Using Training to Build Capacity for Development | Learning: Facilitating Workplace Behavior Change

Getting from Learning to Doing: Facilitating Workplace Behavior Change

IEG's evaluation of World Bank-financed training found that there was a significant gap between the learning results of training and the workplace implementation of learning. Even where participants learn, they are not necessarily able to implement what they've learned. Below are the two primary reasons why learning doesn't result in workplace behavior change and what can be done about them:

Training Challenge
Trainees don't understand how to apply what they have learned

Training Process
Even when training participants have had the opportunity to practice new skills and use new knowledge in in-class projects, they often need support implementing learning in the workplace. Research has indicated that learning, particularly of skills, is far less likely to be retained and implemented if it is not reinforced by follow-up support once trainees return to the workplace. Where follow-up support is not given, short-term learning gains may not translate into sustainable behavioral change, due to participant uncertainty about how to apply the learning or lack of positive reinforcement in the workplace.

There are many ways in which follow-up support can be given to trainees. Here are a few common types of follow-up support:

On-the-job technical assistants can be hired to help training participants use what they have learned at work.
Mentoring programs can enable training participants to seek advice from more experienced counterparts in their organizations.
Internet forums can be set up for former training participants, enabling them to exchange information and seek advice from each other or from trainers or other expert moderators.
Refresher or follow-up courses can be held with training participants in order to address issues that arose when they attempted to apply what they had learned or to supplement learning.

Training Challenge
Trainees don't have the equipment, money or
organizational support to apply what they've learned

Training Process
Training is rarely sufficient to address all the capacity gaps affecting achievement of an organizational goal. For this reason, it is important to embed training in a more comprehensive capacity-building program that addresses organizational and institutional capacity gaps alongside human ones and that ensures that trainees have the resources and support needed to implement learning.

Creating a Market for Follow-up Support

In the Tunisia Export Development Project I, the government created a market for follow-up technical assistance. The project financed training of export consultants, which private sector firms could hire to complement the training that they had received. The government gave these consultants a onetime tax exemption and, upon the submission of an acceptable business plan, the public-private sector steering committee gave export firms a one-time, 50-percent subsidy for using the consultants.

Getting the Incentives Right

Training participants need incentives and support to apply what they've learned. The incentive structures in some organizations can prevent them from making the most of training. Here are some examples of ways in which incentives can impede on-the-job use of of learning:

•	If the ministry or organization does not pay competitive salaries, training can position participants to find better-paying work elsewhere, leading to "brain drain".
•	If the organization awards promotions on the basis of seniority alone, or nepotism, rather than merit, training participants won't have much motivation to try improve their performance by applying learning.
•	When only one staff member is sent for training, s/he may return to the workplace with fresh ideas on how to improve the work -- only to find that managers and colleagues don't understand or support their suggestions for change.
•	In decentralized organizations, regional governments or trainees' local workplaces may not support training goals even when the central ministry or head office sponsoring the training program does.

Since incentives are critical for ensuring that training has an impact, it's important for the target organization to take ownership of training activities, rather than being a passive recipient. Where management is committed to the importance of training, it is more likely to make sure the trainees apply what they learned. At the same time, target organizations may need external resources or support to help ensure that proper incentives exist for trainees to apply learning.

See Also:

Chapter 3. What Training Works: Training Design