How to draw up a (truly) effective training plan? Instructions and tips

Training plan (PF), skills development plan (PDC), personal training account (CPF), skills operators (OPCO), intra or inter training, collective actions... these are just some of the terms that bring the training ecosystem to life within organizations!

Creating training strategies that support growth and ultimately company performance are the challenges that you, as HR professionals, will have to meet.

In this article, we've taken care to lay everything out flat.

This article is aimed at all HR professionals who have to deal with training from both an operational and a strategic angle.

In this article, we'll share best practices on designing a competency development plan. We will share our vision and concrete feedback on the best approaches to designing a CDP. You'll discover step-by-step instructions for successful design and management.

1. What is a training plan or skills development plan?

1.1 Training plan: definition

The training plan is an essential HR tool for orchestrating the training programs offered to your employees.

Think of this plan as your frame of reference with a twofold objective: 

• Enable you to put your strategic ambitions into practice (training needs)
• Enable you to rigorously manage your actions (planning, organization, evaluation)

Training is an essential component of your HR strategy. It supports skills development, but not only! It's also a lever for employee recognition and loyalty .

Generally speaking, the training plan is drawn up for a calendar year and renewed every year. In practice, however, it is often adjusted as training needs arise. 

To help you build it, here is an example of a training plan in Excel that you can download free of charge:

1.2 What is the difference between a training plan and a skills development plan?

There are none! The training plan is simply the ancestor of the skills development plan. 

Since January 1, 2019, the training plan has been renamed the skills development plan to include in particular the notions of : 

• Skills assessment,
• Validation of acquired experience (VAE),
• Compulsory training (in application of an agreement or collective bargaining agreement),
• In-house training,
• Training provided by external service providers.

‍

1.3 Who is concerned by the training plan?

At employer level 

All companies, whatever their size or sector of activity, are encouraged to draw up a skills development plan. It is up to the employer to propose a training plan and ensure its proper deployment. 

In other words, the development and deployment of a training plan is often in the hands of you HR professionals! With a little luck, your management will already be convinced of the benefits of a training plan. If not, you'll need to arm yourself with the best arguments to convince them that it's a virtuous investment for the company's growth. And just in time, we have a plethora of them to offer you later in this article!

‍

‍Atemployee level

Any employee, whether on a fixed-term or permanent contract, may be eligible for training under your plan, depending on the conditions set by the company. There is no general rule: it depends on each company.

Employees on apprenticeship, professionalization or back-to-work PEC (Parcours Emploi Compétences) contracts can also benefit from training, but only if the objective is different from that stipulated in the contract. Indeed, by definition, these types of employment contracts already provide for the employee to be trained for his or her position.

‍

‍Can an employee refuse to take a training course?

In principle, no. Training is considered to be part of an employee's contract. The employee cannot therefore refuse, all the more so if thetraining is mandatory, such as health and safety at work, or compulsory certifications linked to the employment contract (CACES, for example).

But you know how complex French laws can be! Like the rules of grammar, there are bound to be a few exceptions to the rule: 

• The employee can refuse to undergo a skills assessment, as you are not entitled to impose this on him or her.
• The employee can refuse to take part in a VAE ( validation des acquis de l'expérience) program, because you can't impose it on him or her either.
• The employee has the right to refuse the training if it is conducted wholly or partly outside working hours.
• An employee may refuse to undergo training if it implies a non-consensual change of position.
• If the employee is an employee representative and the training runs counter to the performance of his or her mandate, he or she is entitled to refuse the training.

Apart from these special cases, the employee is obliged to follow the training courses assigned to him/her.

It should also be noted that the request for training may come from the employee himself. In this case, the application and acceptance procedure is left to the discretion of each company, and no legal obligation is imposed on you. You have the right to refuse the request, or to postpone it if necessary.

‍

2. Why create a training plan?

A skills development plan is not compulsory, but we strongly recommend it, as it generates numerous benefits at different levels. In other words, here are the famous arguments to put forward to convince your management to invest in training.

Benefits for HR and management 

• The training plan is a good way of taking stock of employees' skill levels andidentifying training needs in order to develop strategic skills and improve the company's performance and competitiveness in its market.
• It enables HR teams to get organized, estimate a provisional budget andcomply with legal obligations in the field of professional training.
• Investing in training is also a powerful lever for building employee loyalty, and the training plan is a tool that facilitates this project. 

You can also think in terms of risk analysis: 

Failing to train your teams represents a considerable loss of earnings: this lack of training is bound to have a negative impact on team performance, and you can bet that your competitors are already training their staff, so you're setting yourself back a long way. 

Let's take the concrete example of an industrial company whose new strategic objective is to target key accounts. If the sales team isn't trained to understand the needs of key accounts, their performance won't match the targets set. Competitors will gradually encroach on your market share.

