Nearly every organization has some type of system for training their employees. It may be on the job training for new employees, or there may be a mix of hands-on, classroom, and self-training. If you're in a regulated industry, you will need to create employee training plans, and ensure that the training is administered and well-documented.

Compile a list of the training courses (Course Catalog).
Your first step in developing training plans is to compile a list of training courses. You will have company-wide training such as New Hire Orientation, as well as job-specific training for an employee's specific duties. While there may not be a formal course for every subject, be sure to add each training subject to your list which will become your Course Catalog. If you have been tracking completed training in spreadsheets or file cabinets, you can go through these records to find the subjects which are still current and require on-going training in your organization. In addition, identify the training required for internal Procedures as well as Company Goals and Industry Regulations. As you develop your list, gather related documents and procedures for each course.

Identify who requires training for each of the courses.
For each of the courses in your list, identify which Groups, Job Roles, or Individuals require training. Whenever possible, assign the required training by Personnel Group or Job Role rather than one-off individual requirements. Consider documenting new Job Roles if needed so that you can manage the training at a higher level and maintain the requirements more easily as personnel move in and out of various roles in the organization. Keep in mind that an individual may have many "Job Roles", even though they likely have only one official "Job Title" within the organization. Also make note of any exceptions for personnel who may be exempt from training in certain areas, even though they may be in a Group which requires the training otherwise.

Determine the criteria for initial training and re-training if needed.
Remember that your goal is to set up Training Plans for your organization as a whole. This is a training plan which may evolve some throughout the year, but should be developed as a standard for the coming years - not a one-time plan to catch up on training. With this in mind, you will need to document whether re-training is required, and if so whether it is required based on Date or content changes such as Document Version updates. For example, you may have training which expires and requires re-training "Every 2 Years", or you may need to re-train only when the process changes such as a change to a Standard Operating Procedure.

Enter the data into your system
Finally, compile this data into your training system. If you are using Kaizen Software's Training Manager software, you can set up your required training on the Assignments tab as described in the User Guide and in this Screencast.

For training which expires over time, be sure to include the previous completed training history in your system so that the next training due date can be determined.

Perform a gap analysis to determine training needs.
After all that work, it's time to identify and eliminate Training Gaps (Required vs. Completed Training). In Training Manager, you can do this by running the "Overdue and Upcoming Status" report. Choose the "Summary" option to help prioritize, and set the "Group By" option to Personnel Group, Supervisor, or Trainer as needed. You can email the "Detail" report to the leaders in each area to begin scheduling training for their personnel to fill in the gaps and be prepared for a training records audit .