allowing you to quickly monitor attendance and evaluation of training conducted.

There are many online training solutions that can assist organisations with real-time reporting and schedule management of training. Lesson Desk’s automated and real-time report generation features allow for a variety of ways to schedule training online - eliminating the stress of continual monitoring of planned and implemented training.

Evaluation

The need to make a comparison between planned versus actual training delivered over the course of the skills period is to evaluate the success of each intervention and plan as a whole. It is also aimed at identifying any areas of improvement whilst going forward during both the planning or implementation phase.

Ongoing evaluations will help to guide SDFs along the way and ensure that any identified skills gaps can be addressed.

When conducting the evaluation, the following should be measured:

• Relevance of training for the individual within their role as well as team.
• Efficiency in terms of both rolling out of training as well as the time spent in training.
• Effectiveness of training implemented. Meaning are employees able to retain and apply knowledge transferred during training.
• How the training intervention has impacted both Individuals as well as their respective team.
• How sustainable the skills plan and implementation thereof is.

The use of constant evaluation allows both the SDF and skills committee the ability to methodically and objectively measure development throughout the WSP implementation.

Analysis and Interpretation

Skills auditing is an indispensable part of the WSP implementation process. This is because it is essential in determining skills gaps that need to be addressed.

With this being said, it is important to ensure both the SDF and skills committee has the necessary skills to evaluate, analyse and interpret training interventions. This will ensure correct evaluation and analysis is conducted. If there are knowledge gaps within this area, it is advised to have a session to bring all up to speed by means of training.

When analysing the data, it will be beneficial to include the most recent job competency profiles on hand when analysing results. Outdated profiles will skew the interpretation of results.

Another aspect to take note of during the analysis phase is resource planning. When looking at the data, asking the question of, “Was this managed and addressed successfully or are the areas of improvement that can be considered?” is necessary.

As you can see when analysing the results from evaluations compiled, it is imperative to not only look at the training interventions themselves but also how they have impacted positively or negatively on job profiles and whether the organisation is staying abreast in terms of resource planning.

By applying the above areas during your implementation of your WSP, you are guaranteed to become a black-belt master at skills development within your company. Additionally, this will bring about an impactful learning culture helping you grow the business by starting with the employees themselves!

Contact our learning and development specialists at learn@lessondesk.com for assistance with any of your training needs.