Involving managers and employees in career development is one of the keys to a successful plan:

With a training plan, managers feel they are contributing to the professional development of their employees, and this enhances their strategic role within the company. It's essential to include them in the design of the DCP as early as possible.

Employees feel listened to and their needs are taken into account. Training engages them in a motivating career path and strengthens their loyalty to your organization. If we take this a step further, they have the potential to become ambassadors for your employer brand, and to encourage others to join the very company that counts on their talent.

‍

3. Who contributes to the skills development plan?

There are two different approaches here. And as you can imagine, we have our own preference, but it's important that you consider all the options before making your choice.

3.1 The managerial VS the HR approach

The manager-centered approach

Managers work directly with their staff on a daily basis. They understand their training needs, usually during annual or professional interviews, and above all, they have in-depth knowledge of the company's market. They also know how to identify their team's high-potential employees, and those who need training.

This first approach involves making your managers the driving force behind the design of your training plan, relying on their business analysis and strategic vision. 

In this way, you capture the training needs of your managers, who also suggest training organizations, employees to be placed on a particular course, etc. A common practice we often see is to provide a training catalog so that managers can make their choice(s). Your role in this approach is an operational one, providing support and orchestrating the deployment of the training plan.

This approach guarantees : 

• Involve managers and employees from the outset to facilitate deployment and adoption of the skills development plan.
• Respond to a maximum number of training needs expressed by our teams.
• Guarantee that training organizations are relevant, as they will have been selected by managers who have the necessary hindsight and business expertise to make the right choice.

On the other hand, this approach also entails risks: the difficulty of managing a budget and meeting all needs, the dangers inherent in the training catalog, the risk of disappointing managers and employees if their wishes are not accepted because the chosen organization, for example, is too expensive. You also run the risk of obtaining atraining action plan that lacks alignment with the company's strategic orientations, and therefore fails to convince your management.

‍

The HR-centric approach

The other approach is for you, the human resources professional, to be the key player in designing the training plan. 

This means that you need to identify your employees' training needs, select training courses and service providers, and identify potential employees for training. 

With this approach, you're in control of budgeting and the entire operational and strategic management of your skills development plan.

It's a virtuous approach, because you have a 360° view of the plan: on the one hand, you control the company's strategic orientations and business objectives, and on the other, the training requirements of your teams. This equips you to arbitrate and build your plan in the most comprehensive and relevant way possible.

However, this approach is not without risks either.

For example, failing toinvolve managers and employees from the very outset of the plan's conception can make adoption more difficult. They may feel that training is being imposed on them that has nothing to do with their expectations. 

This approach also implies that you have developed expertise in a number of trades, so that you can legitimately choose the right training organizations. 

The success of this approach also depends on the position of the HR department in your company: if it is central and close to the teams in the field, you should have no problem drawing up your plan. On the other hand, it will be very difficult to identify talent and understand and capture their needs if collaboration with the teams is more distant. 

‍

3.2 Which approach to choose?

There's no such thing as a right or wrong approach, but at Empowill, we're bound to have a preference! 

And at the risk of cheating a little, we encourage you to opt for a hybrid approach.

💡 Empowill's expert opinion:
At Empowill, we have a preference and advise you to adopt a strategic AND operational conductor's posture to guarantee the success of your skills development plan.

On the one hand, it would be a pity to deprive yourself of the knowledge andbusiness expertise of your managers in drawing up your plan. 

On the other hand, you are obliged to consider your company's strategic orientations and business challenges, since the raison d'être of a training plan is above all to serve these challenges. Later in this article, we'll take a look at how to create a training plan based on this hybrid approach.

This is a recommendation, but we are well aware that practice is sometimes more complicated. Unfortunately, the HR department is not always allowed to play its role as a strategic and central partner, close to the teams... So opt for the approach that best suits your current environment and serves the objectives you've set with your management. In any case, a training plan is better than nothing at all!

A little food for thought, though: isn't the training plan the ideal opportunity to upgrade the HR department and give it a central role in your company? Food for thought...

Before getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to draw up your training plan, let's take a look at the obligations associated with professional training, as this is the first step in any HR initiative: understanding the law so as to build a system that complies with the rules.

‍

4. Professional training obligations

It is not compulsory to draw up a training plan, although it is strongly recommended.

However, as an employer, you have a number of obligations with regard to the professional training of your employees: 

• The obligation to adapt to the position: in other words, the employer has a duty to train the employee to occupy the position correctly. 
• The obligation to maintain employability: i.e. to ensure that the employee's ability to perform his or her job is maintained in the face of technological and/or organizational change.
• The obligation to comply with the employment contract and provide training if stipulated in the contract. For example, if the employee is on an apprenticeship contract, the employer must provide appropriate training throughout the duration of the contract.
• The obligation to train if the collective agreement imposes mandatory training.
• The obligation to consult the CSE on training initiatives if your company has more than 50 employees. Please note, however, that you do not need to obtain their approval; your obligation is purely consultative. But if you want to maintain good relations, you need to avoid conflictual situations and listen carefully to their recommendations.

