Requirements Email
A few days ago I received an email containing the training requirements of a client. The email was forwarded to me by the training company. The requirements were too much to include in a single training session. The training company then negotiated reducing those requirements with the client. Again I was forwarded another email containing a shorter list of the client’s requirements. They were still too many to jam into one training day but I believed I could still manage.
Analyzing the Written Requirements
I had a deep look at the client requirements, they were written as a set of points in bullet form. I tried to read between the lines and understand the real reasons behind those requirements. The requirements were too specific and set about to decide on how to solve some of the problems the company was facing with regards to its employees. I would have preferred to have them written in the form of problems then I would have had the freedom to decide what specific training solutions would have helped remedy such problems.
Clarification from Training Company
I called the training company to ask for more details on the requirements and which ones were the more important to stress on. I received some answer that satisfied me yet still I wanted to get a feel for the requirements by meeting directly with the client.
Experiencing the Problems Firsthand
As I traveled to the location of the client for my training assignment I observed a few issues that such client could be suffering from. I observed this through my direct interactions with several of the employees there as I had arrived one day prior to the actual day of the training.
Interviewing HR
In the evening of the day prior to the training I met with the key HR person in the company and asked more about their requirements. I pulled out the original longer list of requirements and went through it one by one with the key HR person. The picture became mush clearer for me now as I got to know which points they need the most and have the most difficulty in facing and which points were of lesser importance.
After listening attentively to the key HR person at the company, I then set about to suggest an approach for solving such problems through the training and my thoughts about the followup process. It is important to listen attentively to the client first and take notes while listening then provide your suggestions and view at the end.
Adjusting the Training Program
Although the outline as well as the content of the training session had already been set by the training company based on the written requirements of the client yet I set about to customize the training program so that it would better fit the real needs of the client as I understood them more clearly after my fact to face meeting with the key HR person at the client company.
Best Practice
One of the lessons learnt from this story is that face to face interviewing of the client can be essential and could help in clarifying the true needs of the company. It is best to understand the client needs and requirements in terms of problems the client is facing rather than what training solutions your client believes would be the answer for such problems. This approach of specifying the problems gives you, the trainer, the freedom to decide on the training solutions yourself based on your knowledge and experience as a trainer.
Conclusion
Although there could be more formal approaches for determining the training needs of an organization, such as training needs analysis (TNA), yet a simple even informal meeting with the HR of such organization could tell you a great deal about employee related problems they are facing which helps you determine their training needs and thus be able to design an effective training program that caters for their real needs.
Have you ever attended a training program only to find that it does not cater for your real needs and is thus not of real practical use for you? Tell us about it.
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