When it comes to training your work force, either leap in with both feet or don’t bother at all. A good training program should have clear objectives about what you want the employees to learn and the full support of management. Otherwise, it’s doomed from the start, says Judy Opalach, president of Cleveland-based Skill Builders.

Opalach helped set up manufacturer Horsburgh & Scott’s employee training program a decade ago. That program’s success has made it one of the regional models companies look at when they’re ready to design their own. While Horsburgh & Scott earmarks $45,000 a year for its program, start-ups can cost a bit more. Done right, they can cost as much as $60,000 or $70,000 a year.

But once you’re past the sticker shock and realize that a strong program can pay for itself in a year or less, Opalach offers five key steps to getting the optimum training program off the ground.

Establish trust

“There’s a lot of fear initially among the workers,” explains Opalach, who cut her teeth with Project Learn 15 years ago. “Often, they’ve got a lot of questions about why the employer is starting a training program, including whether it’s to weed out the dummies.”

To diffuse that situation, she suggests employers be up front with their employees and explain the plans for the program: Describe how it will work and why it’s needed. She says an all-hands meeting is a good way to broadcast the message.

After that, the person who is setting up and managing the program should meet with employees in small groups—without other managers present—to alleviate any fears people have about participating in training programs.

Make an assessment

Opalach also uses those small, personal meetings to figure out where people stand in terms of their skill levels and training needs. But, she stresses, it’s not an intelligence test.

“It’s a basic assessment for reading, writing and math, and anything else that an employer may choose to have that’s significant in the workplace,” she says. That could include tasks such as basic blueprint reading or understanding a specific process on a machine. “It depends on who the focus for the training is.”

Conduct a job-task analysis

In conjunction with the basic assessment, the trainer needs to take an objective look at how employees will use their new skills.

That’s something many employers overlook when they’re developing a training program, warns Hal Miller, president of Solon-based Marplex, which designs training programs for manufacturers.

“When an insider decides what’s going to be in a training program, they’re putting things in that they think the student needs,” Miller says. “In order to do it effectively, though, it’s important for the person developing the training program to go to the students and find out what they really need in order to accomplish the company’s objectives.”

Opalach suggests first-hand observation. “Go in and shadow somebody on the job,” she says. “Look at all the things that they are doing and what skills are related to each particular job.”

For example, consider a task that is usually assumed to be simple and require little instruction: filling out forms. “Look at the form and all the different skills it takes to complete it,” she says. “Reading, the ability to understand abbreviations and acronyms, the ability to write dates numerically, to write comprehensive concise sentences and spell correctly. People don’t realize how much goes into every task.”

Develop the curriculum

Once you’ve got a thorough picture of what skills the employees need to learn, the hardest part is developing a curriculum around those skills to meet stated objectives.

Miller says text and illustrations are critical to any training program’s success. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Does the illustration illustrate what you want it to, and how well do the words explain what the student’s looking at or what the company needs him or her to learn?’” he says.

For example, if the goal is to teach an employee how to operate a machine, the text should be written from the employee’s point of view—not that of the engineers who designed the equipment. Any diagrams need to be accurate and contain the appropriate level of detail.

“What you teach has to apply to the job,” adds Opalach. “Adults learn best by something that’s going to be relevant to them and applicable. If you can apply exactly what you learned, then there’s a much greater success rate.”

Evaluate the program and make adjustments

Employers generally make one of two mistakes at this point: They either fail to follow up at all, or they try to find the immediate return on investment.

“It’s not an overnight result,” Opalach warns. “Education doesn’t work like that. Employers need to be aware of that if they’re going to do any kind of measurement of the program’s success.

“You can turn out a widget in 24 hours or less, but in education, the product’s going to take a little bit longer because it’s an intangible.”

She suggests employers give any start-up training program one to two years before conducting a formal evaluation of its success. However, that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with gauging it by talking to supervisors and asking if they’ve noticed improvements in performance and confidence among employees.

After the first group has gone through the program is a good time to make adjustments where employees’ needs aren’t being met. Says Opalach, “It’s an evolving process. A good program is always in a constant state of flux.”

Employer’s checklist: Building a training program

Training is often an afterthought in business, relegated to an employee’s first few hours on the job. If you want to get more from your people, here are five steps to assure the success of a training regimen:

Establish trust.

Change is difficult. Whenever you introduce new things to the workplace, expect to meet some level of resistance. If you’re up front with employees about the motives behind a new training program, there won’t be muffled whispers around the office or on the shop floor.

Assess skill levels.

People don’t necessarily start from the same educational baseline. Reading, math and writing levels differ. Adjust your training program so nobody is discriminated against—or left behind. Offer advanced training courses for those who are ahead of the pack and basic courses for those who need an extra push.

Analyze job tasks.

If you don’t know the elements of all the skills needed for each job, it’s difficult to figure out specific training employees need. Don’t assume anything.

[Develop a curriculum around real needs.

Be sure that the curriculum chosen fits both your company’s objective and the employees’ needs to do the job effectively. Keep an open mind. Nobody knows their job better than the employees doing it every day.

Continually improve the program.

Don’t fall in love with the training program’s first incarnation. If it needs changes, make them.