Anytime your organization expands, opens new franchises, or even merges with another group, it means you’re juggling that growth with the need to maintain your branding, values, and company objectives. On top of onboarding new employees, there's also performance mapping, needs analyses, content creation, and curation — it’s a lot to handle!

With so many variables to consider, such an endeavor requires a serious look at your training and development programs. A recent study noted that 84% of employees at high-performing organizations are receiving the training they require, compared to only 16 percent of employees at low-performing organizations. Clearly, there’s a correlation between the implementation of effective corporate training and a company’s bottom line. So, how do you ensure you’re scaling your training program to meet your growing company’s needs? Here’s our run-down of the four best ways to make sure your training and development programs keep pace with your expansion.

1. Take Measure

First, take a look at organizational needs, learning goals, and performance objectives. With that in mind, measure employees' performance on key skills, understanding of critical topics, or "knowledge base," and overall engagement. Both surveys and evaluations can help your L&D team and stakeholders understand where training opportunities lay. Having this insight into skills, knowledge, and engagement gaps is an invaluable first step.

2. Invest in Online Training

An online learning portal, where employees can access diverse training assets (e.g., eLearning content, wikis, FAQs, guides, assessments, etc.) is essential to scaling your training—especially if your learners are scattered across multiple locations. An accessible online hub for training and performance support lends to consistent content consumption. Moreover, this gives you a scalable solution for training deployment to remote employees as well. Your learners will feel more engaged and find support and training assets pertinent to them all in one place.

3. Take a Test Run

Create a pilot program—a fundamental step when seeking to scale a training initiative. Pilots help you prove that your concept works before you dedicate significant organizational resources to expanding it. First, create a small program that you can test and validate. The size of the pilot program will depend on variables like your company size or the training methods you decide to employ.

4. Measure… Again!

After the initial pilot, gradually roll out your program by department, location, or organization-wide after a predetermined period of evaluation. However, after a program has been launched, you need to reevaluate team performance, knowledge base and engagement. If you realize your training is uncovering some performance gaps, then don’t fret. You've just identified new opportunities for performance improvement. This is an important part of the measuring and evaluation process. Once your program is validated, then you can proceed with confidence.

Conclusion

Every successful organization grows or takes steps in a different direction. It’s clear that a scalable learning program plays a massive part in the overall success of your company in the long term. Understanding your training challenges, finding the right tools and content, and then reevaluating performance gaps will make any corporate transition easier to navigate.