It’s easy to think that training employees is simple. Just have a subject matter expert pull together some PowerPoint slides about the main points of the topic. It should take a week to do, right? Wrong.
Building a training program is like building a house. You would not start building a house by thinking “I want a house. Give me a hammer, nails, and some wood so I can start putting them together.”
Before you start nailing wood together, you need blueprints to follow. Those blueprints are based on discussions about what you want the house to look like. Should it be 3 or 4 bedrooms? Should it be on one level or two? Where should each room be?
Similarly, creating a successful workplace training program involves asking questions, creating a blueprint, and then building the program.
Whether you’re a manager looking to develop employee skills, an HR professional considering how best to train employees, or any other player in the corporate learning game, understanding the big picture of training cycles is essential.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- What is the training lifecycle?
- The five training cycle stages
- The objectives of a training cycle
What is the training lifecycle?
The training lifecycle is a comprehensive process encompassing the analysis, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of training programs to maximize training effectiveness. It gives training instructors a framework for personalized course design, resource optimization, and continuous improvement.
Let’s cover the five training cycle stages, the processes they entail, their aims, and why they’re relevant to your organization.
5 Training cycle stages for better training courses
To explain the five stages of the training lifecycle, let’s revisit our initial analogy: building a house.
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Analyze training needs
Effective training starts with an in-depth analysis of training needs. This first crucial step lays the groundwork for personalization by considering factors like your organization’s requirements, the potential delivery methods, and the available budget and timeline.
When we consider this in terms of building a home, this is when we think about what exactly we want from our project. How many square feet? Three bedrooms or four? For permanent residence or a vacation home? Suitable for rental or exclusively for personal use? Stage one of the training lifecycle is when you consider your needs and what you want from the project.
By the end of the analysis process, instructors and organizations should be able to determine the best approach to the training session. This is also the best time to outline training objectives that will serve as the basis for assessing training success.
Some of the other main analysis points to consider are:
- Audience analysis: Who are the professionals that will receive the training? What is their role? How does learning impact their day-to-day?
- Process analysis: What are your organization’s workflows and processes? How does your chosen training method fall in line with these processes? Are there any bottlenecks or gaps the instructor can address through training?
- Infrastructure analysis: Do you have a physical in-house space for conducting training? Is your digital infrastructure up to date for e-learning solutions?
For example, audience analysis may reveal that employees have a basic grasp of a certain subject matter but are missing hands-on practice—which highlights what training should focus on. Thinking about our house, this is akin to asking your family about their dream home—and aiming to ensure you’re building a project that meets everyone’s needs.
Once a trainer forms a clear picture of these factors, they’re ready to determine a delivery method and even establish a timeline.
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Design the training program
The next phase of an effective training program includes designing a relevant course curriculum based on your needs—which you uncovered in phase one.
You’ll need to work out scope, depth, training objectives, and more. Once established, you can use this as the basis for curriculum topics and subtopics, serving as the foundation for your training solution. Designing your course will also involve creating any relevant training templates or documents you may need for the course.
Think of this as bringing in an architect to create the blueprint for your home. They create a plan for achieving your goals and provide an outline for other collaborators to follow. When it comes to workplace training, this architect could be yourself or an in-house trainer. However, working with a training professional to develop this blueprint helps ensure your project is structurally sound from the get-go.
Designing the program gives instructional designers the foundation to develop the course—from ideation to implementation. It provides an outline to follow and ensures that instructors have a clear direction when developing course materials.
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Development and piloting of the training
Once you’ve designed the training curriculum, you’re ready to move on to the next phase: developing and piloting. You’re ready to start laying bricks and building up.
While primarily focusing on developing training course materials and refining them, the development phase is also vital for feedback. Completing this phase is crucial as it gives you the details you need to ensure your training is successful during the implementation phase.
Some of the main processes included in this phase of the training cycle include:
- Developing instructional materials and exercises: You’ll need to develop the course materials and handouts based on the curriculum and templates designed in phase two. After finalization, it’s time to test this material through the pilot.
- Conducting the pilot: The pilot is a way to test training effectiveness in a real-world setting. You can test your course with a small group of learners with one or multiple sessions. The aim here is to collect feedback on the course.
- Revising materials: After piloting, you’ll need to revise materials, like presentations and job aids, based on the feedback you received. This can entail changing the course material. In some instances, it may also lead to changing the course curriculum to better suit learners during the implementation phase.
Once all changes are ready and the course is complete, you can move on to presenting the training solution to learners. Or, in line with our analogy, you’re ready to move in!
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Implement the training
During the training implementation phase, your designated trainer will present the course or training solution via the agreed-upon method. Besides taking the course, this phase in the training cycle also covers logistics for smooth delivery and organization. Here are some processes that the implementation phase includes:
- Scheduling the training: Before the training course starts, you’ll need to work with your in-house training team or training provider to create a detailed schedule for attendance. Some important factors to consider include workload and participant availability.
