Does this sound familiar? You send an employee for training to learn a new skill. The training goes very well, and the employee returns to the job — and never applies the new skill. When a training program fails, it’s often not a failure of the training but a failure of training transfer. New skills can be fragile, and there are many ways organizational life can sabotage the transfer of training from the learning environment to the environment back on the job.
Experts say there are four steps to create an environment that ensures the transfer of training. The first three often require tinkering with the management or culture of the organization:
- Make sure employees have the time and opportunity to practice their new skills.
- Prepare employees’ supervisors to reinforce the new skills and promote their use on the job.
- Use debriefings in which the employee explains how the new skill has affected on-the-job experiences.
The fourth step, on the other hand, is simple and direct: reinforce the new skill. You do this by providing job aids, libraries, communities of practice, and follow-ups. Communispond has been providing just those kinds of reinforcement to our graduates for years. We send out e-newsletters providing communication tips and techniques. We offer access to industry leading content on social media channels. We maintain a LearnTO Library online, where students can access 3- to 6-minute videos on specific topics related to presentation and communication skills. And we offer ProSpeak®. ProSpeak® is our app for providing users with instant, interactive feedback on presentation and communication skills. All of these reinforcement tools, and more, can be found on Communispond Digital, our digital learning platform.
As of July 5, Communispond Digital includes a major new reinforcement tool: “Ask a Communispond Coach.” Students can reach out to a Communispond coach any time after their program. To access it, the student logs into his/her Communispond Digital account (each student receives their access key on the first day of class), and selects the orange “Ask a Communispond Coach” tile. An email window opens within Communispond Digital. The student sends the email with the question, and a Communispond Master Trainer receives a notification that there is a message waiting. When the Master Trainer replies, the student receives a notification by email that there is a response within Communispond Digital.
Any student who already has access to Communispond Digital will see the new tile after logging in. But this feature is available to all our graduates. If a student took a Communispond program in the past (even if it was prior to the rollout of Communispond Digital), we will provide an access key on request.
The “Ask a Communispond Coach” tile is available to Communispond graduates of Executive Presentation Skills®, Executive Presentation Skills Anywhere™, Delivering Memorable Presentations™, Creating Memorable Presentations™, Socratic Selling Skills®, Sales Presentation Skills™, Sales Presentation Skills Anywhere™, and Persuasive Dialogue™. You must be registered to use Communispond Digital in order to gain access to the Coaches. Contact your local Communispond office for more details.
