While employees may be our greatest assets, more attention needs to be paid to those delivering the training to our employees.

We all know that people are a company’s greatest assets. They are a company’s primary source of differentiation in the marketplace; therefore, training and development must be regarded as strategic investment to ensure a company’s competitive future.

In order to deliver on this strategic objective, trainers must be properly equipped with the right skills to conduct training and development programmes effectively. Thus, motivated and competent trainers play a crucial role in determining the success or failure of an organisation.

‘Train the trainer’ programmes are an excellent cost-effective platform to build training competencies and develop the skills that are required to train others effectively within an organisation. Specifically, ‘Train the Trainer’ involves identifying suitable candidates from amongst the existing workforce to train fellow employees and transfer and cascade knowledge within the organisation.

This requires considerable internal developmental effort – to set appropriate learning objectives effectively and transfer knowledge back to the workplace. In its entirety, a ‘Train the Trainer’ course enhances the trainers’ ability to translate their professional knowledge and experience into learnable outcomes for the employees.

Over the last few years we have seen increasing demand for ‘Train the Trainer’ seminars, as many companies have begun to appreciate the potential of their staff and recognise the importance of investing in developing their in-house talent.

‘Train the Trainer’ programmes ensure that trainers are exposed to the most up-to-date training methodologies, approaches and techniques, providing clear examples and case studies of how these can be implemented in the company’s specific environment.

In this current global recession, the inherent benefits of ‘Train the Trainer’ programmes are becoming even more visible. They are cost effective, both in terms of immediate short term savings as it is less costly to teach existing staff how to train others than to outsource training to a third party. For long term value, they help to develop in-house skills and enhance knowledge sharing within the company.

Train the Trainer initiatives also empower the organisation by developing internal training resources, as they teach staff to be self-reliant. The in-house trainer can alleviate some of the fears that are endemic to learning something new, as staff members are at ease and feel comfortable with each other.

Besides cost-effectiveness and empowerment, internal training and knowledge sharing among employees generate a host of other, less tangible benefits, from enhancing employee relations to improving overall staff morale. Employees will not only be more at ease when learning from their peers but will also learn to acquire, preserve and pass on valuable knowledge. This will ultimately play a big role in staff retention.

Outside or in?

In some areas, it is imperative to train internal trainers, specific in-house processes are concerned which require familiarity with the company’s work routines and an insider’s perspective.

However, in other cases external trainers might be a better choice, for instance when there is a need for change and the focus is on bringing in an external fresh perspective. In many cases, an external trainer can and should use his ‘outsider’ position and ‘outside-in-view’ to challenge the status quo and highlight areas which are not working. This is something an internal trainer would find difficult to do for a variety of reasons, he might be bound by the traditional processes and approaches in the organisation, the topic might touch on company taboos, he might be too close to the topic, to name but a few.

Very often the option of an internal-external mix has been of greatest benefit for the participants. One European MNC found the following combination of external and internal training worked well for them: an external trainer imparted the general knowledge of accounting. After the basics were covered, an internal colleague joined the training as assistant coach in order to focus on the in-house particularities.

Businesses are re-committing themselves to training as a way to address their growing need for performance improvement, but today’s training departments must put the programmes in place that are able to meet the challenges. One of the major challenges they are facing is the diversity in their organisations – everyone is different with different training needs. Participants in the training courses range from beginners (in a new area or to learn a new skill) to people who are experts in their fields.

To be effective, the trainer must respect the participants’ individual needs and be able to adjust the training to various levels of expertise and prior experience. A common mistake internal trainers make is that they leave people confused (if they communicate on an expert level) or bored (if they over-simplify) and lead to unproductive sessions and wasted time. There is also another challenge – achieving company-wide acceptance. To this end, the trainer should make the training very interactive and hands-on with tangible takeaways.

Overall, training employees to get along well with management authority and with people who hold diverging points of view is one of the best building blocks for long-term success. Talent, knowledge, and skills alone won’t compensate for a sour relationship with a superior, peer, or customer. Thus training is an ongoing learning experience. Such is the beauty of teaching – knowledge of the subject matter and methodological skills are only means to an end – ultimately ‘Train the Trainer’ is about learning and teaching with passion.