Once you've got all your obligations in mind, it's time to start drawing up your training plan!

→ See also: 10 tips for a successful training plan

‍‍

5. 6 steps to an effective training plan

Please note: We assume that this is the first time you have drawn up a training plan. If, however, you already had one, the first step before drawing up the next one is of course toanalyze the results of the previous one and carry out an internal audit of training satisfaction (if this hasn't already been done). The conclusions you draw will be vital in ensuring a better action plan for the coming year. 

Step 1: Define the strategic objectives of the training plan

If there's one step you shouldn't neglect, it's defining the strategic objectives of your training plan. 

And if objectives are to be relevant, they need to emanate from the company's strategic direction and its business challenges. Indeed, a training plan is only worthwhile if it serves to support the company's growth.

To integrate these issues, it is essential to schedule a discussion with your management team, for example, to understand the company's medium/long-term vision and to reflect together on how the DCP can serve these objectives. 

Here are a few valuable questions to ask your CEO or CODIR that will help you refine your plan: 

• What is the company's 5-year strategic vision?
• Does the company have any international stakes?
• Is the company planning to expand its product or service offering?
• Are there any major market trends to anticipate?
• In the competitive landscape, what would management like to counter?
• What are the major challenges he/she sees in team training?
• What performance targets are you aiming for next year? And for the next 5 years?

The answers you receive will be invaluable in setting the course and framework for your skills development plan. They will enable you toalign your business objectives with a business projection. For example, if your management is planning to expand into Germany, it's important that your sales people are prepared.

➕ Empowill's little extra:
The "projected training plan" section available on Empowill allows you to set a projected budget and training actions to estimate the costs of your PDC.

‍

Step 2: Define stakeholders and their roles

One of the keys to successful project management is defining the roles of each stakeholder. 

If we adopt a hybrid approach as described above, each stakeholder has a clearly defined role to play in drawing up the training plan. 

‍Therole of management

Management has a very important role to play in drawing up a training plan. The challenge is to clearly define the company's strategic orientations and business objectives. And above all, in an ideal world, management must communicate this strategy clearly to its employees. 

The training plan must respond to these challenges, and if everyone is aligned with the organization's strategic direction, then the choices made regarding the training plan will be equally understood by all? If these objectives are unclear, the training plan risks being incoherent, questioned and ineffective.

Management is also responsible for confirming the budget. Ideally, this budget should be co-constructed with you, the HR expert, as you have the HR experience and knowledge of the training market that are essential for putting a realistic figure on the budget. You'll be able to guide your GM in the feasibility of the training plan in the light of the budget allocated. This is where your negotiating skills come into their own! 

Later in this article, we'll look at two approaches to budgeting a training plan.

‍

The role of human resources

As Training Manager, your role is toensure that the training program is consistent with business challenges. You are the guarantor of the alignment between corporate strategy and the operational deployment of training.

First of all, your job is to clarify training needs, because not every training need translates into a training action. For example, if a manager reports a need for "management training", this is an imprecise request that is difficult to transform into a training action. It's up to you to dig deeper and define the need precisely: is it for leadership training? to learn how to set objectives? or non-violent communication? 

➕ Empowilll's little plus:
You can build a customized training catalog that can be viewed in full or in part by your managers, to help them when their needs first arise.

At Empowill, we're committed to providing your community of managers with the intuitive tools and functionalities they need to take part in this HR exercise! Access to the training catalog is an effective way of making them contributors to the development of the training plan. And even more so by giving them the possibility of initiating training requests directly from the platform.

‍

You are responsible for mobilizing resources and means to ensure that the training plan runs smoothly. Contribute to the choice of organizations, anticipate the right time to train an employee, and be able to respond to as many requests as possible, in close collaboration with managers.

‍

Finally, you contribute to the arbitration process, as incoming requests are likely to be numerous and to exceed the planned budget. It's up to you to accept, refuse or postpone training requests. 

➕ Empowill's little plus:
Training requests are sent directly from the interviews. They can be sorted interactively, added to the plan or not, and kept without time limits from one year to the next.

Once the training plan has been deployed, it is finally up to human resources toidentify organizational or financialoptimization levers to improve the plan, and to capture feedback from employees who have benefited from training.

‍

The role of managers

Managers play an active role in identifying employees' needs, particularly during annual appraisals, and act as intermediaries with HR teams. They work with you to clarify needs and prioritize incoming requests. 

