For example, imagine that your business must train a bookkeeper to record a new type of credit account being offered to customers. The purpose of the training is to train the bookkeeper such that they are capable of efficiently and accurately recording the new entries. The performance gap here would be that the bookkeeper already has knowledge of all of the business’s other bookkeeping entries, but lacks the knowledge and skill to make the new type of entry.
For the previous example, the task would be to record the new accounting entries.
For the previous example, the conditions might be when a customer with the new account type makes a purchase. In addition, another condition might be that the bookkeeper must know how to record the entry in the business’s accounting software.
Standards will be performance goals, like doing a task in a set amount of time, getting a certain percentage of tasks right, or completing a certain number of tasks in a given time or at a certain magnitude. Training standards usually do not require a mastery or perfection of the task. For the previous example, this would be not just the employee must record the entries, but must do so in an accurate and expedient manner.
In addition, this type of wording adds to your ability to eventually measure your training successes. Clear objectives gives the student the ability to follow their own progress and to know what to expect from the training and its outcome. For the bookkeeper example mentioned in the other parts, this would be something like, “The bookkeeper will be able to successfully record credit account entries. "
For the previous example, this might be that the entry of the new type of credit account will be made to account for a new service offered to customers, designed to increase sales with repeat customers. The proper entry of the data must be stated as essential to the financial health of the business.
For the previous example, this could be that the bookkeeper must learn to make the entries with 100 percent accuracy. For other tasks, the percentage may be lower, but accounting tasks should be as close to perfect as possible.
For the previous example, stick to the basics. Writing that the bookkeeper must record the credit account entries with 100 percent accuracy, given the business’s existing accounting software, is enough.
Specific: State exactly what the learner should know how to do with specific objectives. All objectives should be clearly defined and not subject to debate or interpretation. Measurable: Observe and quantify the behavior with measurable objectives. The objectives should be consistent for each learner, and subject to standard evaluation. Attainable: Make sure the task or action is something that can actually be achieved with attainable objectives. Setting learners up for failure will result in unmet objectives and demoralized students. Relevant: Determine that this task is important and necessary with relevant objectives. There should be nothing arbitrary or optional about the tasks written in the objectives. Time-bound: Set achievable deadlines and management schedules with time-bound objectives. There can be no open-ended tasks in effective objectives. Set and enforce deadlines. Using the bookkeeper example from other parts, the SMART acronym would be applied in the following way: Specific: The bookkeeper should be able to record the credit account transactions. Measurable: The bookkeeper will record transactions correctly 100 percent of the time. Attainable: The bookkeeper’s task is not so different from current entries. Relevant: The bookkeeper’s task is essential to the business’s accounting procedures. Time-bound: The bookkeeper must learn to make the new entries by the 1st of March.
For the previous example, don’t write an objective like, “the bookkeeper must be aware of how the new entries are made. " Make the objective more direct with “they must be able to record the new entries. "
For the previous example, this might be that the bookkeeper will be given several hypothetical examples of this type of transaction and will be asked to record them correctly.
For the previous example, an example would be, “The bookkeeper, given the business’s existing accounting software, must be able to record the new credit account entries with 100 percent accuracy by the 1st of March. "
