Enhancing the Organization's Workforce: Guidance for Effective Training Sustainment

Human capital is typically an organization's most valuable asset; however, hiring and retaining talented employees is a costly enterprise. Investing in employees with training and development to provide them with a competent, competitive edge is one way to retain employees and mitigate turnover. To truly reap the benefits of training, organizations must commit to securing the acquired competencies and training sustainment to ameliorate decay. Without such commitment, there is substantial deterioration in knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) following training. Despite the importance of training sustainment, little instruction and direction are available to assist practitioners in mitigating decay. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with scientifically grounded guidance by offering 14 assumptions about training sustainment. We organize these assumptions into four tenets: (a) creating a mandate to sustain trained KSAs, (b) championing sustainment of trained KSAs, (c) empowering employees to use trained KSAs, and (d) evaluating sustainment success. What's It Mean? Implications for Consulting Psychology Consulting inherently entails one of an organizations' most valuable assets-human capital. The retention, though, of human capital is contingent upon training and development. The longevity of training relies on concerted efforts related to training sustainment. This article provides four tenets to provide guidance on maximizing training sustainment.