When it comes to learning...
- 56% of newly learned material is forgotten immediately
- 66% is forgotten in a day
- 80% is forgotten in a month
- Only 10-30% of classroom training transfers to on-the-job performance?
Did you know that in medieval times communities threw children in the river when they wanted them to remember important events! They believed that if a child were thrown in the water after observing important proceedings, the event would be impressed on the child and the memory would stay with him/her for a lifetime.
What can workplace learning do to improve retention?
Can you fit a trip down the river into your budget?
If not you’re concerned that a trip down the river may be questioned, here are a few other ideas for helping people remember and retain the skills taught in development programs:
First, involve all managers. Studies have proven that if a manager is involved before training and after training - the training transfer improves dramatically.
Two possible ways to involve your managers include:
- Teach managers how to support training and development with this program: Developing and Coaching Others.
- Provide managers with a communication script that outlines expectations and why the development program is important.
This development communication script should include:
- Program goals and objectives
- Why the training is important to that senior leader, to the organization, to the team and to the participant.
- Clear behavior expectations before, during and after training.
If you’d like to see a sample pre-training management communication script, contact Suzie Price at Priceless Professional Development. She’ll share a letter she uses with her clients.
Get your managers involved if you want to improve the transfer of training and don’t forget - people forget 80% of newly learned material.
