Classroom Training Is Valuable for Businesses

Aug. 25, 1998
Contact: Teressa Tignor Gilbreth, Information Specialist, (573) 882-9144
[email protected]

MU STUDY SAYS CLASSROOM TRAINING IS VALUABLE FOR BUSINESSES

COLUMBIA, Mo.--As technology continues to impact the workplace and provide new ways in which workers can learn, business leaders are bombarded with choices for the most cost-efficient and effective methods to train their employees. Two researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia are helping them sort out training in the information age. Their study says that the trend toward other learning methods should not phase out traditional face-to-face sales training in the classroom.

"A lot of people feel that face-to-face training is a waste of money," said Steve Graham, associate professor of education and director of continuing professional education at the MU College of Education. "We found that classroom training was very effective. Almost 50 percent of interviewees made a direct link between their training and increased sales."

With face-to-face training, business leaders must consider not only the cost of the training, but the cost of employees' time spent in the classroom. As technology has influenced the development of other types of training, there has been a shift toward self-directed learning or online courses that individuals can work through in their spare time. There is a growing belief that if training is done in the classroom, it is not effective. The results of this study suggest otherwise -- that classroom training can increase performance.

In a study published recently in Performance Improvement Quarterly, Graham and John Wedman, MU associate professor and director of the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, surveyed 125 account executives three to four months after they had received training. They chose to interview sales professionals because results can be easily measured by sales figures. "Everybody has an idea that training and education are valuable, but we wanted to define the relationship between training and sales performance," said Graham.

Not only did they find solid evidence that classroom training can be effective and enhance job performance, but they also identified four characteristics that make any workplace training program more use ful. Effective training focuses on applying strategies to participants' daily work, enhances product or technical knowledge, fosters a better understanding of customer needs and uses an interactive teaching style with opportunities for participation and feedback.

The study concludes that "in certain contexts there is a return on investment in classroom training," said Wedman. If businesses abandon face-to-face training, their employees will miss out on the socialization and interpersonal networking that takes place in the classroom, he said. "While it's possible, it's harder to establish relationships with people through computers than in a classroom setting."

Graham's advice to human resource directors: "My hope is that companies will look at face-to-face training as one of many types of training available and choose the training that will have t he greatest impact on the company's bottom line."

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