Organizations often commit a lot of resources to employee training and development programs, yet see little to no change in business outcomes. Why? Because while training is essential, how it’s executed makes all the difference.

In this article, I’ll walk you through 7 common mistakes that companies make with employee training and development and how to fix them. Whether you lead HR, manage operations, or run a growing business, these insights will help you avoid training pitfalls and ensure your training programs deliver the results you need.

Talstack provides training that helps companies transform their employees into top performers. Speak to a Talstack expert today.

What is the purpose of Employee Training?

Employee training refers to structured learning activities that equip your staff with the knowledge and skills needed to perform their current roles more effectively.

When executed well, employee training and development enhances productivity, reduces costly mistakes, and boosts employee satisfaction. Done poorly, it drains your budget, demotivates your staff, and leaves skill gaps unaddressed.

So what are some of these mistakes and how do you avoid them?

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1. Not Clearly Setting Training Goals

This is probably the most common mistake that organizations make while training employees. When a training program starts without a preset outcome, it is very difficult to measure its success.

For this, there’s an easy fix: set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals before the training program begins.

If you want to learn more about setting goals, Ayodeji Fasore does a wonderful breakdown in his Talstack course titled “Setting Goals That Work.”

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2. Inadequate Needs Assessment

Organizations often guess what employees should be learning without first doing the work of investigating what skill gaps already exist in their workforce. This is a common outcome when managers are not involved in planning training programs. Senior management and human resource teams often have little insight into the day-to-day operations of many teams and as such should not be planning training programs alone.

The best approach to planning training programs is for human resources teams to collaborate with managers and department heads to assess the skill set of their employees relative to what they need to be successful in their role. This is called a skills gap analysis.
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3. Not Linking Training to Business Goals

The most important reason for training employees is to positively affect business outcomes. But when training isn’t linked to business goals, the bottom line is rarely affected.

This is often a result of planning employee training in silo. When employees decide on what skills to learn without managerial or organizational oversight, they often prioritize skills they want to learn for personal reasons.

To fix this, your organization’s goals should be clearly communicated across your company. Then every training initiative should be tied to a specific goal and approved by a manager. Once a program is selected, it should be clear how to measure the impact of the program relative to the company’s bottom line.
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4. Using One-Size-Fits-All Training Programs

Have you ever been in one of those company-wide trainings where everyone has to watch the exact same video? I’ve been in many, and they’re generally not the most efficient. Everyone at your organization does not do the same thing, and even within departments where roles are common, experience and skill level often differ. So why train them the same way?

Training content should be customized as much as possible. While some trainings are meant to be company-wide, many others are more individual, role or team-specific. For maximum impact, your training program should fit the role and skill level of the employee receiving it. One way to tailor learning content is to use learning paths for different segments of your workforce.

5. Lack of Evaluation and Feedback

Another common mistake is ending employee training immediately after the learning content has been delivered. A good training program makes plans for employee feedback, evaluation and support to know if the training program actually worked.

To fix this, make feedback and evaluation part of your training process. Use short surveys, quizzes, and post-training tasks to assess learning. But don’t stop there, follow up with managers to track if employee performance has improved post-training. If the goal was to reduce turnaround time, has that actually happened?

Evaluation arms you with ample data. That data is crucial to the success of subsequent training programs.
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6. Relying on Irrelevant or Outdated Content

Too many businesses use outdated training decks or recycle content that’s been copied from international sources without local context. This leads to employees disengaging, and lowers the possibility that employees can successfully implement what they have learnt in their work. 

Your training content needs to reflect your current realities. For instance, customer success is a global skill, but what works in a U.S. call center may not work in a Nigerian one.


7. Overlooking Digital Delivery and Accessibility

If your training only works in a physical room, you're already limiting its reach. This is especially true for companies with staff across branches, states, or countries. There are certain contexts where in-person training has strong advantages, but those contexts are becoming less of the norm and more of the exception.

Employees today need access to learning from wherever they are. That means training content must be accessible remotely. Beyond accessibility, using a digital platform also gives you visibility into who’s learning, how they’re progressing, and where support is needed.

With Talstack, you can deliver training digitally, anytime, anywhere. You can take advantage of our growing library of inbuilt courses or upload your own internal content. Talstack also gives you tools to manage training delivery at scale, including real-time analytics, course assignments, learning paths, and more.

Want to see how it works? Speak to a Talstack expert today.

Final Thoughts

When done right, employee training is an effective tool for improving business performance. Avoiding these common pitfalls will help you build a learning culture that delivers results.

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