They can sometimes support HR professionals in the operational deployment of the plan, for example with the management of training sessions, invitations or reminders of deadlines.

➕ Empowill's little plus:
Communications are automated and managers are notified directly when their employees are invited to training courses.

‍

The role of employees

In some organizations, employees contribute to the search for training organizations. They are also encouraged to assess the quality of the training they have attended, to improve the performance of the next training plan.

➕ The little extra on Empowill:
Collecting feedback from a training course, both hot and cold, is simple and automated on Empowill.

‍

Step 3: Identify and clarify training needs

If we had to choose, we'd say that this is the most complex part of designing a training plan, but by far the most important and decisive for the success of the DCP. 

There are several sources of training needs: 

• Regulatory obligations such as health and safety training. In this case, refer to your collective agreement.
• Training to serve the company's ambitions.
• Training requests arising from employees' annual appraisals or professional interviews.
• The manager's suggestions.
• A major internal event impacting the employee's job, such as a legal change or a new internal tool to be used, for example.

The challenge will be to bring together all training sources to create the final training plan.

‍

The training requirements inherent in the company's ambitions 

As mentioned above, the company's strategic orientations will naturally influence the training programs provided to its teams. 

For example, if the organization decides to change an in-house software system for greater efficiency, training teams in the use of the new tool must be an integral part of the plan. If the company is planning to develop a new market in England, some employees may need to be trained in professional English. Hence the importance of clearly understanding and integrating the company's ambitions into the action plan.

Your role is to understand the business objectives and translate them into the business training requirements needed to meet them.

‍

Training requests from employees 

Employees' requests for training generally arise during annual or professional appraisals. Hence the importance of knowing how to ask the right questions during the interview. 

Involving your employees in the design of the DCP is highly advantageous: their commitment is all the more important. 

This is what Katiana Morata, Training Manager at Maison de la Literie, has observed : "The first step before anything else is to carry out an audit: go into the stores to ask employees about their needs. Commitment is greater when you include them in the construction of the plan!"

‍

In an ideal world, you are equipped with interview management software such as Empowill, which enables you to centralize all training requests arising from annual interviews in a single interface. This drastically simplifies the task of capturing and processing needs. 

If, like Katiana Morata(Training Manager at Maison de la Literie) , you don't have the necessary equipment, or if interviews are non-existent, or are conducted on paper, or if training requests are centralized in an Excel file, then capturing needs is still an option, but simply much more time-consuming for you. 

As Katiana points out, it's important togo out and meet your employees, and particularly your managers, in order to understand and clarify their needs. This ensures that you have a clear understanding of the business need and the pedagogical objectives in the face of a demand that is sometimes unclear.

Be careful to distinguish between the need for training and the demand for it!

💡 Empowill's expert opinion:
A request for training is not necessarily a need. An employee may want to learn English, but if it doesn't serve the team's or the company's business objectives, then the request is pointless. Hence the importance of consulting managers when identifying needs, in order to validate the pedagogical objectives of requested training courses.

-> See also: Why invest in training management software?

‍

Arbitration: when choices have to be made

The bulk of the work in terms of volume is done: training requests are transformed into needs, strategic objectives are integrated and everything is gathered in one place for analysis.

Now it's time to think!

Your role as HR is to arbitrate all these training needs. What training will you accept? Refuse? Postpone?

Here are several ways to do it.

Start with mandatory training. Naturally, you must include them in your training plan to comply with the law. These training courses are fundamental to your company's activities, and are difficult to do without.

💡Empowill's expert opinion:
Of course, the legal aspect of training is important, as it affects your company's compliance and its ability to do business. However, it is also important to set aside part of the budget for so-called professional development training to maintain the company's performance and competitiveness. Your employees need to be supported in integrating new practices and developments in their profession. It's a balancing act.

Next, build a frame of reference to facilitate your arbitration. At Empowill, we've found that our customers operate in different ways. For example, one of our customers has a policy of training all employees at least once a year. Find the system that works for your organization and is aligned with your vision of training.

In reality, not everyone requires training. It depends on your company's culture. So it's vital to match your frame of reference to your culture and objectives.

Elements that can also guide your choices and the prioritization of training courses are : 

• degree ofalignment with the company'sbusiness objectives
• the overall volume of demand versus the estimated budget: if they are aligned, arbitration should not be a problem
• budget per training course and financing or financial optimization
• types of training: is it individual or group training? Group training has the advantage of spreading costs across several employees. 

Your personnel review can also be used to arbitrate your skills development plan. If you carry out in-house career reviews, you'll be able to identify talented people on the basis of their performance and potential, and provide them with strategic training. 

Once you've made your decision, it's important to communicate your decisions to managers or department heads, who will then pass them on to employees. This promotes adoption of your model and employee understanding of the decisions made.

