Three Mistakes People Make When Choosing Training Tracking Software

Defining and tracking required training within an organization is typically part of a quality certification process. Unsurprisingly, the actual task of tracking training is quite dull. Initially, people usually try to manually track training using an Excel spreadsheet, but soon discover it takes a significant amount of their time to do so. Once someone realizes they don’t want to spend their time tracking training, they will start searching for software to handle it instead. When looking for a solution, there are three common mistakes that are made.

Mistake #1

Using Existing Functionality from a Larger Software Package

Many HR software suites contain a training tracking module. These are frequently added as a box to check in their advertised feature set. In this circumstance, when someone is looking to purchase an actual training tracking system, they are often told that it is part of a current product and therefore, there is no reason to purchase something separately.

The view “just use what we already have” is obviously attractive. It feels like it’s free. The problem is that this tracking usually just consists of a class list, a method to assign classes to employees, and some cursory reporting. This is one step removed from tracking things manually in an Excel document.

Looking at the real costs associated with training tracking, one will immediately see that using the included software is far from free. It solves nothing. It relies on a person to continually alter, monitor, and coax other employees to achieve a document that will fulfill a training audit. And unless that document is maintained constantly, you will be playing catch-up before the next audit.

Mistake #2

Assuming a Learning Management System (LMS) Is a Training Tracking System

An LMS provides a system that allows your employees to learn various skills online. These can be great products to achieve certain kinds of training in your organization. But, as with the training tracking integration in HR suites, the training tracking provided in these systems is rather cursory. Again, you will run into the “just use what we already have” argument. And again, you will experience the same costs associated with the other software suite issue discussed above.

Mistake #3

Judging a Solution by Its Feature Set

Any feature that’s not intended to reduce your interaction with the system is probably a distraction. It goes against the statement “I don’t want to spend my time tracking training.” Gauge-laden dashboards with candy-colored icons can be visually impressive. Extensive customizable reporting seems like a good thing. Tools that allow you to massage data presentation into a creative expression are emotionally satisfying. Are these necessary? No. These features add nothing in determining if someone is qualified to do their job. What they do is complicate the process. Spending time contemplating a serif font versus a sans serif font does nothing to answer an auditor’s question. Deciding how wide a column should be or what colors look best together does nothing toward answering the question “Is this employee qualified to do their job?”

Gamification, team collaboration, and a host of other fun features move further in this direction. If a gold star or ruby icon is needed to entice an employee into completing their forklift training, you may want to reconsider your hiring decisions. As much as some try, they cannot make training tracking into an exciting and entertaining experience.

A Better Solution

SchemaTMS provides your organization with a product specifically designed to eliminate excessive and redundant interactions between you, your staff, and the training tracking process. Our product is first and foremost a training and qualification management system. At its core is a tracking mechanism designed to fully automate tracking and employee notifications.

In short, SchemaTMS is the best choice if your goal is to automate your training tracking process and remove yourself from needless software interaction.

See if SchemaTMS is right for you. Start with a four-minute evaluation.