IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure

The IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure determines the required competence levels for personnel who utilize your company’s computer system, as well as for IT staff. The IT user procedure determines training or other actions needed to satisfy training requirements and helps your company evaluate the effectiveness of those actions taken.

The IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure also provides personnel (especially technical personnel) with a training path or guide, whereby courses build on one another and promote a skill set that benefits both your staff and your company. (8 pages, 1421 words)

IT User-Staff Training Plan Responsibilities:

Information Technology Managers, the Human Resources Manager, and the Information Technology Security Manager are jointly responsible for developing and administering the Information Technology Training Plan, ensuring that personnel have requisite training coming into various Information Technology positions or can get adequate training quickly, ensuring that all personnel have guidance and support for training and training plans, and ensuring that all personnel are updating their skill portfolios. They are also responsible for implementing changes to the Plan, as needed.

The Training Review Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving the Information Technology Training Plan and any changes to the Plan. The Committee should, at a minimum, consist of the company’s chief executive and chief financial officers, in addition to the Human Resources Manager and Information Technology Managers – which shall jointly chair the Committee – and the Information Technology Security Manager.

IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure Activities

• Planning IT User-Staff Training
• The IT User-Staff Training Plan
• IT User-Staff Training Plan Evaluation(Review)
• It User Staff Training Plan Update

IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure References

• ISO 9001:2000 standard- Quality Management Systems-Requirements, Clause 6.2.2 (Competence, Awareness, and Training)
• ISO/IEC 17799:2005-Information Technology-Code of Practice for Information Security Management
• COBIT Control Objectives, Third Edition (July, 2000)

IT User-Staff Training Plan Procedure Forms

• IT Training Requirements List Form
• IT Training Log Form

Getting Users to Use IT Systems

The thing about IT systems is that people have to use them. No matter the on-time, on budget performance of the development, the success of your install will be judged on how you move the needle on the metrics that the system was designed to affect. And to move the needle, users have to use your system effectively.

Ensuring people use your IT System and follow your IT training plan takes two things:

1. BUY-IN

The first thing it takes is buy-in, which you no doubt facilitated by involving users early to define their requirements. It was at this stage that you investigated and communicated to users the underlying core process that would be automated by your system. You got on the same page with users at the very beginning that the right work is in fact being automated.

2. ROLL-OUT

The second thing to get users to use IT systems is communications and and IT training plan, aka: a roll-out. Roll-out is when you remind users that they defined the requirements in the first place, and at that time you all agreed that by automating the core process, their lives would be easier, and the enterprise would benefit through improved metrics.

Remember, your million-dollar technology investment is at risk if people don’t use it. Your IT development was certainly serious. So your roll-out needs to be serious too, not a Band-Aid slapped on to try and recover.

Deployment of Your IT Systems

A serious roll-out reflects your understanding of how your system will actually be used. Remember those use-cases? OK, dig those up and consult them when planning your training and communications.

Develop IT training from the point of view of your users. Think about the context in which the information will be used. That is, deploy training in formats appropriate for the setting.

For example, field-delivery workers will have their hands full, literally. They may not have the time to attend live training for extended periods. Instead, break up the information into bite-size nuggets, and deliver it digitally to their mobile devices in visual or video format.

Close the Loop

Remember how, early on, you and your users got on the same page about the core processes that you would be affecting? Ultimately, you need to close the loop. You need to update company standards, policies and procedures to reflect any changes that you have made in the work flow, compliance or standard practices.

It’s too easy to focus on the project management metrics and forget that ultimately it’s the impact of automation that matters. Do users remember that they set the requirements? Do they know how to use the IT systems to do their job? Are people making the connection of improving metrics back to the technology causing it?