The executive team that works in the organization can contribute to the development and implementation of training programs significantly. It is important to note that the leaders’ knowledge and experience can be used actively when it is necessary to design or improve training programs in a company (Lee-Kelley & Blackman, 2012).
Therefore, much attention should be paid to identifying specific roles that executives can perform while collaborating with training directors and developing a new program. The leaders’ participation in the process of executing training programs can have significant benefits for the organization. From this point, it is important to distinguish possible roles that the executive team can take while participating in planning, implementing, and assessing training programs and formulate recommendations regarding the effective involvement of executives in the training process.
Potential Roles for Executive Team
Executives can play important roles in influencing the process of implementing training programs because these leaders determine goals for the company’s progress and employees’ development. They allocate required resources and control the realization of tasks with the focus on outcomes (Harnett & Powell, 2015). From this perspective, it is possible to concentrate on the discussion of following roles that are determined for leaders in an organization: goals and expectations’ setting, decision-making, sponsorship, support, control, and evaluation.
The process of planning and developing training programs is based on goals and expectations that are set by executives. Organizational leaders evaluate the employees’ performance and the overall outcomes, and they compare the results with the goals related to the performance improvement. Thus, they can indicate changes in the working process that are made in order to achieve higher results (Jackson, 2012). The program to train employees and improve their work should be developed according to the executives’ expectations and formulated goals. At this stage, executives are also responsible for making decisions regarding the implementation of this or that program.
In order to execute the program, leaders need to provide the financial resources and required materials. Training directors are responsible for planning the budget for the program, but the leaders’ task is to provide the necessary sponsorship. The effectiveness of the training program can depend on the number of resources that the leader is ready to propose for the program’s implementation, and this step should be regarded as the investment in the talent’s development (Bartos & Shetty, 2013).
Executives also provide the material support during the implementation of the training program in order to guarantee its success. Finally, the other important roles of the executive team in training employees are the control and evaluation of training results. The primary control is realized by the training director, but executives monitor and evaluate the training program with reference to reports and analysis of outcomes. The conclusion regarding the program’s effectiveness is made by the executive.
Recommendations regarding Executive Team’s Involvement in Training
While focusing on potential roles of executives in the development and implementation of training programs, it is also possible to identify additional areas where leaders can apply their knowledge and contribute to the improvement of training initiatives in an organization. When executives plan to be actively involved in the procedure of organizing training in a company, their roles can be broadened, and the degree of the leader’s control over training also increases. It is possible to recommend taking the following steps:
- The executive team should complete the complex assessment in order to identify the areas for improvement in the employees’ performance and operations, as well as possible gaps (Dewhurst, Harris, Foster-Bohm, & Odell, 2015).
- The executive team should divide employees who need training into categories, including human resource managers, unit managers, IT specialists, and department employees among others. The number of categories depends on the number of departments and roles that employees perform.
- In order to guarantee the high level of retention and the high-quality performance, the executive team should determine specific goals for each group of employees or for separate units according to the assessment of their needs and successes.
- It is important to assign each member of the executive team to become a coordinator of the training program development, execution, and evaluation for separate training groups. In this case, the planning, control, and evaluation of the training process will be a well-organized process, and executives will be able to monitor changes effectively (Rogers, 2013a).
- The CEO can collaborate with the training director while allocating resources and evaluating the financial reports that demonstrate the effectiveness of training.
The development of these steps is supported by the prediction of the realistic contribution that the executive team can make to the implementation of training programs. It is possible to expect that leaders are interested in setting goals for the training in order to guarantee the achievement of the targets for the performance and work efficiency (Phillips & Phillips, 2016).
It is also possible to expect that the executives can spend much time in order to control the use of resources and evaluate the program’s outcomes. The reason is that leaders analyze how many resources are spent on training and what results are observed (Rogers, 2013b). In addition, the executive team is interested in receiving the detailed reports related to the training evaluation.
Conclusion
The members of the executive team should not only be informed regarding the development and implementation of training programs in their organizations, but they should be involved in the process. The importance of training for the organization is high, and training directors should collaborate with the CEO and other executives in order to guarantee the efficient use of sources, the reduction in costs, and the increase in positive outcomes.
Potential roles of executives include goals setting, sponsorship, and evaluation of results among others. The expected roles of leaders can include the participation in planning programs, the coordination of programs, and the control over the program implementation with reference to the further evaluation of observed changes.
References
Bartos, N., & Shetty, D. (2013). The importance of planning training into projects. Training & Development, 40(4), 12-16.
Dewhurst, D., Harris, M., Foster-Bohm, G., & Odell, G. (2015). Applying the Kirkpatrick model to a coaching program. Training & Development, 42(1), 14-22.
Harnett, D., & Powell, A. (2015). When evaluation precedes assessment. Training & Development, 42(1), 18-26.
Jackson, J. (2012). Training evolution. Training & Development, 39(2), 34-36.
Lee-Kelley, L., & Blackman, D. (2012). Project training evaluation: Reshaping boundary objects and assumptions. International Journal of Project Management, 30(1), 73-82.
Phillips, J. J., & Phillips, P. P. (2016). Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rogers, S. S. (2013a). Change management: Your roadmap to training success. Training & Development, 40(3), 4-10.
Rogers, S. S. (2013b). Great expectations: Making ROI successfully work for you. Training & Development, 40(1), 8-19.