‍

➕ Empowill's little plus:
When you accept a request, you can automatically alert the manager and employee that the need has been validated. Practical, isn't it? :) No more individualized e-mails by department with the good old Excel spreadsheet!

‍

Step 4: Build a skills development plan

Designing the training catalog

What is a training catalog?

This is a tool that lists all the training courses offered within your company, by external organizations or provided in-house. 

To give you an idea, here is an overview of the Empowill training catalog: 

‍

Here you can find all categories of training: 

• Compulsory actions, prevention and safety, or accreditations
• Career-related development initiatives
• Job retention actions (training in legal developments, use of new tools, etc.)

All types of training can also be listed in the training catalog: 

• Group training (1 trainer for several learners) or individual training (1 trainer for 1 learner).
• In-house training: meeting a collective need within an organization 
• Inter-company training : meets an individual need for group training, but with learners from different companies.

Please note that as of September 5, 2018, training courses conducted remotely can also be included in the training plan.

‍

‍How tobuild your training catalog?

Ideally, the training catalog should be designed in parallel with the identification and prioritization of training needs, as your managers will be able to share their expertise and knowledge of the training market in their field. 

Well, that's not always true, as you probably already have a training history to draw on. Nevertheless, it's important to keep it up to date and avoid offering obsolete training courses.

All the more so as, in order to make a legitimate choice, it is essential to take into account training costs and the learning methods used.

There are two ways of looking at this: 

• Or you opt to manage the skills development plan in a very operational way: you manage the schedules, the budget, the feedback, the attendance, etc... Which is already a lot! You delegate the pedagogical part to your managers (cf. the managerial approach mentioned earlier).
• Or you opt for a management approach in which you have full mastery of pedagogical issues, and your involvement extends to meeting trainers, selecting training organizations, and sometimes even co-designing training courses (cf. HR approach or hybrid approach).

If we take the example of Katiana Morata, Training Manager at Maison de la Literie, she adopts more the second posture: "It's a personal conviction to help train employees, because that's how you contribute fully to the performance of the training plan and to the company's growth".

-> Read also: 7 criteria for successful training

If, like Katiana, you have the opportunity to get involved in the pedagogical dimension of your training plan, go for it! Here are a few questions to ask yourself in order to carefully select the training courses in your catalog: 

• Does the training organization offer training sessions all year round, or are there specific time slots you don't want to miss? Do these slots correspond to your internal calendar?
• Which learning method do your employees prefer? E-learning is not for everyone, nor is it designed to teach all subjects! There are also AFESTs, MOOCs, SPOCs and so on... find out about the different training methods and your employees' affinities before making your choice.
• Is the training appreciated and well rated by alumni-learners (consult hot and cold evaluations if you're renewing last year's catalog)?
• Is the organization or its training course well known? Beware of marketing window-dressing that is attractive and appealing, but which sometimes conceals the poor quality of the training provided.

💡 Empowill's expert opinion:
A point of vigilance when it comes to building your training catalog. It's an interesting tool, but it has several limitations, notably the risk of pushing your employees to consume and choose training courses they wouldn't ultimately need. Hence the importance of clarifying needs and making the right choices.

-> Read also: Why are training catalogs dangerous?

‍

The budget and financing of the training plan

How do you calculate your training budget? 

The sinews of war are your budget! It's going to take a lot of ingenuity to meet all your employees' expectations, given the budget allocated to the training plan. 

In some cases, your management will grant you a budget representing a percentage of the payroll. This is usually no more than 1 or 2%, which can be a good start! It's then up to you to intelligently allocate your budget to training initiatives, mobilizing available funding to make maximum savings.

In other cases, management expects you to propose an optimized budget to meet as many training requests as possible. 

What is certain is that since 2022, investment in vocational training has increased drastically.

Put a price tag on your budget : 

• Your frame of reference for arbitration: what takes priority?
• Types of training: technical training is generally more expensive than development training, such as language learning.
• Training methods: in-house training is more cost-effective because the cost is shared by all participants.
• The stakes and culture of the company: does your management really want to invest in training? It may decide, for example, to invest X euros a year in training, or adopt an individual approach: invest X euros a year per employee on request (this is a great argument to put forward for your employer brand). 

This will give you a provisional budget that you can present to your management. 

Beware: in practice, you will undoubtedly come across off-plan budgeting, i.e. training courses which were neither planned nor budgeted for when the plan was drawn up, and which are added to as the plan progresses. The ultimate aim is to anticipate them as far as possible, but in reality, there are often a few off-plan training courses that are added along the way! That's why we encourage you to build in a little budgetary cushion.

‍

What are the levers for financing training?

In France, vocational training is mainly financed by company contributions through two taxes: the initial training tax and the CUFPA (contribution unique pour la formation professionnelle et l'alternance). 

