Very shortly after the training, set a time to discuss the ideas presented with appropriate units/personnel and decide what (if anything) to implement and how. Schedule another session a few months down the road to discuss how well implementation is working and adapt as needed.

In many cases, people learn best when they apply training to their actual work. It may be most effective to arrange for a trainer to work one-on-one with the trainee as new procedures are described and immediately applied to actual tasks. This is especially helpful when employees are learning to apply an unfamiliar computer program, learning to use a familiar program in a new way, or learning a new procedure for materials handling.

Once something has been selected for implementation, or when introducing something new to any employee, periodic reminders are needed to reinforce the new learning. Strong, continuing effort needs to be made to MAKE SURE that all parties involved are completely clear about what is now expected, and that old superceded habits do not return.

Some applicable steps in coaching include:

The library group or person that organized the training should identify a specific person to send feedback to. This feedback can be summarized, and used as a starting point for a follow-up meeting, or the feedback can be sent out to all involved by e-mail.

This gives those who could not attend the basic information presented at the training. This is also an opportunity to encourage discussion between employees about what can realistically be implemented.

For changes in operational procedure, a paper copy outlining the new policy serves as both an indication that the change has been made official and a reference for implementing the change. It is especially important if the policy applies to situations that do not occur frequently. Depending on how frequently the affected situations arise, it is important to remind people about the change on a regular basis (for a few weeks to a couple of years) and to provide additional copies to employees as needed.

There is great benefit to everyone in the unit if there is a print or online source that can be consulted for answers to procedural questions before resorting to interrupting a busy person or waiting for an absent person to return in order to find out what to do. Admittedly, it is very hard to find the time to develop and maintain such a manual—especially for things that continually change. To mitigate this, it may help to have more than one person working on the task.