Developing Curricula
With your understanding of competencies in place, you can move on to the curriulum development process. For an example of how a completed curriculum looks, see the sidebar Sample Curriculum.
Analyze Tasks
The first step in developing a training curriculum is to analyze the various tasks employees do in their positions. To break up this task analysis, divide your content by the above-mentioned competencies.
Make Initial Decisions
Before you begin your task analysis, decide what issues need your specific attention. Ask yourself the following questions:
• What positions need a curriculum? You may decide that not every position in the organization needs a curriculum.
• What topics are necessary for the position? That is, a bank teller would not need a mortgage underwriting class.
• Is my organization offering all of the classes that are needed?
• Are we able to design classes, if needed? Or do we need to seek an outside vendor?
Determine Your Current Position
The way your organization currently organizes its training determines where you begin. Your organization will be in one of the following positions:
1. Your company offers a single, all-encompassing training course. For example, you have one new-hire training course that lasts for several weeks. In this course, all necessary topics are covered. If this is the case, your first step will be to analyze all of the topics trained and break them out into individual courses.
2. Your company offers separate training courses. If this is the case, you will want to reassess the courses and categorize them under the three competencies and check for any classes that may need adjustments. For instance, if you have a class that all service and sales staff attend, determine that both groups need all the information being taught. You will likely find courses where one group needs all three hours of training and the other group needs only one hour. You then can break the course into two classes or design the course in such a way that the one group gets all the information it needs within the first hour of training.
Meet with Managers
Meet with managers to discuss specific skills gaps and business objectives that they would like addressed in the curriculum. You can then add or modify classes to focus on those gaps or objectives. This establishes buy-in by getting management involved early in the curriculum development process and shows that the training department is committed to acheiving business results.
You can also have managers help you identify possible courses to help employees prepare for a higher position. These classes can become electives for motivated employees and can be implemented into curricula to provide career guidance and create succession plans.
Identify Job Tasks
In most cases, you will have to identify the specific tasks associated with your organization's various positions. Make sure to take into consideration tasks that are not necessarily required for the position but that would enhance an employee's performance. These tasks can be turned into elective courses that employees may choose to take on their own.
There are a number of ways that you can go about identifying what tasks employees need to master to be successful on the job. Before you begin analyzing a position on your own, find out if anyone else in the organization has researched the job before or already performed an analysis. If you do have to perform a task analysis yourself, remember to focus only on tasks associated with one competency at a time and undertake some of the following actions:
• Review job descriptions and other printed materials such as benchmarking studies, professional journals, or academic publications.
• Survey managers and subject matter experts to compile a list of skills and knowledge needed.
• Interview employees to get their opinion on what tasks are vital to their success in their position.
• Observe subject matter experts and high-performing employees at work to fully understand the scope of the job and levels of performance.
Prepare Task Listings
Task listings are accurate task statements that describe the work activities of employees in specific occupational areas. They involve a process of organizing the tasks, determining their importance, and detailing the steps. This should include tasks performed by the employees that are observable and measurable. The process is similar to writing an objective for a training course and should state the “who, what, where, when, and with what” items of the tasks a person does to complete a job.
Here is an example of a task listing for a receptionist.
• Answer the telephone.
• Greet clients.
• Receive mail.
• Call office personnel to inform them that their visitors have arrived.
• Update office telephone directory and receptionist relief schedule.
• Assist with other departments' administrative duties.
Remember that small tasks that may take only minutes to complete are often as important as tasks that can take weeks or even months. For more information on task analysis, see the sidebar Prepare Task Listings.
Sample Curricula
As shown on page two, this is an example of how your classes should look once you have organized them under competencies for both the sales and service team. All of the classes that are necessary for both the service and sales team have been underlined.
Organize Content
Next you will have to organize the specific tasks into courses. Once you do this, your whole training plan will begin to lay itself out. Many organizations do this as a first step toward building their corporate university. Organizing your courses under competencies assists not only the training function but also the career paths of individual employees. Using competencies in curricula sets the learners up for success and provides guidelines for employees to effectively perform their jobs.
In some cases, numerous tasks will be combined into an encompassing course, while some tasks are large enough to merit their own course. For an example of a task breakdown, see the sidebar Organize Tasks into Courses.
Create a Job-Specific Curriculum
As a result of breaking out the tasks, creating specific courses, and organizing them under competencies, you have the first draft of a job-specific curriculum. Make sure to include on the curriculum any specific business objectives that it seeks to address; this will work as a reminder to managers of the importance of the curriculm.