After passing through the URSSAF, these contributions are redistributed to two main bodies: the OPCOs (skills operators), and France Compétences, which distributes this budget via several schemes (see diagram below).

‍

‍

The first funding lever is the OPCO, formerly OPCA. The OPCO's main aim is to help companies develop their skills and remain competitive in their markets. They also finance a portion of professionalization and apprenticeship contracts. This is one of the best-known financing levers for vocational training, and the most commonly used for young students on work-study programs. 

There are different advisors for each branch of activity, and each branch has a specific financial envelope determined in particular by the size of the company. You should contact your referent to find out the budget for your sector. 

-> Know your OPCO referent with your SIRET number. 

There are other ways of financing training, such as : 

• The co-constructed CPF, the professional training account: employer and employee agree to co-finance the training taken by the employee.
• State aid, in particular for AFEST AFEST: action de formation en situation de travail (on-the-job training action) is a type of training that can be financed by the CPF or by State aid (Pôle Emploi or the Regions).
• Regional aid: the latter also have a budget allocated to vocational training, and you can apply to your region for funding.

-> Read all about training financing

‍

Training schedule

On the one hand, you have a clearly defined budget. On the other, you've identified the training organizations. Now you need to orchestrate all this in the form of a training schedule, to identify in concrete terms how your training will be distributed over the coming year. 

Reminder: training sessions are considered as working time. We encourage you to hold these training sessions, as far as possible, during the employee's working hours, to be more accommodating. If this is not possible, you can come to an agreement with your employees to give priority to evening training times, for example. This is an essential criterion when it comes to sending an employee on training.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to organize your training schedule efficiently and avoid rescheduling sessions at the last minute: 

• Is the employee the only one working in his or her position? Can someone replace him/her when he/she is in training? If so, make sure you don't send two people to the same job at the same time, if possible. If not, or if it's a group training course that both employees need to attend, try as far as possible to ask them to attend during a slack period in their activity.
• Is the training part of a mandatory training program linked to a certification? A word of advice: include these training courses in your training plan first, to make sure you're up to date when it comes to recycling your authorizations. 
• Are you already aware of the vacations taken by your employees? If so, plan ahead if possible, and make sure you don't send an employee who has already taken leave.

‍

The importance of a forward-looking training plan

The catalog, the budget and the schedule are the three essential elements in your projected training plan. It's a powerful tool that embodies your concrete action plan, and arms you with the best arguments to present to your management or your Works Council. 

💡TheEmpowill expert's opinion:
The forward-looking training plan is all too often overlooked, even though it has real added value. It's a powerful HR management tool that enables you to anticipate and take stock of operational issues, and to engage in strategic dialogues with management. The forward-looking plan makes you a strategic player in the company, not just an operational one.

Once you've drawn up a well-defined business plan, it's time to present it for approval.

‍

Step 5: Validate the training plan

Present training plan to management

The art of project presentation is not an easy one to master. There are many things that seem obvious but are often overlooked.

The first thing to do is to put your contacts in the best possible position: 

• Reserve a morning slot: your CEO or CODIR members will be full of energy, ready to listen and open to discussion.
• Send your provisional plan and your presentation support at least one week before the presentation of the training plan. This will give your audience plenty of time to look it over and prepare for the meeting.
• Don 't allow more than 30-45 minutes for your presentation, to avoid losing your audience's attention and to get to the point.

The keys to a successful CODIR presentation : 

• Emphasize your understanding of the company's business challenges and how your training plan meets them.
• Mention the risks involved, the loss of earnings from not investing in training.
• Use all the above arguments to convince your management.
• Clearly explain your rationale and the frame of reference that dictated your choices, to make sure you're on the same wavelength as your audience.
• If you have KPIs for the previous year's training plan, use these victories as a convincing argument.

In reality, you'll (almost) never get your CFP 100% right the first time. There will undoubtedly be some questioning and adjustments to be made, but these will remain anecdotal if you prepare your business plan and presentation well in advance.

‍

Presenting the training plan to the Works Council

Once you've obtained your management's approval, congratulate yourself! After all, the hard work of conception and reflection is done!

‍

If your company has more than 50 employees, you are then obliged to consult your CSE on employee training.

‍Thesocial and economic committee is the staff representation body that relays staff needs and complaints to management. This body must be consulted on all initiatives that will have a direct or indirect impact on employees. 

Your obligation is simply to present the training plan as clearly and comprehensively as possible to the employee representatives. Remember to include all the fundamental elements of the plan for optimum comprehension: the employees concerned, the frame of reference, the budget, the broad outlines of the program for the year, the strategic decisions... 

Management and the CSE are in the bag! Now it's time for deployment!

‍

Step 6: Roll out the training plan

The importance of internal communication

The communication plan is the first step in the successful deployment of the skills development plan. You can call on your colleagues in the marketing department for advice on the best way to communicate and roll out this major project.

