11 Powerful Training Plan Templates and Examples for Your Business

Your company can get ahead of labor shortages and the ever-evolving skills requirements of the market by investing in employee development.

Training your workers will help you resolve common workplace issues like lack of motivation, poor productivity, inadequate domain knowledge, and confusion or uncertainty about their role.

"Creating a successful employee training plan requires ongoing assessment and adaptation.

You must frequently analyze your team's skills and assess any gaps that need to be filled, then design training programs to address those needs and provide ongoing support for growth and development." Sarah Watson, Chief Operating Officer at BPTLAB, personality testing solutions provider.

But if it's your first time designing and executing a structured training program, you might need guidance on how to begin or what to include in your plan.

We've put together some of the best employee training plan examples, templates, and checklists. Use them as a starting point when building robust training programs for your organization.

❗️ 7 Must-haves in an employee training plan template

There are different kinds of training opportunities that you can offer your employees. And templates tend to come in different shapes, forms, and structures because they are made by people with varying organizational needs and goals.

However, whether you're creating your own or building upon someone else's, here are some essential elements that any good training policy template should have.

Training objectives 

List out how you hope the training program will benefit your workforce and company. Your goals must be specific, measurable, and relevant. Learn more about soft skills and hard skills. Employee training assessment can also be helpful to understand your employees needs.

Type/method of training

How do you intend to deliver the training? Will it be instructor-led, self-paced, virtual, in-person, or blended training? Or maybe you want to use a role-playing, virtual training, gamification, on-the-job training and mentoring approach? Think about your options and note them down in this section.

➡️ Check out our new hire training plan for the ultimate training for your new hires.

Training curriculum and materials

This column in your training plan template should cover what employees will learn during the training. Mention the learning resources and materials you'll need or provide and any regulatory guidelines that employees and course creators must follow. 

Audience and stakeholders

This template section is for defining who needs the training, who will be creating courses, conducting, or overseeing the training, and the expectations for each of the roles. 

Learning outcomes 

What specific knowledge, skills, or competencies do you want employees to take away from the training?

We recommend first filling a skills matrix, to understand your people's current skills levels and identify any gaps.

For instance, your marketing team has a training objective to improve their social media advertising skills. The learning outcome you should see after training is a strong understanding of Facebook Ads.

Timelines

What is the duration of the training program? What dates and times will training sessions take place? What are the deadlines for completing performance milestones? When will you check in with employees to see how they are progressing?

KPIs for effectiveness

Finally, every training plan template must have a field where you can define how you will measure the effectiveness of your training efforts. 

Tip: Note the KPIs or metrics you will use as a benchmark.

📝 11 Examples of employee training plan templates

We've put together these ready-to-use training templates and checklists that you can customize to suit your company's learning and development needs.

1. Training needs assessment template

What this template includes: This training survey helps you uncover insights about gaps in employee performance, knowledge, and skills. It tells you what your workers want to learn, their preferred learning methods, and their schedule.

When to use it: To assess your organization's training needs and know where the skill gaps are for each department and individual employee before you begin planning a training program.

Why it matters: This information will enable you to identify your business case for training and design targeted learning and development experiences that produce better outcomes for you and your workforce.

2. New-hire training template

What the new-hire training template includes: This template covers everything that new hires need to know to help them settle into their role and do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

It contains essential knowledge, training, and skills that you want to equip new hires with, such as:

• company policies;
• role descriptions;
• starter projects; 
• chain of command;
• standard operating procedures;
• orientation, integration, and performance review timelines.

When to use it: Use your training plan to set new employees up for success from day one and guide them through their first few months or year on the job.

Why it matters: How you onboard and train new hires can make or mar their experience and performance at your company.

"Investing in employees at the start with a well-thought-out and comprehensive training program demonstrates a willingness to invest in their growth, which leads to enhanced loyalty, meaning you won't have to fill the position again anytime soon." — Mitch Chailland, President of Canal HR.‍

Tip:💡 Make sure to check out our blog post on how long onboarding should take and the best practices.

3. New hire training checklist

What the new hire training checklist includes: You'll find all the logistical items, preboarding activities, and action plans you will need to manage to guide new hires through your onboarding and training process from the moment they accept your job offer to their first annual performance check-in.