Our example uses two distinct position-specific curricula, with 12 classes for the sales team and 10 classes for the service team. See the sidebar Sample Curricula for more information.
By taking the first pass at creating job-specific curricula, you have a working document to use in planning meetings and acquiring feedback. This should be thought of as a jumping-off point. Do not become too attached to the draft curriculum; it will go through a series of changes as others provide you with their input.
Collaborate with Managers
After you have created a first draft of your curriculum, it is time to bring others into the conversation and get feedback from department managers. Plan a meeting to discuss employee curricula.
■ Why a Meeting?
It may seem unnecessary to plan meetings around curriculum development, but these meetings are important because they
• create a partnership between the training department and management
• open the avenues of communication and collaboration
• give managers a say about the structure of curricula
• provide managers with the opportunity to assist in the curriculum development process
• allow learning professionals the benefit of understanding the manager's perspective and to show their commitment to employee training and development.
If managers do not agree with the structure or content of a curriculum, they will not ensure that their direct reports adhere to it. Imposing a curriculum on a manager will lead to non-support, and in the long run, the employee will suffer. Working with managers and gaining their feedback ensures their buy-in and allows them to invest in the process.
■ Deal with Resistance
There will be some managers that will want to keep things the way they are. It is your job as a learning professional to outline the benefits clearly and concisely to ensure their understanding. Instituting some basic change management concepts here is always a good idea:
• Work with the managers who are involved in the change with patience, persistence, respect, and empathy.
• Support employees through the change process and ensure that they are aware of what the new learning programs mean for them.
• Outline the advantages of the curricula and include examples of how employees, management, and the company will benefit over the long run.
When you are working with a manager who is resistant to the change, you will need to be extremely detail oriented and impart an attitude of integrity and respect. Use examples that are specific to that department; show managers how they will be able to have measures of success by affording employees the opportunity to concentrate on what is needed for their job only and not what another department is responsible for. This gives their employees the benefit of knowledge dedicated to that department's area of accountability.
Training professionals can utilize and benefit from the curriculum by working closely with management staff to design individual, precise curriculum plans that are tailored to specific employee needs. From there, learners will be aware that they are expected to take a minimum “x” number of classes to meet a core competency and “y” number of classes to reach a level of proficiency.
Once you have created a draft of the position curricula, you are ready to have an initial curriculum collaboration meeting; for help preparing such a meeting, see the job aid Curriculum Meeting Checklist.
Organize Tasks into Courses
This sidebar will show you how tasks look when organized into courses. It will focus only on organizing tasks under the technical competency.
XYZ Computer Sales Company includes all new employees in all training sessions. There are two main learner groups: the sales team and the service team. Seeking efficiency, XYZ wants to create job-specific curricula to save training dollars and maximize training effectiveness.
Both the sales and service teams use the core XYZ Application computer program. After the task analysis has been completed, break out the various tasks into similar areas. Overlapping transactions will group together to create one course and distinct transactions will create separate courses.
In the left column show the different tasks associated with either the sales or service team. The right column combines the similar tasks into a unified class. The middle columns show whether the course applies to the sales team, the service team, or both.
This analysis results in seven distinct technical courses; five are specific to the sales team and four are specific to the service team. Two courses overlap the training needs of both teams: Introduction and Shipping and Close Out.
Here are the technical course listings for each team:
| Sales Team | Service Team |
| Introduction to XYZ Computer Sales | Introduction to XYZ Computer Sales |
| Sales Set up | Service Outlines |
| Sales Options | Service Main Application |
| Sales Main Application | |
| Shipping and Close Out | Shipping and Close Out |
Your next step would be to analyze tasks and organize them into courses under the cognitive and behavioral competency.
■ Be Prepared
A few steps should be taken prior to the first meeting. Send a copy of the initial curriculum draft to department managers or any person with whom you might be meeting. Before your meeting, remember to
• prepare a “what's in it for me?” (WIIFM) statement; depending on your audience, you can prepare the statement from many angles
• bring a copy of a blank curriculum; for more information, see the job aid Curriculum Structure Worksheet
• map out the process as it has occurred to this point and show what the next steps will be
• prepare goals to agree on for the process.
One last thing to do before you go into your initial meeting is to bring a course catalog that includes course objectives. This will ensure that everyone at the meeting will be familiar with the classes that will be on their position curriculum. If you do not have a full catalog, list the courses and the rational for breaking them out into the respective knowledge areas.
Initial Collaboration Meeting
The purpose of the initial meeting is to further explain curricula, their benefits, and how they work. This meeting will
• start the collaborative process
• ensure that the training department and management have a full understanding of the curriculum development process
• develop management buy-in of curricula.