- Registering participants: A registration system helps trainers analyze the success of a training course, monitor attendance, and ensure smooth communication between members. This could be through a physical sign-up sheet or part of a digital learning management system.
- Conducting the training: Trainers will begin teaching the course according to the chosen method and materials. While conducting the classes, training instructors should aim to create an environment that’s conducive to learning. In smaller groups, they may also offer coaching or personalized attention.
It’s during this phase that you move into your new home. You experience, firsthand, the project you’ve been working on and how your ideas have turned into a reality.
The implementation phase finishes when your trainer completes the classes on the curriculum. However, it’s not ‘course done, job done’—there’s still one more phase of the training cycle.
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Evaluate training success
After the training is complete, you’ll want to measure training results, identify areas of improvement, and ensure your training has been a success for participants. One way to do this is by evaluating employees’ knowledge and monitoring their skills over time.
After analyzing feedback and results from participants and stakeholders, you’re ready to pinpoint your training program’s overall success and areas for improvement.
Some important parts of the evaluation stage of the training cycle include:
- Conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups: You’ll need to establish a system for gathering feedback. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups can all provide relevant insights into the training solution’s impact.
- Analyzing feedback and recommending changes: Once you’ve collected enough feedback, analyze it and identify any emerging trends. This will serve as the basis for further recommendations, updates, and improvements.
- Updating material: Update material to reflect the feedback for future learning. This could include taking out irrelevant content or reformatting for better engagement.
Think of this stage as moving into your house to see how you like it. Is the layout intuitive for how you live? Is there enough storage? Are the light switches in the right spot? Could you do with a couple more power outlets? You don’t know how well something works until you try it, and it’s during this stage that you identify anything that needs improvement.
The final phase in the training cycle is fundamental for fostering continuous learning. By assessing how effective a training process is, you and your training provider can determine if the solution yields positive returns while also improving training impact.
Objectives of a training cycle: what makes a successful training program?
No two training programs are exactly the same—you’ve got different training delivery methods, different training activities, and more.
No matter the training program you’re building, you’re looking to create learning experiences that are impactful, inclusive, sustainable, and scalable.
Impactful
One of the main indicators of training success is impact—did your training course create change? Did you effectively alter employee behavior in the ways you outlined? No matter how amazing your training program—if it’s not impactful, it’s not been successful.
During the first steps of a training cycle, you should work closely with your chosen training provider to ensure the course material matches your desired performance outcomes. Doing so sets the groundwork for impactful training and reaching your desired outcomes.
Inclusive
A training course needs to meet the unique needs of all participants. Although it’s largely unfeasible to personalize courses for every participant, you should aim to use approaches and technology that accommodate all participants. For example, training courses need to accommodate participants with disabilities through participant-specific accommodations.
Sustainable
A complete training cycle will help your organization build long-term sustainability after the sessions are done. To achieve this goal, your chosen trainer might work with you to implement a specialized transition plan aligning with your company’s resources and workflow.
If you wish to assess, monitor, and set the stage for long-term learning, you and your training specialist might create a stage for transitioning the program to your management. A training cycle that considers and accommodates sustainability helps your organization and employees reap the rewards of long-term learning instead of just immediate application.
Scalable
For training solutions to be successful long-term, they must be scalable and adjust to a business’s different complexities, sizes, and scopes.
A well-established training cycle identifies technology, components, and activities that teams can replicate on a larger scale long after the program is complete.
For example, a course may only need to accommodate a small team during the delivery phase.
However, it may be better for you to use digital learning platforms and a face-to-face method during the analysis stage of the cycle. This blended learning solution ensures that more participants can access the training as the company expands.
💡 Want to learn more? The principles for learning are the foundational qualities that make a performance improvement project effective. These principles were developed by training industry leaders, including Comprehensive Learning Solutions founder, Karen Feeley, to highlight the key elements of successful training programs. Check out the full list of principles here.
Would you prefer to leave training to the professionals?
Much like building a house, creating and delivering training solutions is far from easy. It’s a structured process that takes years of training and experience to master. It’s time-consuming and resource-intensive for businesses, and can still be unsuccessful if not executed correctly.
So, why not let a certified training provider handle it?
Whether you’re looking to increase your skills or equip your organization with crucial knowledge, choosing the right training provider can make or break your training. Comprehensive Learning Solutions can help you establish a training program that meets your long-term business objectives.
From analyzing your audience to evaluating success, CLS helps analyze and identify training needs to provide you with bespoke workplace learning solutions that help achieve your goals.
Training cycle FAQs
What are the challenges of the training lifecycle?
Some of the main challenges of a training cycle can include identifying training needs that fit your organization’s objectives, setting an appropriate budget for the training solution, and figuring out the proper training method for high engagement and reaching learning objectives. With regular communication, the right training provider can help you overcome these challenges as they appear in the training cycle.
How can I evaluate the effectiveness of a training cycle?
There are multiple ways to evaluate training cycle effectiveness depending on your training provider and the type of training method you’ve chosen. One way to gauge the effectiveness of delivery is to test participants for knowledge and skills both before and after they receive training.