Boosting Workplace Training with a Focus on Job Performance

Ever sat through a workplace training session that felt like watching paint dry? You’re not alone! The kicker is that companies who invest in effective employee training see 24% higher profit margins than those that don’t. If training is so valuable, why do so many programs miss the mark?

Why Training (Done Right) Matters

Workplace training is essential for maintaining efficiency, ensuring safety, and improving overall productivity. However, not all training is created equal. Many companies invest time and resources into training programs only to find that employees struggle to retain information or apply their new skills effectively. When training is poorly planned or delivered without a clear structure, it can result in wasted time, increased errors, and even safety risks.

For training to be effective, it must be strategically designed with the end goal in mind. This means identifying the skills employees need to develop, understanding how those skills contribute to overall business success, and determining appropriate solutions to boost employee performance.

Solutions need to be restructured in a way that progressively builds knowledge, starting from basic concepts and advancing to real-world applications. This is where the combination of learning at the right level and a focus on job performance creates a powerful synergy.

In a manufacturing environment, effective training must go beyond knowledge retention to ensure employees achieve measurable performance outcomes. Training should focus on:

Understanding the why behind safety protocols to encourage compliance.
Troubleshooting equipment issues independently rather than relying solely on supervisors.
Applying lean manufacturing principles to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
Thinking critically and solving problems on the production line rather than just following instructions.

When training is designed with clear learning objectives and tied to performance outcomes, employees become more confident, efficient, and proactive in their roles. This leads to measurable improvements, such as faster production times, fewer defects, lower accident rates, and higher employee retention.

The Six Levels of the Learning Ladder: Blooms Taxonomy 101

Employees need to do more than memorize information. They need to understand it, apply it, and even use it to solve complex problems. Enter Bloom’s Taxonomy—a powerhouse framework that can turn mundane training into engaging, skill-building experiences.

Imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint. It would be nothing but chaos. Bloom’s Taxonomy acts as that blueprint for learning, ensuring knowledge is built in a logical, structured way. It categorizes learning into six levels of cognitive skills:

Remember: Recalling facts (like memorizing process steps or safety procedures).
Understand: Explaining concepts in your own words (like explaining processes and concepts).
Apply: Using knowledge in real-world situations (like taking what they have learned and putting it into action on the production floor).
Analyze: Breaking down information (like examining processes, identifying patterns, and troubleshooting problems in your operations).
Evaluate: Making informed decisions (like assessing whether switching to a new supplier for raw materials will improve product quality and reduce costs).
Create: Innovating and producing original work (like designing new processes, proposing innovations, and developing improvements).

These cognitive skills need to be achieved in order; you cannot apply what you do not understand. However, training with only cognitive development in mind is not going to translate to on-the-job performance. To ensure improved performance that creates real business impact, it is essential that you work to train to at least the Apply level.

Bloom’s Taxonomy helps you identify the right methods of training depending on the desired level of learning. You help employees progress from basic knowledge to expert-level skills, ensuring they don’t just know something but can actually use it effectively. Bloom’s Taxonomy ensures that training is progressive, helping employees build on foundational knowledge until they reach a level where they can think critically, solve problems, and innovate.

Performance: The Missing Link

While Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a structured approach to learning, keeping job performance targets at the forefront ensures that learning translates into real-world behavior and accomplishments. This approach emphasizes that training should be designed with the end goal of improved job performance.

To enhance training, organizations should:

Define what employees should produce (measurable accomplishments) and what they should do (observable behaviors) in order to produce them to standard after training. Keep these behaviors and accomplishments at the forefront of the learning experience.
Align training content with workplace goals, ensuring it supports company objectives.
Measure success not just by knowledge retention but by workplace improvements and operational efficiency.

Spotting and Fixing Skill Gaps Through a Performance Lens

Before designing training programs, organizations need to identify skill gaps in terms of performance rather than just knowledge. Otherwise, companies risk wasting time and resources on training that does not address actual business needs.

How to Assess Employee Skills

If you don’t know where your employees are struggling, how can you help them improve? You can use these methods to evaluate skill gaps:

Surveys and Self-Assessments: Employees rate their own proficiency in performing various tasks. Not only does this provide valuable information, but it also engages the learner in taking ownership of improving in the areas they identify.
Performance Reviews and Manager Feedback: Supervisors provide insight into employee strengths and areas for improvement.
Skills Testing: Employees complete assessments or practical tasks to measure their proficiency. These assessments provide clarity for both employees and managers regarding development and coaching needs.
Analysis: By performing a root cause and/or needs analysis, management can determine if a performance problem is being caused by a knowledge or skill gap. Often, when workforce performance suffers, management jumps to training as the solution, but even well-designed training will also work if the root cause of the problem isn’t a skill gap or only a skill gap. Sometimes training must also be paired with other performance support to be effective. For example, retraining a mechanic will never solve the fact that all the wrenches have been misplaced.