When to use it: Start ticking off items from your checklist to prepare your new hire for their first day and acclimate them to their new role, team, and company in the early months.

Why it matters: The strength of your new hire training will determine:

- the employee's experience with your company; 
- their speed to productivity; 
- how well they perform in their role.

A checklist keeps things from falling through the cracks, guaranteeing all new hires a uniform onboarding and training experience.

➡️ Check out the new hire training checklist.

4. Pre-training checklist template

What the pre-training checklist template includes: This template breaks down the materials, schedules, tools, tasks, and activities you'll need to create, arrange, track, and execute to conduct a training session successfully.

When to use it: Create a training curriculum, prepare a memorandum, invite instructors and trainees, get feedback from participants, and disaster-proof upcoming training schemes by working through the checklist.

Why it matters: The last thing you want is to pour your time and energy into planning a training only to realize on D-day that you forgot essential elements.

You want to ensure that you remembered to:

• Book a conference room. 
• Send out email invites to some employees.
• Print out enough assessment forms.

Preview of Pre-Training checklist template

☑️ Prepare training memorandum and email invite.

• Determine which employees are mandated or free to attend.
• Provide training agenda. 
• Provide training date, time, location, and other pertinent information.

Completion date: 2 weeks before training day.

Assigned to: HR.

☑️ Confirm attendance.

• Make sure all mandated attendees have signed up.
• Book a suitable conference room.

Completion date: 1 week before training day. 

Assigned to: HR.

➡️ Download the complete training checklist in excel.

5. Individual employee training plan template

What the individual employee training plan includes: This template gives you an overview of where a specific employee currently is regarding skills and performance and where they need to be. It details the following:

• Employees' skill gap;
• Training goals;
• Development actions;
• Training methods and materials;
• Learning outcomes;
• Progress metrics;
• Training timeline.

When to use it: Use this template to sharpen an employee's existing skills or prepare them to transition into a different role. Or as a component of your performance review process to support staffers who seem to lag behind before their performance becomes a severe issue.

Why it matters: A proactive training approach boosts employee productivity and efficiency by pinpointing the skills they are lacking and helping them develop those areas.

Tip: Sit down with the employee who needs the training and work with them to develop their training plan.

➡️ Get the individual employee training plan template.

6. Employee development plan template

What the employee development plan template includes: This template acts as a guide for documenting and nurturing each employee's professional growth plans. It covers:

• their career goals;
• the skills and knowledge they need to reach their goals;
• the training and actions they will take to gain these skills;
• the timeline for completing the training and hitting milestones.

When to use it: Create development plans to:

• Speed up time to productivity for new hires as part of the onboarding
• Improve performance of underperforming employees
• Help members of your team grow their skills and advance their careers, whether that means progressing toward a management role or making a lateral move.

Why it matters: Hiring new employees, especially at a higher skill tier, is far more costly and time-consuming than providing upskilling and career development opportunities for your current employees.

➡️ Get the employee development plan template.

7. 70-20-10 development plan template

What the 70-20-10 development plan template includes: A 70-20-10 training plan gives you a framework for structuring your development programs using:

• experiential, 
• peer-to-peer, and 
• formal training methods

To maximize engagement and performance.

When to use it: Use this template before launching your program to divide your training into sections, so everyone knows which skills trainees will learn on the job, from their peers, or through formal training sessions like seminars, presentations, and courses.

Why it matters: Offering employees the 70-20-10 blended learning experience supports better knowledge retention and the development of practical skills.

➡️ Download the 70-20-10 development plan template.

8. Training matrix template

What the training matrix template includes: This template supplies all the data you'll need to get a comprehensive view of the state of your training initiatives, such as:

• employee names, roles, and departments;
• active training courses and topics;
• learner progress;
• course completion rate;
• failure rate.

When to use it: Keep track of specialized and company-wide past and present training efforts and the individual employees or teams that have participated in them with this template.

Why it matters: Building a training matrix is a great way to monitor your active training programs, how trainees progress through the program, and the training needs you should be working towards meeting.

➡️ Get the training matrix template.