It's important that you define levels for communicating your training plan.

In an ideal world, we'd encourage you to start by making a general presentation of your training plan to all the company's decision-makers, sector heads and managers. 

‍Why?

• There's nothing like a live presentation to engage your audience. Sending a simple e-mail is not enough.
• It's the perfect opportunity to position the HR department as a strategic player in the company, by speaking out on a major issue that impacts the entire organization.
• It's also an opportunity to underline your expectations regarding the role of managers in developing the skills of their teams.

Managers will have the task of passing on this information to their teams, and involving employees in the training.

If it's hard for you to get everyone together, why not record a promotional video? It's always better than a simple e-mail! Of course, it will have to be shorter, 5 or 6 minutes maximum, to present the plan as a whole and the next actions planned. 

If you do indeed prefer asynchronous training, be sure to create and transmit documents with this video that summarize the DCP, its objectives and key dates. Documents to which managers and employees can refer if they have any questions.

Once the general training plan has been presented, it's time to let managers and their staff know the verdict on each of their training requests. You can, for example, opt for an e-mail, with a copy to the manager, to announce the verdict to your employees. Be sure to stress the reasons for a refusal or postponement, to avoid disengaging your staff and giving them the feeling of broken promises.

‍

Operational deployment of the training calendar

To manage the training plan calendar, you need to call on your inner conductor! 

You'll have to be an outstanding project manager, keeping track of the training schedule, sending invitations to the right people,coordinating with training organizations, putting together applications for funding, managing the budget to make sure everything is in order, dealing with absences and unforeseen events... in short, you'll have your eyes everywhere! 

➕ Empowill's little extras:
Centralized, automated management of every stage of the training file (administration, invitations, feedback, budget tracking, etc.).

When it comes to timing, calendar reminders are your best friends. It's a time-consuming task at first, but one that will save you in the course of the DCP. 

Set reminders in your Google or Outlook calendars for all the essential deadlines you must not miss. Dates for training courses, sending out invitations, sending out reminders, dates for certification refresher courses: the maximum number of deadlines you need to meet should be marked on your calendar.

➕ Empowill's little plus:
You receive automatic alerts for expiring certifications and clearances.

Next, create a to-do list template on your in-house project management tool or word processor. This to-do list should list every step involved in confirming and effectively deploying a training course. Duplicate this to-do list for each training action you trigger.

‍

➕ Empowill's little plus:
The possibility of inserting a to-do list with your reminders and unavoidable tasks in each training file. No more forgetting! Make way for productivity.

Another tip for rolling out your training plan: draw up an FAQ document in advance of the launch, listing the questions most frequently asked by your employees. 

This invaluable document summarizes the procedures to be followed in certain situations, such as an unexpected absence from training or the loss of a summons. Employees can refer to this document at any time, thus avoiding mountains of e-mails and messages to deal with individual problems. 

In short, think of everything you can anticipate and create that will save you time when the training plan is rolled out.

💡 Empowill's expert advice:
The best solution for forgetting nothing, relieving you of a monster mental load and saving you time remains to equip yourself with a tool. Training management software like Empowill allow you to trigger automatic reminders, automatically send out invitations and drastically reduce manual data entry.

‍

Step 7: Evaluate and adjust training plan performance

When to evaluate the plan's performance?

When it comes to assessing the performance of your training plan, we encourage you to carry out an initial mid-year review. This will give you an initial idea of how well the plan is progressing and whether it has achieved its objectives. 

Then carry out a second and final review at the end of the year to draw conclusions about the plan as a whole, and form convictions to improve the next one.

‍

What performance indicators should the PDC use?

What's important is to haverepresentative performance indicators that can be used from one year to the next, in particular to monitor the progress of your skills development plan.

Here are some examples of KPIs you can use to assess the performance of your training plan: 

• How manytraining actions were carried out compared with what was planned? How manyhours of training were provided?

• You can carry out a more detailed analysis by looking at training actions in terms of SPC and gender, and comparing them to the entire workforce.
• How faithful was the forecast plan to the actual plan? Were there many off-plan actions?
• Overall, how do your employees rate the training courses they have attended?
• Wasfinancial optimization optimal? Are there any financial incentives that have been overlooked?
• From one year to the next, do you notice an increase in training requests ?‍
• Was the alignment of training themes with the company's strategic objectives respected? If the majority of training actions were dedicated to the R&D department, whereas the company's objective was to capitalize on the sales team to conquer a new market, the plan was logically not effective.

‍

How do you get feedback from your trainees? 

The first assessors of your training plan's performance are your employees. Indeed, the effectiveness of a plan depends on its ability to enable your employees to achieve their objectives. 

