Well-developed nonprofit staff training program is a worthwhile investment which will improve the overall outcomes of your organization. However, without follow-ups, the training provided will go down to waste.

On job and off job training are designed to help your team acquire new skills to manage their work load more effectively. However, even with all the training at hand your team may still find it difficult to start using these newly acquired skills especially when trying to apply them to the day to day activities. It is important for you to understand that it won’t be easy for them to apply their right away; they often still need help to operationalize what they have learned in the course to their specific work environments.

It takes a lot of discipline as well as support to change old behaviour into something more desirable and effective. That’s why it’s very important for any organisation, be it large or small, has to believe in continuously follow-up with the employees to ensure they are following through on the new skills learned in a training. Giving your team opportunities to practice and receiving feedback will help them turn knowledge into skills. Make sure your team get frequent opportunities to practice, experiment and receive feedback in a track of continuous improvement.

An initial follow-up visit is intended to reinforce the new skills and solve problems in the implementation of the acquired knowledge and skills. The time frame for follow-up items can be anything from some minutes to six months after the training. The longer you wait, the more you have to make sure to have an agenda to note down what to do. And don't forget you also may lose motivation and interest after a while. The follow-up visit should occur within few weeks after training in order to help your team get started.

These sessions are also ideal times for trainees to ponder whether they are facing challenges as they seek to use their skills at work, and how they have implemented the key concepts and what were the results. You can send follow-up emails to trainees after a month to reinforce key learning points. You can arrange post-training follow-up sessions to provide supplementary lessons or use these opportunities to let trainees practice their skills or discuss their experiences as they try to apply their knowledge on the job. Making clear to trainees why the training is useful for their work will help reinforce their motivation to apply new knowledge.

As a leader in your organisation you need to integrate lessons from training into everyday work and behaviour. You have to support, encourage, and shape desired behaviour changes over time, leading to engagement versus mere compliance. To foster across-the-board participation and empowered workforces, executives and supervisors need to cascade learning to help employees manage themselves when the boss isn’t there.

Meet again with the employee to see what they have learned. Talk about their challenges, likes and dislikes. As a team leader in your organisation it is important to note that supportive Supervision Help Ensure Staff Competence, Effectiveness, and Efficiency, and that includes follow ups after training. Training for your team includes both initial skill acquisition and skill reinforcement.