9. Leadership training plan template

What the leadership training plan includes: Get an overview of your company's current leadership abilities and the areas where there's room for improvement. This template addresses the following:

• training needs assessment;
• training objectives;
• your leadership training topics;
• the core leadership skills your (future) leaders will obtain from the training;
• the training methods and formats you'll use to facilitate this; 
• your use of facilities and stakeholders.

When to use it: Provide your workers with leadership training to develop and improve the skills they'll require to manage a team effectively. Plus, use leadership training to teach about your organization's code of conduct for supervisors.

Why it matters: A leadership training plan example allows you to transform your newly promoted employees and staffers with management potential from "actors" to "directors."

➡️ Get the leadership training plan template.

10. Product training template

What the product training plan includes: This template makes it easy to train your employees and other stakeholders on new or existing products. It presents information about the following:

• the product's benefits and features;
• product use cases;
• how the product works;
• why it is better than that of your competitors (product comparison).

When to use it: Break out this template whenever a new team member starts in your company to get them up to speed with your products. Alternatively, use product training to help current employees learn everything there is to know about newly launched offerings.

Why it matters: To convincingly sell your product to customers, your employees must first understand its WHAT, WHY, and HOW.

11. DEI training plan template

What the DEI training plan template includes: This diversity, equity, and inclusion template is designed as a microlearning journey. It touches on everything from why DEI matters to your company's DEI policies and aspirations, as well as actions employees can take to tackle bias and foster inclusivity.

When to use it: Put this ready-to-use course to work to educate new and existing employees about DEI topics so that everyone feels respected, safe, welcome, and empowered in the workplace.

Why it matters: A lot goes into designing an effective diversity training initiative. Work from a structured template to keep track of all the moving parts and ensure you deliver consistent messaging about the importance of cultivating a healthy and inclusive workplace culture.

➡️ Get the DEI training plan template.

💪 Why use a training plan template?

A training plan template is a document that outlines how you intend to carry out your training initiatives. It breaks down what has to happen to ensure the success of your training efforts.

Here are some advantages a good training plan template can offer you.

1. Saves you time

The more time you use in creating your training plan, the longer it will take to launch your training program and start upskilling your workers.

Rather than spending days or months strategizing and building your training plan from scratch, you can fill out a template or modify it to suit your needs. Again, this frees up time you can spend on other important tasks.

2. Makes the training process less stressful

A training plan template streamlines your company's training journey by providing a roadmap outlining the steps you need to take to achieve specific goals.

It takes the pressure and worries out of analyzing training needs, preparing strategies and objectives, and developing a curriculum to support individual learning goals. 

Templates help you address your organization's present and future skill gaps.

3. Keeps things on track

Without a training plan template, it's easy for things to fall through the cracks because you may not be able to remember or keep track of all details.

You can invest a lot of money and time only to end up with a training program that doesn't deliver on its promises or meet the expectations you set for it. 

A template helps you stay on schedule and manage all the components of your training process so that everything flows smoothly.

4. Helps anticipate employees' training needs

To create successful skills development programs, you first need to know what areas your workers need upskilling or reskilling to remain competitive in their careers. And to ensure the continued survival and profitability of your business.

A training plan template takes the guesswork out of the equation, empowering you to design and execute engaging training programs that help your employees grow as individuals and as a team.

➡️ Learn how to create an effective employee training plan in 9 steps.

➡️ Plan your training with Zavvy

Training plan templates can be a helpful guide for standardizing your training initiatives and mapping out how you will empower your workforce with the skills they need to grow and perform better.

But to build sustainable and scalable training initiatives, you also need the right training tool.

Zavvy's training solutions are ideal from onboarding onwards to create a continuous learning culture for your company.

Zavvy makes it easy to:

• Plan, create, distribute, and manage your learning and development content in one place.
• Automate your entire training program to reach people with the right content at the right time with ready-to-use training courses.
• Deliver effective and engaging learning experiences with creative training solutions like microlearning, peer learning, and learning in the flow of work.
• Develop leaders and everyone else based on data with precision.
• Track course completion, engagement, learner performance, and training ROI.

Ready to build a worry-free training program? Book a free demo anytime.