Bridging Those Skill Gaps

Once skill gaps are identified, training programs should be tailored to meet employees at the right cognitive level while ensuring performance improvements:

Struggling to recall or understand procedures? Focus on Remember and Understand levels and ensure employees grasp foundational knowledge. This is the knowledge employees need to do their jobs. Keep in mind that “knowing” something does not mean the employee can successfully apply it on the job. There is a place for knowledge in the workplace, but training should focus on the ability to apply the knowledge on the job. Providing knowledge should be reserved for reference materials and job aids that employees can refer to when back on the job.
Struggling to apply knowledge in real-world situations? Build training around Apply and Analyze levels with hands-on exercises.
Need stronger decision-making and innovation? Strengthen Evaluate and Create skills through real-world scenario activities and problem-solving.

For example, a company notices employees struggle with critical thinking. Instead of another generic “problem-solving” seminar, they design training at the Analyze level, helping employees break down real work problems into manageable parts. They provide employees with real scenarios to practice decision-making. The result? Smarter decisions and fewer costly mistakes.

Designing Training That Drives Performance

Once skill gaps are identified, learning should be designed with clear objectives that not only align with the desired Bloom’s Taxonomy level but also focus on specific job performance.

Align Learning Goals with Performance Outcomes

Instead of vague goals like “Improve leadership skills,” set objectives that align with real-world performance needs. Examples:

Remember: “List the five key steps in the preventive maintenance process for production machinery.” Of course, no one will ever ask you to just list these steps in a work setting. While remembering knowledge is necessary to perform any task, that knowledge is irrelevant unless you can demonstrate the ability to apply it in a measurable way. For this reason, Bloom’s remember objectives should not be used in training. Instead, focus on apply objectives: “Maintain production machinery using the five key steps in the preventative maintenance process.”
Apply: “Demonstrate proper troubleshooting techniques for a malfunctioning conveyor system.”
Evaluate: “Assess different quality control methods and determine the most effective approach for reducing defects in a production run.”

Active Learning for Real-World Results

To move beyond passive learning, training should be experiential and linked to job performance:

Group Discussions: Employees articulate their understanding, discuss how learning can be used on the job, and learn from peers.
Scenario-based training: Learners work through real-world problems, using real-time thinking.
Hands-on Simulations: Trainees practice tasks in a safe environment.
Collaborative projects: Learning through teamwork and problem-solving.
On-the-Job: Trainees observe a trainer, practice with trainer guidance, and then demonstrate their ability to replicate what they learned without aid.

These techniques ensure that any knowledge transfer directly leads to better job performance.

Maximizing Training Resources

Training does not have to be expensive to be effective. Companies can optimize their training budgets by:

Blended Learning Approaches: Combining in-person sessions with online modules, job aids, and even independent practice activities.
Microlearning Modules: Short, focused training that is easy to complete when being in a classroom may not be entirely necessary.
Leveraging Internal Experts: Having experienced employees train others can reduce external training costs, as well as increase engagement since the training is being administered by “on of your own.”
Job Aids and Work Instructions: Sometimes the only thing a performer needs is a cheat sheet or list of steps provided where the work happens. It isn’t necessary to take an hour of training off the shop floor when what workers really need is a consistent process outlined at their workstation or a poster of reminders on the wall.

Measuring Success: From Knowledge to Performance

No training program is complete without a way to measure its effectiveness. Traditional assessments focus on knowledge, but true success is measured by performance improvements.

How to Measure Training Impact

Practical Assessments: Test an employee’s ability to apply knowledge in real situations.
Performance Metrics: Track whether employees improve in key areas after training, including monitoring productivity, safety, and efficiency improvements.
Surveys and Feedback Forms: Allow employees and managers to share how training impacted job performance.

For example, instead of just testing knowledge of machine setup procedures, track whether training reduces changeover time and increases production efficiency.

Justifying Training Investments with Performance Metrics

To secure leadership buy-in, training programs must demonstrate measurable results. Organizations can justify training investments by comparing pre- and post-training performance metrics:

Presenting data-driven insights on improvements in productivity and efficiency. For example, improved machine setup procedures reduce changeover time from 45 minutes to 30 minutes, increasing production efficiency.
Highlighting cost savings from improved employee performance or reduced turnover. For example, enhanced safety training decreases workplace accidents by 40%, leading to $75,000 in annual savings from fewer injury-related costs.

Final Thoughts: Time to focus on performance!

Workplace training doesn’t have to be dull or ineffective. With a focus on performance, in addition to an awareness of Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of learning, you can:

Identify and address skill gaps in a strategic, performance-driven manner.
Make training more engaging and practical.
Ensure learning objectives align with business goals.
Measure success based on real-world performance improvements.

Bloom’s Taxonomy ensures structured learning, while a focus on performance guarantees that your solutions translate into business results. Want expert help crafting training that sticks? Radcom specializes in customized solutions that drive performance! Contact us today to discuss your training needs!