I am constantly faced with employees saying that they have not been trained on various topics. With this in mind we have arranged a deal with an external agency to provide 10 days worth of training over the next 12 months on a varierty of subjects. Initially responses are good, but in the fortnight leading up to the course they drop out for various reasons and I end up with 4/5 attendees.

Doeas anyone have ideas to ensure attendance to the meetings?

One option is to get senior management support for recharging for training costs incurred .Put a per capita charge on each delegate that would cover the break even cost of the training. eg. cost of trainer, training material, room hire, refreshments, etc. (remember no training is truly free of charge!) For each delegate booking, confirm this charge for attendance via their line manager and explain that this is a fee which the organisation will pay for this persons development. Set a deadline for delegate cancellations two week ahead of the event, after which this charge will be levied irrespective of attendance. In the event of non-attendance, state that the organisation will seek recompense through that delegates team budget.

Charging or recharging for non attendance at learning / training events concentrates the mind wonderfully well! It is also a true reflection of the cost of learning and shows the priority the organisation puts on development. No manager likes to have to pay for something that hasn't happened, so delegates will commit to attend or send a substitute from their team at worst. By involving the line manager, it checks if the training is really suitable for that persons development and engages the correct person to support learning, the line manager.

If this does not improve attendance, start keeping accurate records of attendance and feeding back costs incurred per team for non-attendance to your senior management team meetings and senior finance officer in the organisation. It will highlight the managers / teams who aren't engaging in the development that the organisation wants and show the true cost of this wasted opportunity to the organisation. You can even build this into management appraisal. Money wasted on staff not attending training will force action to rectify it or at least a re- examination of line management support and behaviour and preferred methods of learning within the organisation. Take a firm line that reflects what happens in the real world for commercial training organisations - they usually charge up front before an event, cover their fixed training costs and their trainers get paid whether delegates show or not.

If the courses are optional, then you would not have much to go on.  However, if you are paying for them, then reasonably attendance should be mandatory.  A failure to attend could therefore be grounds for disciplinary action.  This could be on the basis of a failure to follow a direct instruction and also the financial damage incurred as a result.

Hi AJ

|As has been said - you need ownership and commitment from peoples line managers. While staff may complain about the lack of training each manager needs people to deliver.  If the manager is not committed then they will find a reason why an individual could not be freed to attend.

Build good working relationships with your managers, get them onside.

10 days though does seem a little excessive - is this per person or 10 tays training in total?

Unfortunatly you are not alone here - it happens in most organisations where there is not a full commitment to training.

Mike
www.f2p.co.uk developing you
www.rapidbi.com - developing your organisation