Do you measure training attendance? There are lots of ways to do it. For example, you might measure development resource take-up/attendance as: % of people that attended vs. places you want to fill % of people that attended vs. number that registered # of people that attended courses this month vs. target / previous month % of employees who completed some form of learning this month # of hours of learning delivered per employee this year (Or a variety of other ways) Whatever measure(s) you choose, it is important as there is a ‘return on investment’ (ROI) measure at the heart of it - i.e what do we get from learning for the cost of providing it? Now before I go on, I must give a nod to John Edmonds who told us to measure outcomes of learning (business performance improvement, personal achievements etc) rather than input (learning hours). So before measuring training attendance, you first need measure the extent to which you provide awesome learning to employees (so that you can show that the more learning they consume, the better the organisation performs). However, whatever way you measure the outcomes, we can fairly safely assume that if we provide some learning resource (e.g. a training course) and only 50% of the spaces on the course were filled, we are delivering much lower the ROI than if we had filled the course. I.e. Fewer people learning, for same cost of delivery = lower ROI. So, make sure you measure attendance to help you  identify any areas that are suffering (and therefore undermining your ROI). For guidance on how to improve training attendance, watch this recording of my recent webinar: ‘3 Steps to Improve Training Attendance’.  How do you measure attendance? What results are you getting? Please let me know using the comments below.

"The most successful people in life are the ones who ask questions. They’re always learning. They’re always growing. They’re always pushing." - Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

Filling training courses is important, and failing to do so will result in the decline of L&D. So, here’s three common mistakes to avoid when attempting to get employees to register on your courses. 1. Focusing too much on what the course covers, rather than the benefit attendees receive Often it’s tempting to explain to employees exactly what a course will cover. The topics, the exercises, the duration of each session etc. However, spending time on this means you won’t focus on the benefits the employees will achieve by attending. Employees choose to register for training courses based on the results that expect to get. If they don’t know, understand or believe the results that your training courses will deliver, they are unlikely to register and even less likely to attend. Read more about ‘How to sell the end benefit of your training courses’.   2. Failing to provide any evidence of the quality of the course Hopefully your employees believe that you are generally good at your job and put together high quality training courses. However, training courses take up time that the employee can be using to deliver their personal and business objectives. As a result, you need to help employees conclude that time spent on a course will be worth it. One way to do this is to use social proof (e.g. testimonials from people who have benefitted from attending the course, or from subject matter experts that have reviewed the course materials). Another way is to include subject matter experts and senior leaders in the delivery of the course, for example running a training course on Excel run (in part) by Management Information experts. One L&D professional I spoke to recently told me that by applying this one technique to some of her courses, registrations increased from 2-4 attendees per course to 15 attendees (full!). 3. Making courses ‘too available’ L&D professionals like being helpful. They want to support employees to learn at times that suit them, fitting it around their work. They want to provide useful courses to as many employees as possible. However, doing all of this has an undesirable consequence… courses are ‘too available’. If an employee fails to register for this month’s communication skills training course, they can probably register for the course next month, or get one of the cancellation slots, or register at the last minute because its probably not full. As a result, there is very little incentive for employees to register for courses in advance. This makes it hard for L&D as lists of courses show small numbers of registrations, and L&D don’t know whether they’ll get a sudden influx at the last minute or whether they should cancel the course. So instead, L&D need to create some urgency. Make it more important or desirable for an employee to register early (e.g. first 5 registrations on the sales training course get a 1-2-1 with Head of Sales), and find ways to encourage employees to get the benefits of learning sooner rather than later. You should also help employees see courses as more scarce, e.g. by ‘selling out’ of courses (so registration is necessary), or by only scheduling repeats of courses only after the earlier ones have filled up (rather than offering a communications course every month).   So in summary: Shift focus from what the course covers, to the benefit attendees will receive Don’t forget to provide evidence of the quality of the course, and the likelihood that attendees will get the desired results Avoid making courses too ‘available’, instead create urgency and scarcity   Do you want to be the L&D leader that takes your organization from average to exceptional? Click here to learn about our L&D Accelerator™.