Your goals for this initial meeting include
• setting up the partnership arrangement with the business unit
• reviewing the first draft of your curriculum
• working on a plan of action to move forward.
You should begin the meeting by explaining what exactly a curriculum is: a group of classes organized in a systematic manner to convey specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes that focus on a particular job. Go on to outline some of the basic benefits of developing specific, accurate curricula. These benefits include
• increased employee productivity and retention as well as defined succession plans
• enhanced learning experiences that relate directly to identified skills gaps and business objectives
• decreased time and money wasted on unnecessary courses.
Then move on to reviewing the first draft of the curriculum that you created. Follow these steps:
• Explain the research and data gathering that went into developing the curriculum.
• Review the first draft copy so that the meeting participants can see a real working copy of a curriculum.
• Explain how the courses were created out of the systems, skills, and competencies.
• Give details about how the courses were broken down and aligned with the jobs; make sure to explain why you matched certain courses to specific positions as it may not be clear to everyone.
• Identify any business objectives that the curriculum seeks to address and explain how it will help meet those objectives.
• Discuss the benefits of having a distinct curriculum for each position and how curricula can be designed to focus on key business objectives.
• Explain what you want from the participants, which is for them to review, edit, and make any adjustments that they feel are pertinent to the curricula.
Curriculum Structure Worksheet
Using this worksheet, you are able to clearly show which courses are related to each competency. List the courses as organized under each competency. Use the job title columns to check off the required classes for that specific position. The legend is a suggested methodology for indicating which classes are required versus possible electives.
Position Curriculum Courses
Make sure your organization's managers understand that job-specific curricula go beyond theory. It's important to include and identify hands-on application of skills and demonstrations of knowledge, as included in the classes and curriculum. A well-rounded curriculum should contain varying interactions including
• classroom training
• online training
• on-the-job training.
By working together with management, you can incorporate individual classes into learning action plans. These plans are designed around each employee's desired job or stretch goals while maintaining the requirements of the basic curriculum.
At end of meeting, agree to a set timeframe for the decision makers to send their curriculum draft back to you for review. Also, make sure to set a time to meet again and discuss the revised curriculum.
Review Collaboration Meeting
Get back together to discuss the decision makers' changes and any gaps identified by either party. At this point in the process it may be necessary for you to
• reiterate the purpose of curricula and competencies
• make a case for any classes that were removed that you feel strongly about keeping
• explain why a class is necessary
• research any additional classes that have been added by the participants.
The review meeting sometimes moves to the finalization point; if so make sure all final curriculum collaboration steps are addressed.
Final Collaboration Meeting
During the final meeting, you must make sure that these issues are resolved:
• performance gaps have been addressed
• open items are closed
• the curriculum is completed and ready to be put in place for employees in the chosen positions.
If any classes were added to the curriculum in the review period that you needed to research, address them here. In some instances this can remain an open item, as in the case with vendor or outside training. Keep in mind that curricula should be treated as living documents that will go through a review process on a regular basis.
■ Monitor Changes
Tracking of final curricula should be instituted at this point in order to control future changes. It is a best practice to date and time stamp the curriculum and add the names of the decision makers to the properties or footnotes of the document. Any suggested changes should be approved by the original creators of the curriculum before being implemented.
Guide Employee Growth
Research shows that a person will change careers seven times during his or her working life. Therefore, it's critical that learning programs are relevant to the job and the real world. A successful curriculum will show employees what training they have completed in their current position and what additional training they need to complete to be eligible for a new position.
Career planning sets up an optimal match between an employee's growth and your company's success. This will be an ongoing process, aligning individual development plans and curricula that can also be tied to performance management. Employees' development is tied to their growth of knowledge on the job; this is then integrated with their career goals to give companies an engaged employee.
Make Curricula Available
Once you design your curricula, your staff will be able to choose courses that work for their individual career goals. Employee retention and career development are key factors in employee motivation and morale, which are directly linked to the success of your organization. In order to use the curricula for career paths, it is a good idea to publish all position curricula on a corporate intranet or make them available in print. This way, all employees are able to access and review the requirements for promotion or transfer.
Using the sample curricula for the sales and service teams, you can map out a career path for a service employee to prepare for a sales position. See the sidebar Provide a Career Path for more information.
Having different curricula allows employees to get a feel for different choices and options available to them without lifelong ramifications involved in quitting one job to start over in another company. An employee can take classes based on an expressed interest and “try out” another knowledge area.
