10 Tips to Get Leadership Buy-In for Your Employee Training Program

One of the keys to a successful training program, and possibly the most important, is having leadership buy-in from the top down. Having leadership support helps drive the importance of a program, assist with accountability, and establish appropriate expectations.

But how do you know if you already have it? What does it really look like to have full leadership support for training efforts?

Learn what leadership buy-in looks like, then check out our 10 tips for getting your leaders on board:

Indicator #1: Your Leaders Are Actively Engaged

This is the surest sign your leaders are confident your employee training will drive results. If your company leaders are growing themselves because of your training efforts, and they’re actively promoting training to employees, then they understand the value of what you’re doing.

Indicator #2: Your Leaders Understand Your Contributions

Anyone can read a job description to you, so having leadership that knows what you do doesn’t necessarily indicate buy-in. But if your company leadership knows why you spend so much time developing training, it’s a strong indicator that they believe in your program.

Indicator #3: You Can Prove a Return

At its core, a business exists to earn profits. Your training efforts are ultimately tied to this mission, and the ability to prove that training assists in this mission is a pretty sure sign that you’re doing alright in your leaders’ eyes.

For assistance in this area, be sure to check out our ebook on using the Kirkpatrick Model to prove the value of your training efforts.

Indicator #4: Your Leaders Want to Help

When your company leaders are making suggestions, or better yet – asking questions – about the state of your training efforts, it’s likely that they care about your success and understand how it ties into the success of the organization.

Indicator #5: Your Leaders Are Interested in Your Performance Metrics

If your leaders are interested in looking at your reports and seeing improvement, it’s a sign that they are eager to see how your training efforts are paying off. Repay this eagerness with detailed reports and data that tell a story.

Establishing leadership buy-in might not be easy to do, depending upon your level in the organization and your existing relationship with the leader.

Shannon Kluczny, Chief Customer Officer at BizLibrary, has spent over a decade helping organizations implement and improve training programs, so she has several tried and true steps to follow for effectively gaining leadership buy-in.

These are steps that BizLibrary’s Client Success team regularly employ to help training program managers show the value of employee learning and development to their company leaders.