"The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter." - Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

In a previous post I introduced the 3-Step model that you can use to improve training attendance. In this post I’m going to delve into one very specific part of the model that helps us to "create DESIRE": ‘Using social proof’. Why you need to "create DESIRE" for your courses Employees choose to attend training courses based on the results that expect to get. If they don’t know, understand or believe the results that your training courses will deliver, they are unlikely to register and even less likely to attend. So, if you are going to improve attendance on your training courses, you’ll need to create desire in your employees. One way to do this is to ‘use social proof’. Why you should use social proof In a previous post, I covered why (and how) to sell the end benefit of your courses to increase training attendance. I explained why you need to make a bold claim about the results your attendees will get as a result of applying what they’ll learn. This is powerful all on its own, but to really maximise the impact, we need to back up what we’ve said with evidence from others i.e. social proof. For example, compare the following: "Attend the sales skills course to learn the skills needed to double your sales in 6 months" "Attend the sales skills course to learn the skills that enabled John Smith (ABC Dept) to double their sales in just 6 months" Although #1 is strong, it is clear that #2 is even stronger. There is a lot of psychological research that shows that when deciding what to believe and to think and do, we tend to look at what others do. You may have heard of the Asch conformity experiments that were run by Solomon Asch in the 1950s: A participant joins a room with a group of others (seemingly participants in a study but they happen to be actors in cahoots with the experimenter). They’re all asked to identify which of three lines they are shown is the same length as another reference line. The whole group correctly identifies the line that matches the reference line. In half the groups, this leads to a successful matching rate of >99%. However, in the other half of the groups, after a few correct answers, the confederates / actors start incorrectly identifying the matching line. Does the real participant go against the group, when it’s clear everyone else is wrong? No. Many agreed with the group, reducing their success rate to 63.2%. That’s a demonstration of quite how powerful it can be when other people around us are saying or doing something or behaving in a particular way. The power of social proof cannot be overestimated. How to use social proof If you’re not making it obvious that other people are registering and attending a training course then people will assume the opposite; that actually people aren’t attending or that it’s not beneficial to attend. This isn’t about tricking people into believing something that’s not true, it’s about making visible things that are going on. For example, making it visible that of the 12 spots you’ve got available in the training course that 6 have already gone within the first few days. Or even better, making it visible that people have got the desired results from attending the course. Making the invisible, visible There’s a number of ways you can use social proof to do this. Using quotes and testimonials is one of the easiest and best ways. For example: "I attended Alexis’s webinar on how to improve training attendance. It highlighted strategies I could use immediately to get bums on seats." Celia, L&D Manager You can also use statistics, such as: After attending the webinar on how to improve training attendance, attendees were asked how likely they’d be to recommend the recording to others (on a scale of 1 to 10). 80% of attendees gave the session a 9 or 10 out of 10. Or even just numbers: There are just 12 spaces remaining on my course to improve training attendance. You can use these in the emails and promotional materials that you use; highlighting the number of people that have already registered or even better, highlight specific people and why they’ve registered. For example: "Dan registered for this course because ‘ I really want to improve my sales skills when presenting to clients, to help increase my conversion rate at the last hurdle.’" What we can ‘prove’ When we think of social proof, there’s a 3-level hierarchy I developed to help you consider the options you have for what you will ‘prove’. The power of the influence of what you are proving at each of the levels increases as we move up the hierarchy. Level 1: Expected quality of input This is the bottom level of the hierarchy. We are only backing up the suggestion that the course will be worthwhile based on what went into developing it, or based on other people planning to attend. For example: "I’m looking forward to attending the course because the presenter is an expert in sales improvement." Or having an expert who’s going to be delivering the course highlighting their credentials so that the people being asked to attend believe that the quality of what they’re going to learn is high. Level 2: Perceived usefulness of the content (after people have attended it) Once people have been on the course (or during!), get them to provide feedback about what they thought about it. For example: "I found it really useful and I completely expect to double my dales as a result." So this is generally based on feedback from people who have actually got experience of the content - and although they haven’t got results yet, they believe they will. Level 3: Direct results At the top of the pyramid, we provide proof of people who have attended the training and got real results. For example, someone saying: "I’ve doubled my sales between March and June by applying the principles I learned." It doesn’t only have to be quotes though, statistics work too. For example: 75% of L&D managers on the L&D Accelerator™ say they would ‘strongly agree’ that their performance appraisal scores have improved as a result of being a member. You can see the power that this social proof has will increase as you move up this hierarchy - but so is the difficulty of getting it. If you don’t have those results, because you’ve only been running the course a week, then you’ll need to use level two. If you’ve never run the course before then you’ll need to use level one. Putting social proof into action Hopefully you now realise: You should think about the different types of social proof that you can use and how powerful each is. Regardless of whether the course is run yet or not, you should be able to use social proof in some form. You need to plan how you’ll collect feedback for use as social proof in advance! Remember, there are no excuses for not using social proof. Even if this is the first time you’ve run the course, use level one - emphasize why you and others think that the quality of the input is so high. If you work in L&D and want to learn about how to lead your organization from ‘average’ to ‘exceptional’, consider applying to join the L&D Accelerator™. Amongst a whole load of other resources and perks, it contains content that 100% of L&D managers rate 8+ out of 10. (See? Social proof!).

