[Marcus Hayes]

Here is a guide to your role as training coordinator. To start, let us look at our core learning outcomes for employee onboarding. Your foundational goals are to explain the overall value of onboarding, pinpoint the tangible benefits it brings to both new hires and the organization, and evaluate various onboarding methods to determine which formats best set incoming team members up for success.

Before building any program, you need to identify where training gaps actually exist. A training needs assessment guides this through six key steps: establishing clear job expectations, measuring current performance, and actively soliciting input on training needs. From there, you support ongoing career development, conduct an organizational resource analysis, and establish a structured coaching and mentoring program.

Once gaps are identified, you can turn to the ADDIE instructional design framework to structure the learning experience. ADDIE moves through five progressive stages. First is Analysis, where you define the specific performance gap. Next is Design, where you establish clear learning objectives.

In the Development phase, you build the actual performance solution, which is followed by Implementation, delivering that solution to learners. Finally, in Evaluation, you measure your results directly against the original performance objectives.

When assessing how well a program worked, the Kirkpatrick Model is the standard benchmark. It outlines four levels of evaluation: Level 1 measures immediate participant reaction, Level 2 evaluates learning, Level 3 tracks behavioral changes on the job, and Level 4 evaluates organizational results.

While Kirkpatrick is traditionally taught from Level 1 up to Level 4, the source recommends planning in reverse order. Planning backward from the desired business results down to participant reaction helps you design training around the desired outcomes.

As a coordinator, you will also want to distinguish clearly between training and development. Training is a targeted learning experience centered on hard skills. It delivers specific information and behaviors required for immediate job completion, with the objective of building direct operational competence.

Development, by contrast, cultivates broader core skills and focuses on soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, and leadership. Unlike immediate job training, professional development happens gradually across the span of an entire career.

This lesson was adapted from Human Resources Management Module 7, provided by Lumen Learning under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This narration was adapted by Jellypod, with no endorsement implied by Lumen Learning.