So it's vital to capture their feedback to improve your next training plan and maintain their interest in training.

There are two complementary ways of capturing feedback from your employees: hot evaluation and cold evaluation.

On-the-spot evaluation

This stage consists of sending a satisfaction questionnaire to your employees who have received training, directly after the training has taken place. 

The aim is to understand what the employee's first impressions are, particularly with regard to training content, format and trainer.

The questions that can make up this hot assessment are, for example : 

• Give a score from 0 to 5 on your overall satisfaction with training X? 0 being "not at all satisfied" and 5 "very satisfied".
• What did you think of the learning process?
• How would you rate the trainer on: dynamism; ability to answer your questions
• What is your overall opinion of the training content? 

‍

Cold assessment

Cold evaluation consists of sending a satisfaction questionnaire to your employees several weeks after receiving training. Generally, our customers count on at least 2 or 3 months after training. 

The aim of this evaluation is to understand the relevance and usefulness of the training for the employee who has taken it. This enables the employee to take the time to step back and apply what he or she has learned in daily life.

Examples of questions that can be asked in this assessment are : 

• Do you regularly use what you learned in training? (With a graduated scale from "never" to "yes, every day")
• If you don't use it frequently, why not?
• Did the training meet your expectations and objectives?
• What skills do you feel you have acquired through this training?
• Would you recommend this course to your colleagues?

You can host this type of satisfaction questionnaire on a Google Form or Typeform, so that you can analyze the results later. Think about automating the sending of these forms at the end of each training session, if possible. This will prevent oversights.

To obtain representative results that can be used from one year to the next, you need to know how to ask the right questions and give the right answers (scoring, verbatim, satisfaction scale, etc.) to ensure a precise and accurate assessment of the results. HR engineering plays an important role in this process!

‍

Apply corrective actions

With feedback from your employees and your performance indicators, you'll be able to draw actionable conclusions to improve your next training plan.

Whether you need to change training organization, include a different type of financing or opt for new learning methods, apply corrective actions to increase the effectiveness of your PDC tenfold. If possible, do so as early as the first mid-year analysis, if you can identify levers for optimization that are easy to implement.

Finally, to maintain good relations with the CSE, we encourage you to share these results and any planned corrective actions with employee delegates. 

‍

(Bonus) Step 8: Save time with a specialist training management tool

Designing, deploying and analyzing a training plan is a major and exciting HR project, but one that takes up a lot of time. 

Training managers often accumulate a heavy mental workload, and their work is sometimes hampered and made unpleasant by time-consuming tasks with little added value: sending out invitations to training courses, managing absences, sending out invitations, calculating costs, etc. All this orchestration is no picnic. Above all, it takes time away from the strategy and HR engineering required to manage your company's professional training. It takes away from the real added value of your business.

To optimize the design and management of your training plan, specialized software such as Empowill is available. 

Empowill is the specialist software for employee training. You can manage your entire training plan with a single tool, from identifying needs to analyzing performance, including the entire forecast and actual costed plan.

‍

What our customers particularly appreciate about Empowill is : 

• Automatic feedback of training requests from interviews: You don't need to do anything on the HR side to capture training requests, apart from including them in the annual appraisal form. The manager, with the employee's agreement, enters the training request during the interview, and it lands directly in the Empowill needs collection. What's more, the training request already corresponds to the correct training title in the available catalog (if you have one), so you don't have to reprocess the request later. It's easy to put your plan together.
• Simple, automated communication with managers and employees. For each training request, you can accept, refuse or postpone it by adding a comment. This triggers an e-mail to inform the employee and manager concerned.

‍

• ‍Thecomplete training file. It contains all the information relating to the training: the organization, duration, cost, funding, employees and managers involved, hot and cold evaluations, etc...
• A customizable to-do checklist for each training file, so you don't forget a single step in its deployment and financing.
• The ability to visualize the forecast plan in relation to the actual plan, for intelligent, controlled management of the DCP.
• Dashboards that make graphs quickly accessible to analyze training plan performance at any time.

What sets Empowill apart from other software publishers are our convictions and our HR vision. We have designed our tool with real HR expertise, and we support our customers in their efforts to deploy the most effective training plan possible. Above all, we help them to save time and improve efficiency, so that they can concentrate on what they really do and what they love: managing people.

‍

If you'd like to find out more about Empowill and how we can help you design and deploy your skills development plan, please contact us by filling in this form. 

‍

Conclusion

Finally, managing a training plan is a multi-disciplinary exercise, as demanding as it is exciting. You need to be an excellent project manager, know your business by heart, and understand the issues facing your managers and your own HR population. It's a veritable orchestration project which, if well thought-out and executed, can boost your company's performance exponentially.

‍

-> Read about who simplified the management of his training plan thanks to Empowill.

‍

‍