"I’ve never met anyone whose interest in learning something exceeds their ability to do so. Whereas I’ve met lots of people who feel they do not have the ability to learn something, but really lack sufficient interest." - Alexis Kingsbury @makinggreat

In a previous post I introduced the 3-Step model that you can use to improve training attendance. In this post I’m going to delve into one very specific part of the model that helps us to "create DESIRE": ‘Creating urgency’. Why you need to "create DESIRE" for your courses Employees choose to attend training courses based on the results that expect to get. If they don’t know, understand or believe the results that your training courses will deliver, they are unlikely to register and even less likely to attend. So, if you are going to improve attendance on your training courses, you’ll need to create desire in your employees. One way to do this is to ‘create urgency’. Why you should create urgency This is something that tends to be done really badly within organizations and done really well outside of organizations - because within organizations we want to be really nice! We want to say to people: "We get that you’re busy but there’s a course that would be helpful for you… But don’t worry, we’ll run them whenever you want throughout the year. We’ll make everything available to you and there’s absolutely no urgency at all." That’s being really nice but it’s not true. There isn’t an infinite budget. You do have to plan these things in advance. How to create urgency If you’re providing a course that’s going to help people hit their sales targets, why should they wait? Why should we say it’s fine if they attended in three months’ time? Emphasize why they should attend the course NOW Instead, L&D should be saying: "Come on! If you’re not hitting your sales targets you should be on this course. It’s in two weeks’ time and you should make time for it because the end benefit is hitting your sales targets. We’ve run this course before and other people have hit their sales targets as a result. Therefore, if you want to do that you need to sign up now." You should communicate this to managers too, so they can help you create this urgency with their employees. Highlight where there is limited availability When we say urgency, it’s not just creating urgency about attending the course on a particular day, but actually creating urgency around registering as well. So, let people know how many slots are remaining on a course. Highlight that spaces are limited, that they’ll go quickly and encourage people to register as soon as they can. Provide bonuses for early registration In the external world of training, (companies who provide training to other companies or individuals), they are able to do things like discounts or bonus products for people that respond earlier and sign up earlier. You might think this isn’t possible internally, but you can! For example, if we use the course I mentioned before about hitting your sales target, you might say: "For the first 10 people that register, we’ll arrange 1-2-1 time with the top sales person, to discuss what you learned after the course and how to put it into practice to achieve great results." Now of course in theory, the employee themselves could contact the individual and arrange it… but there’s something very valuable about having it done for them, so it works as an incentive to register early. The key is to identify something of value to the employee that you can provide to them (often for free, and very little effort). Then you can create urgency by creating scarcity (limiting how many you will provide). For example: "Register 7 days from now if you want XYZ" or "Be one of the first 10 people to register and you’ll get XYZ." You’ll find that when you create that urgency, you’ll massively increase your registrations. Creating ‘DESIRE’ generates impressive results When urgency is combined with ‘selling the end benefit’, and ‘using social proof’, you’ll find that employees greatly desire your courses and other development resources - valuing them highly. As a result, they’ll be keen to register and attend ASAP. One of my clients, an L&D manager at a professional services firm, found that registrations on training courses increased ten-fold! She then applied the same principles to e-Learning and other development resources and received similar results. So, please try these approaches out in your organization and let me know the impact it has had in the comments below. If you work in L&D and want to learn more about improving training attendance and other topics that help you to lead your organization from ‘average’ to ‘exceptional’, consider applying to join the L&D Accelerator™. Please be quick though - we’re nurturing a small community of like-minded professionals that want to get amazing results, so spaces are very limited to allow for enough 1-2-1 focus. If you wait, you may not be able to join. (See? Creating urgency!)  