Provide a Career Path
Here is a sample of a career path. This path shows what training a service employee would need to complete to move into a sales position. The left column shows all the courses needed for a sales position. The center column shows which courses are already completed due to service training. The right column shows what additional courses the service employee will need to complete to be eligible for a position in sales.
By having curricula for all job positions within your company, you allow for continuous advancement opportunities and multiple career choices for the employees. Be sure to regularly review the curricula; a well-rounded curriculum should target various employees' levels in the organization and help lay out long-term career objectives for them.
Measure Success
Creating position-specific curricula increases training effectiveness in many ways.
• Employees learn what is required for their jobs without an excess of information.
• The number of training hours is regulated.
• Learning professionals are given the opportunity to develop cross-training or learning development plans from one position to another.
By developing curricula for employees, your company moves toward creating a better-developed workforce. A specific learning program that includes elective classes and stretch goals allows for employees to become more engaged. Engaged employees lead to success at every level of the organization.
■ Calculate Training Hours Saved
Hours trained equals dollars spent. Returning to our example using the sales and service teams from XYZ Computer Sales Company, assume that each training course runs for two hours. The sales team curriculum includes 12 classes or 24 hours of training, and the service team curriculum includes 10 classes or 20 hours of training. This sample shows a savings of four training hours per service team employee. It is possible to expand on the compensation savings by multiplying the average hourly wage of the service team members by the four hours.
■ Survey Competency Mastery
Curricula based on competencies can also be used toward Level 3 evaluations as a measurement of success. Implement this evaluation by creating a short survey. The survey should be based on each of the competency areas, drilling down to courses and then the course objectives. The survey should be written to measure the skills learned in each course to a level of mastery.
In doing this, you can measure the behavioral change that occurred within each competency. In the event that a manager is not buying in to the use of curricula, the survey results are a beneficial tool to make the case for their use. For a sample survey, see the sidebar Sample Competency Mastery Survey.
■ Review Results with Managers
After your completed curricula have been in place for a few months, return to the managers that participated in their creation. Review the business objectives that the managers identified and determine if their objectives are being met. This is also a good opportunity to get feedback on how the curricula are impacting employee performance.
■ Monitor Retention
A key factor in employee satisfaction is the opportunity for growth and advancement. With the help of management, you can design curricula to be a foundation for succession and replacement planning. Work with managers to design curricula that will prepare employees for management and leadership positions.
These curricula allow high-potential and self-motivated employees to become their own career coaches and give these employees the tools needed for growth and personal fulfullment. Planned learning experiences are also a retention tool, because companies are able to clearly show that they are committed to an employee's lifelong learning and development.
Sample Competency Mastery Survey
This sample survey measures which tasks were mastered after completing a training course. Ideally, the survey would be sent four weeks after training to allow for application of knowledge and skills on the job. This way, the direct manager would complete the survey after working with and observing the performance of the employee.
This example focuses on a “Monetary Functions System Training” class. The left column shows the individual tasks that should be mastered after the completion of the training course. The remaining columns can be used to check off the level of mastery that was acquired.
Retaining talent is the key to reducing turnover costs associated with hiring and training new employees. To measure retention, monitor improvements in your organization's turnover rate. You can then calculate the reduction in your replacement costs. For a job aid on Calculating Replacement Costs see Infoline No. 0703, “Talent Retention.”
■ Identify Additional Value
The goal of any training department is not only to develop and deliver great training, but also to get business results. There are some simple ways to demonstrate to managers the value of a curriculum. Show managers how to
• match courses in the curricula to items on performance evaluations
• provide employees with additional goals through elective classes and stretch assignments
• develop specific competencies in employees through targeted classes
• use curricula to monitor employees' career development, whether it's positive or negative.
If employees have positive experiences with their curricula, explore elective classes, review courses for other positions, or discuss areas of interest and growth. If there's a need for improvement, identify courses within a curriculum for employees to repeat or focus on. In any case, having a curriculum helps both employees and their managers navigate performance discussions.
An added value for training departments is “smart scheduling.” If an employee population has completed the core curriculum classes, the need to offer those classes decreases exponentially. The training department becomes better focused and is able to offer more proficiency or developmental classes.
Keep in mind that basing curricula on competencies can create a challenge for measuring, because competencies fall into the same categories as other types of learning events. You will find the same value questions raised; therefore, it's important to remain open and flexible while holding to learning standards. There are many ways to evaluate curricula and competencies. It's important to agree upon the measures in a collaborative manner to ensure buy-in and to link to job performance.