The Problem with Salesforce Training and Instruction

Let me clarify, I’m not discounting any Salesforce trainers or instructional designers out there. I know many amazing Salesforce instructors (yes, even outside of Talentforce). Even so, more often than not (in my experience), organizational training initiatives often overlook some key fundamental talent development elements, which (typically) is not the instructor’s fault. Business needs generally prioritize speed-to-market training solutions over adult learning best practices, which can be a costly headache. If we take a moment and assume that Ebbinghause’s Foregetting Curve is correct, which finds that adult learners forget half of new information received from training, we might be able to visualize the disruption this can have on our business goals and objectives. What’s scarier is that research shows that this scrap training increases to 70% within 24 hours of a training delivery. With this in mind, it may not matter that your trainer has 20+ certifications or is recognized as a Salesforce MVP, the truth of it is that transfer of knowledge and user adoption are only as strong as the facilitation and learning system that you have in place.

So, how we do get around this problem and ensure that we are getting the expected ROI from our training investments? To keep this post short and sweet, I’m not going to outline all of adult learning best practices (I’ll break these up in other posts). Instead, I will suggest that companies invest in internal (or external) talent development professionals. Having an experienced and dedicated learning and development team can assess and identify the right solution for your company (and your employees). In my opinion, fostering an environment that leads to a culture of learning and development is one of the best investments and business decisions an organization can make. Keep in mind that training should not be a box to tick, but rather an important process and continuous development plan like any other project. We all know that change is inevitable, so ask yourself whether or not it might be time to make some changes to your L&D processes.