Why train? It’s a simple question with a complex response. The obvious answer: So people can perform well in their jobs. But the reality often is different due to factors such as career enhancement, competitive edge, reward/punishment for past deeds and myriad other reasons.

From a human performance perspective, training is appropriate for overcoming skill or knowledge gaps. These gaps occur because of new job requirements or because current performance is insufficient due to missing skill or knowledge.

Assuming a gap in skill or knowledge, we target suitable populations, develop programs and send people to training. The broken line in Figure 1 shows anticipated results post-training. Because training is costly and removes workers from productive tasks, we expect significantly improved performance after training. Reality, however, is usually very different, as illustrated by the post-training solid line. Most training transfer studies reveal disappointing results. Transfer of training literature cites multiple causes of wasted training expenditures: poor trainee selection, unclear expectations from supervisors, little on-the-job support, no post-training monitoring, inadequate resources to implement new skills, no incentives to apply new skills and knowledge and trainee discomfort with change.

What Can We Do About This?

Should organizations abandon training? Absolutely not.

With mounting pressure to improve performance, organizations must evolve beyond the notion that a training “injection” will achieve performance results. Here are actions organizations can take to enhance transfer of training:

• Provide training only when careful analysis has identified a performance gap essentially caused by lack of skill or knowledge. When training is not an appropriate solution, transfer is unlikely to occur.

• Never provide training as a single solution. In the workplace, application of new skill or knowledge requires both the workers and environment to be prepared. Resources, incentives and support mechanisms foster transfer success.