Training test.

• Author: Carlivati, Peter
• Position: Feature - Employee education

Employee education is vital in today's competitive environment. But learning programs rarely achieve long-term results without careful nurturing and follow-up by management. Here are 11 tips to enable your bank to derive maximum benefits from marketing-related schooling.

"One way that high performing banks distinguish themselves from those that just amble along is how they embrace training," noted columnist Lisa Aldisert in a recent issue of ABA Bank Marketing "Successful banks see it as a top priority."

In another column in the same issue, L. Biff Motley noted that customer satisfaction surveys have showed repeatedly that "the greatest 'satisfiers' of customers of all types are employee-related attributes like professionalism, attention to problem solving, friendliness, etc."

Thus, employee training is a critical part of achieving such marketing goals as differentiating from competition and improving customer satisfaction. But how can a bank achieve the type of training that results both in long-term behavioral change as well as bottom-line improvements?

Bank training itself has evolved in recent years. Driven by forces such as financial modernization, an increasing number of banks have begun to view the training-and-development function as a business strategy that could be applied selectively to solve problems, resolve issues or take advantage of opportunities. In these performance-oriented organizations, an investment in training and development is expected to lead to specific business results, the outcome of a thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented learning (and learning application) process.

As a result, training today is actively managed through a training department: needs are assessed, agendas are planned, classes are scheduled, budgets are created, etc. Outside training opportunities are still employed (e.g., an American Institute of Bankers class), but, more often than not, as a supplement to internal offerings.

Now, managers of business units have become much more involved in implementing learning solutions, independently or in collaboration with training departments. In part, this reflects the significant investments being made in new learning solutions, especially technology-based ones such as e-learning. But, to an even greater extent, it suggests growing recognition that training (i.e., the learning experience) alone will not produce meaningful business results. Meaningful results require leadership--the process of inspiring, motivating and enabling employees not only to learn, but also to apply what they have learned to the business imperative.

As performance-oriented banks look to learning solutions as business strategies, they have come to realize that to be successful in achieving business results through learning they need to apply a...