Question

Give an example of training you were required to do at work that seemed pointless and irrelevant to your job. Do you think the training wasted resources for your company? Was it based on a faulty or lacking needs assessment? What would you (as the training professional) have done differently?

Answer 1

answer-

Training is provided to employees so that they can acquire and learn skills,knowledge and abilities to do their job in an organization. I worked as a sales person in a car showroom company in which my job was to close sales deal with customers and achieve sales target for the company. The company organize a online training program that was e learning which was compulsory for all employees to take. In that training module, we were given knowledge and information related to how they manufacture cars, what is the physics behind their car manufacturing, how they purchase and supply materials etc. I thought what is the relationship between understanding manufacturing, supply and physics and Sales. I expected that e learning module must have knowledge related to how to prospect customers, how to deal with prospect in different situations, how to treat customers with care and after sale service but that was completely irrelevant for my job.

Yes, i believe that e learning module completely wasted resources because preparing and making e modules takes up cost and time of company. It also wasted time of salespersons including me which could have been utilized to close sales deal with customers instead of watching long hour tutorials on manufacturing and supply.

The reason training was irrelevant and ineffective because Organization lacks needs assessment. Training should be organized based on needs and requirements of employees based on their job.

If i were to make trainiing for sales person then i would have focus on training needs assessment. In this assessment, i will focus on identifying thier current level of competency, skill or knowledge and then compares that to the required standard established for their positions within the organization. i would do surveys and interviews to salesperson to identify and assess thier needs to find their strengths and weaknesses.