What Does a Training Manager Do: A Complete Guide

Ever been wondering what does a training manager do? This right here is a complete guide to giving you the necessary details about what the office of the training managers entails. Understanding what a training manager does can help you decide if this career path aligns with your aspirations and skill set.

Normally, a training manager is a person that possesses the skill to organize and monitor the learning and professional development of an organization’s workforce. Training managers, always, are those that are professionally imbued with the skill of devising strategic training programs to boost employee performance, efficiency, and productivity.

Anyone who chooses to identify him or herself as a training manager plays an important role in mapping out training strategies, designing and delivering training programs, and advancing the skills and knowledge of an organization’s employees.

Responsibilities and Roles of a Training Manager

Asking what does a training manager do has brought you here to this content where you will be getting to know what and what are parts of the primary duties of a training manager. Below are your answers:

Training manager plan and manage learning and development events such as seminars, workshops, and conferences. Tasks might include curating topics, booking locations, sourcing speakers, and more. They also may need to provide alternative solutions where events are expensive or inconvenient.

For example, a training manager could host webinars for distributed teams who can’t attend in person. This way, workers can learn, network, and connect with company culture from anywhere.

The role of a training manager also extends to supporting employees in progressing their careers. For example, they can coach new supervisors on team management skills or ask senior managers to provide job-specific coaching.

They may also need to organize, run, and track the effectiveness of mentorship programs. It’s the training manager’s role to source and match employees with suitable mentors who can help them navigate their career goals.

Training managers have the difficult task of creating training plans that meet the needs of their workforce, organization, and local regulations. To do this, they must fully understand and connect with their company’s mission and goals. Only then can they assess workers’ performance against these goals.

Reviewing customer feedback and workers’ performance is a great way to identify skills and knowledge gaps. On top of this, training managers may be required to create practical assessments to spot areas of improvement in their workforce. Finally, it’s also their job to ensure that their training plans complies with regulatory and compliance needs.

It’s essential for training managers to ensure that employees complete the activities assigned to them. With e-learning platforms, they can track the real-time progress of employees. Plus, they can send reminders to employees who haven’t completed their required courses.

With in-person or virtual classrooms, monitoring attendance is an easy way to track completion. However, some training managers go above and beyond this. For example, they track participation levels by using interactive sessions. Or, they restrict the use of mobile phones during training. Training managers also check for compliances and then report or take disciplinary action against employees who are underperforming.

Helping new hires integrate and contribute to company goals can be tricky, as new employees come with varying skill levels. They also need to be brought up to speed within a certain timeframe. They can facilitate this by creating and providing simple training courses and materials. Also, training managers should ensure the SOPs are easy for new employees to understand.

They can also lead orientation training to introduce employees to the company’s culture and working practices. Additionally, where a new hire lacks expertise, a training manager can match them with an onboarding buddy or have them shadow experienced colleagues.

They evaluate the success of programs and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that training programs need to meet, such as the return on investment (ROI). Measuring training ROIs is a tricky business, though. It’s easy to assess the costs of training but difficult to determine the returns.

That’s why successful training managers use other KPIs, too! They develop surveys and check in with workers to gather feedback on how employees feel about the training they’ve received. They could also use more objective measures like completion rates and training quiz scores. Plus, they could look at performance reviews to check for improvements post-training.

Training managers also need to connect frequently with employees and managers. This way, they can gather feedback on what training content is working and where any knowledge gaps are. They must also build relationships with senior leaders who they can count on for coaching and mentoring other employees.

Networking with external vendors is also a part of the job. This is a great way to learn about the latest offerings and negotiate the best price with relevant providers. But managing so many relationships can be tricky, especially if stakeholders are in multiple locations. Training managers also need to find a way to strengthen these relationships virtually.

Successful training managers regularly review and update their materials. Today’s workforce contains even more deskless, remote, and hybrid employees than ever before. Thus, training management personnel have to adapt their methods to stay up to date with their employees’ needs. For example, mobile-first learning allows workers to access their training from anywhere, and real-world simulations offer a new way of training frontline workers.

The role of a training manager is to stick to the company’s training budget. They prioritize courses that align with company goals and provide the best value for money. Also, they negotiate with external trainers, vendors, and other suppliers to lower costs or receive discounts. It’s also their duty to keep track of training expenses. This includes trainer fees, travel expenses, technology and equipment costs, and more.