No matter how much you want it or believe in it, training does NOT automatically lead to the expected change in employee behavior.
Specialized training – where we teach people to do their job better, faster, or using certain tools – okay, this has a much higher chance of success. However, soft skills training – the kind that addresses the most important competencies – unfortunately, doesn’t go in the head that easily. In fact, it often goes the other way.
These types of training don’t really “stick” in the mind. Of 100 trainees, only a maximum of 15 try to apply the knowledge in practice, and only 5% do it correctly. If you train a group of 10-20 people (a typical training group), do the math – if you manage to get one person in the group to try it and one person to do it correctly, that’s a success. (e.g. Grossman, R., & Salas, E. (2011))
Even then, people forget the knowledge quickly. Everything suggests that around 70% of knowledge disappears after 30 days, and 95% after 7 months. After half a year, the 100 people who trained will mostly remember that there was a training, maybe recall the area it covered, but that’s about it.
Personally, I love soft skills training. I’ve attended – and I’m not exaggerating – probably around 70-100 days of training throughout my career. That’s 40-50 1-2 day sessions over the last 20 years. I’m not counting university or online courses – just traditional, offline trainings. The only thing I can say with 100% certainty is that I enjoy them. If the trainer has charisma, knows how to tell stories, break conventions, and convey knowledge – it’s great. Plus, it’s a chance for gossip or, as some call it, “exchanging notes,” building your network in the company, enjoying good coffee, no pressure (unless of course, you’re getting called 10 times a day), a cookie, and a nice lunch with a different crowd. Great.
But that’s not what training is about. Business doesn’t provide a budget for this. It wants effective leaders and productive, well-knit teams, not that after investing, say, 10,000 PLN on training for 10 or 20 people, without even counting the operational costs or the disruption to work, that only 1 or 2 of them might try to change their behavior.
Because, unfortunately, people don’t change easily. Soft skills training tries to alter what’s deeply embedded in us, sometimes so deeply that people spend years in therapy trying to change their mindset.
Okay, now that we know that training is a great way to pass the time but not always effective, the fundamental question is: how can we do it right?
Training must be personalized, because only then does the knowledge apply to the specific challenges I face, and that starts to resemble coaching/mentoring. Training must be repeated, with follow-ups, planned, continuous, and ongoing – it should last continuously.
At this point, we’re in a situation where for those 10 managers, we’d need to hire a professional trainer to spend an hour with them every week discussing topics. That’s a significant cost. If the company is willing, it’s a great idea. But it’s probably a plan for “better times,” and the ones we live in today, 2023-2025, are probably not those times from an HR perspective.
So, what’s the solution?
We can train everyone individually – taking into account their personality, cultural preferences, position in the organization, who they work with, and do this for an entire year, without operational costs, without work disruptions – all through automation, AI, and psychology – just by using Empatyzer, a next-generation training solution designed with business (and you) in mind.