In this post I’m going to highlight 3 big ways in which Millennials differ from previous generations, and why this matters to organizations like yours. I’ll explore this in more detail in a webinar I’m co-hosting on the 20th August (16:00 BST). 1. The Internet Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the internet. They had access to the internet at school, and probably in their home too. To them, pretty much anything they need to know is google-able, but with so much information available, they increasingly rely on social networks to identify what really matters. Their education and entertainment is intertwined through consuming videos on YouTube, reading blogs, and attending virtual events. When socializing, there are no boundaries of geography or time - they can nurture relationships with over a hundred ‘pen pals’ all over the world in one afternoon. Why this matters to your organization: Your top Millennial talent will expect unlimited internet access so that they can be the best they can be. They expect to be able to use video sites and social media to research and find the answers they need. They expect to be able to use (and install) their preferred tools, and be trusted to achieve the objectives they are set. They don’t want to hear poor reasons why their job is made more difficult through site blockers or usage policies. They don’t want to be expected to work in a bubble or even within the confines of a small team. They don’t want to fulfil the role of ‘IT support’ to their managers, when they feel they do the job better or faster themselves. They don’t want to be forced to consume learning materials that are lower quality or less entertaining that other freely available resources on the internet. 2. ‘Well rounded’ development Millennials have been educated by their parents more than any previous generation. Not particularly in academic subjects (although that may be true too), but in the areas of ’emotional intelligence’ and ‘soft skills’. They have been encouraged to attend (and then transported to and from) pre & post school clubs that cater to a wide variety of interests. Whether they were interested in Acting, Chess, Cricket, Guitar, or learning Japanese, there was a club they could join. They became part of multiple communities and learned how to relate to other people effectively. They’ve been told by schools and careers advisors to ensure they are ‘well rounded’ and that university applications with ‘straight As’ are not enough - they must demonstrate their other competencies via extra curricular activities such as charity work, team sports, and the ‘Duke of Edinburgh award’ (in the UK). Why this matters to your organization: Millennials understand that skills & capabilities are more important that knowledge. As a result, they expect management and L&D support to help them identify the areas they need to focus on, address these areas, collect feedback on the impact and repeat the process. They expect that lines between being ‘at work’, ‘working from home’, and ‘learning’ are blurred and expect fair, flexible and supportive approaches to how they will learn and work best. They also expect to be part of groups of interest and to contribute meaningfully, rather than be considered a member of the audience. 3. Personal technology (including mobiles) Millennials are also the first generation to grow up with their own devices (laptops, tablets etc), and mobile phones becoming common for most children. They are used to being available to anyone at any time, regardless of where they are. They have increased the number of devices they own and carry to cover a wide range of functions including note-taking, emailing, video calls, photography, navigation, translation, education, and entertainment. Why this matters to your organization: Millennials expect to be able to do most of what they can do on a work computer on mobile devices and their home computers (and vice versa). They expect to be able to continue learning and working outside the office, accessing content on the their mobile devices and at home. There are lots of others ways in which the period Millennials grew up impacts their expectations and capabilities in the world of work. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

This post is based on one I originally wrote for HRZone.com Millennials are no longer the new kids on the block. They started entering work 19 years ago, and are now the largest generation in today’s workforce. Before long, they’ll not just be the largest generation of those in work… they’ll be the largest generation of managers, then leaders, then CXOs. Unfortunately, some organisations are finding it difficult to attract, nurture and retain the best of these Millennials. Over time, this will mean that they lose their top talent and are left with whoever remains. Undoubtedly this will put them at a competitive disadvantage. So, here are three common ways organizations are turning off their best Millennials and practically pushing them out the door (and how to avoid them): 1. Putting limits on technology and tools As I explored in this article on 3 ways Millennials differ to other generations, Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the internet. As a result, your top Millennial talent will expect technology in your organization to be an enabler, not a blocker, so that they can be the best they can be. Blocking video and social networking sites is a particularly naive move because a) Talented Millennials use these resources for real work and b) Lazy Millennials will just use their phones instead. 2. Making them feel like they’re treading water Many articles suggest that Millennials are more ambitious than other generations. Regardless of whether this is really accurate for the generation as a whole, one thing is for sure: your A-player Millennials are rightly ambitious. If you communicate to them that success in their role means a promotion, they’ll aim for that. When you tell them there isn’t a manager role available yet, or that they have to wait until the next round of promotions, they’ll feel like they aren’t progressing. Your top dogs will soon find their way out of a small yard. Instead, provide them with a career development path based on experiences and skills so that there are no barriers or boundaries to what they can achieve. I explore this further in my ‘5 Nutrients for Growing A-players’ - look out for a post on this soon. 3. Leaving them to ‘get on with it’ You might imagine that your A-players will appreciate being given space to complete tasks their own way, be a self-starter, and manage their own development. Giving them some space is important (they won’t want to be micro managed), however, too much space feels like neglect. Your Millennial A-players will want to feel like they are contributing, doing a good job, and that their own development is being supported. As a manager, speak to A-players first (rather than your ‘problem-employees’) to ensure they are getting the recognition, feedback and support they need. Once done, they’ll be motivated to go and achieve great things, leaving you to sort out those people that have issues. As an HR or L&D professional, ensure you are providing coaching/mentoring to your top talent, with opportunities for regular feedback from colleagues. What do you think? What other factors are big turn-offs for top talent?

Now that the sales are over, let’s consider how retail therapy is made possible. There are four, excellent retail Toolboxes: Retailer 2 Retail Operations Retail Supervision Retail Management 1. Retailer 2 (12.06) Retailer 2 covers the core units of the Certificate II in Retail, as well as five selling, merchandising and marketing electives. Rather than […]