Custom Training Programs

Commitment to Custom Training
Which Improves on-the-Job Performance

Employees can’t perform as desired if they don’t possess the necessary knowledge and skills. When a needs analysis reveals a knowledge-skills gap, PERFORMEX will work with you to design and develop the most cost-effective training program solution. At the outset, PERFORMEX will engage you in the co-design of a training impact model (Brinkerhoff, 2006) which visualizes how the training program intends to transform resources and activities (i.e., means) into desired organizational results (i.e., ends).

PERFORMEX will then work with you to identify which knowledge and skills must reside in performers’ brains and those which can be captured in external memory support. For the former, performance training will be designed and developed, and for the latter, job aids. However, the creation of a program won’t stop with only what happens during training. Research demonstrates that, in the absence of post-training support and accountability, only about 10% of participants will sustain application of new learning in the workplace (Brinkerhoff, 2005).

As a result, PERFORMEX will engage you in the co-construction of a post-training support and accountability package to help training graduates sustain application of new knowledge and skills on the job in ways which contribute to targeted results. Finally, PERFORMEX will partner with you to gather data on the training program at five levels so that you can measure and report to stakeholders on how the organization’s investment in a training solution has improved performance and contributed to the achievement of desired results.

Program Logic/Training Impact Model Hybrid

PERFORMEX uses a hybrid program logic/training impact model as a tool to visualize and to communicate how the training program (including the post-training support and accountability package) aims to transform your organization’s resources and activities (i.e., means) into desired results (i.e., ends). Specifically, as recommended by Chyung (2019), PERFORMEX adds the two means-related categories (i.e., Resources and Activities) from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s (2004) Program Logic Model to Brinkerhoff’s (2006) Training Impact Model. Further, for greater clarity in the third column, Brinkerhoff’s (2006) term “Capabilities” is replaced with Kirkpatrick’s (2016) term “Learning.” Finally, in the fourth column, PERFORMEX substitutes Brinkerhoff’s (2006) “Business Results” with “Organizational Results” as a more inclusive term for businesses, non-profits, and government agencies.

(Adapted from Brinkerhoff, 2006, Figure 5-1, p. 72; Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016, Table 2-1, p. 10; W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004, Figure 1, p. 1)

Performance Training Programs

Stuffing information into people’s brains probably won’t achieve your performance goal. Even if people know something useful, that doesn’t mean they’ll do something useful. Action, not knowledge, changes business performance.
–Moore, 2013, p. 7

PERFORMEX will work with you to design and develop new asynchronous and synchronous performance training programs and improve existing programs. The primary goal of performance training (compared to awareness training) is helping employees to achieve measurable improvements in the efficiency, productivity, and/or quality of their work. PERFORMEX is committed to creating training programs which optimize participants’ engagement, deep learning, retention, commitment and confidence for on-the-job application, as well as sustained post-training behaviour change.

To accomplish this, scenario-based learning (SBL) is at the heart of PERFORMEX’s training program solutions. Scenarios immerse participants in realistic on-the-job situations where they’re challenged to make complex decisions with emotionally compelling consequences. With SBL, new learning is not only more memorable, but training graduates are also more likely to be able to successfully apply their learning when they encounter similar situations in the workplace. Further, these training stories support learners with increasing the level of expertise with which they apply new learning by providing both intrinsic and instructional feedback.

To guide the creation of efficient and effective training programs, PERFORMEX has designed a comprehensive Instructional Design Checklist by synthesizing four seminal evidence-based instructional design models, media element principles, and best practices for post-training support and accountability systems.

Asynchronous

Training impact model
Self-paced, scenario-based e-Learning modules
Scaffolded goal-setting aligned with organizational targets
Printable job aids
Situation-action plans (Thalheimer, 2014)
Post-training support & accountability package
Levels 1-5 Evaluations

Synchronous

Training impact model
Scenario-based training session instructional plans
PowerPoint presentations
Scaffolded goal-setting aligned with organizational targets
Printable job aids
Situation-action plans (Thalheimer, 2014)
Post-training support & accountability package
Levels 1-5 Evaluations

Contact

Performance Support

Performance support refers to tools and resources that help individuals perform tasks more efficiently and effectively by providing them with the necessary information and guidance in the workflow. Rossett and Schafer (2007) describe performance support as “converged information and work, residing next to the individual, in close proximity to the challenge in order to offer help when help is needed” (p. 2). Performance support tools and resources aim to enhance productivity, reduce errors, and improve overall job performance by providing timely and relevant assistance. PERFORMEX will work with you, subject matter experts, and your target audience to create performance support tools like those shown below.

Checklists

Helpful for a task comprised of several action items or requirements that don’t need to be completed in a particular order.

Decision Tables

Useful for guiding decision making using a grid in processes influenced by multiple variables

Flowcharts

Useful for guiding learners along different paths as they make Yes or No decisions, resulting in different outcomes.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Helpful for a task comprised of several actions which must be completed in a specific order and doesn’t require decision making.

Post-Training Support & Accountability Packages

For every 100 employees who participate in training programs, about 10 of them will change their job performance in any sustained and worthwhile way [in the absence of post-training support and accountability processes and systems].

Brinkerhoff, 2005, p. 88

Ready-to-Go eLearning
Trauma-Informed Teaching: De-Escalating Challenging Behaviours

PERFORMEX will partner with you to create a plan for reinforcing, encouraging, rewarding, and monitoring training graduates’ application of new learning on the job. To the right are the post-training support and accountability package options that PERFORMEX offers in partnership with Dr. Lori Brown for the Ready-to-Go eLearning module Trauma-Informed Teaching: De-Escalating Challenging Behaviours. To learn more about this comprehensive training program, click the button below.

Ready-to-Go eLearning

SUPPORT

Reinforce

Module access for 1 yr
Printable job aids
Post-module in-person practice session, online Professional Learning Community, and book study with Dr. Lori Brown

Encourage

Conversations with principal regarding progress on achieving the identified goal for de-escalating challenging behaviours and implementing the Situation-Action Plan (Thalheimer, 2014)
Post-module in-person practice session, online Professional Learning Community, and book study with Dr. Lori Brown

Celebrate

Conversations with principal regarding progress on achieving the identified goal for de-escalating challenging behaviours and implementing the Situation-Action Plan (Thalheimer, 2014)
Post-module in-person practice session, online Professional Learning Community, and book study with Dr. Lori Brown

ACCOUNTABILITY

Monitor

Conversations with principal regarding progress on achieving the identified goal for de-escalating challenging behaviours and implementing the Situation-Action Plan (Thalheimer, 2014)
Post-module in-person practice session, online Professional Learning Community, and book study with Dr. Lori Brown
Post-module survey gathering data on which strategies training graduates have implemented and the extent to which they have observed desired results

Five-Level Training Program Evaluation

PERFORMEX uses a hybrid evaluation model (aligned with the program logic/training impact model) to gather data which enable you to measure and report on the return for your organization’s training program investment. PERFORMEX adds Kirkpatrick’s (2016) Level 1: Reaction to Brinkerhoff’s (2006) Training Impact Model (TIM). This enables you to first gather data on the design of the training program itself and to then action this data to make any necessary improvements. Data gathered from Levels 2-5 (i.e., Brinkerhoff’s TIM) are focused on the outcomes of the training program. In other words, Levels 2-5 data demonstrate how participants’ learning from your training program is transformed into improved on-the-job behaviours–which in turn contribute to desired organizational results.