An HR leader at a pulp and paper mill asked us a good question this year. He wanted to know whether to train his own people to teach the material or bring somebody in, and what each choice would cost him.
That question tells you he was evaluating the right thing. Most buyers compare curriculum, and the curricula in this category cover much the same ground. Manager training programs that work run on a different structure, and that is what to ask a vendor about.
Where the bar sits
Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace reported that 44 percent of managers worldwide have ever received management training. A plant that runs a structured program is already doing more than most. So the question becomes what structured should mean, and here are five things to ask.
Five things to ask a vendor
Ask how far apart the sessions run. We recommend two to three weeks between modules, because a supervisor needs time to use one skill on his own crew before he learns the next one. A two-day event hands him the whole program in one sitting and sends him back to the floor the next morning.
Ask what happens between sessions, and who checks. One casino group we work with marks a module complete only after the participant's director watches him run the skill and both of them sign off in the system. A credit union puts every participant and that participant's manager on a call before the first session, so the manager knows from the start what the program will ask of him.
Ask who teaches it. An OD director who has run it both ways told us his internal facilitators know the business, the content and the people, and that knowledge helps them coach the application afterward. He brings an outside facilitator in when he wants somebody in the room who does not know anyone. One of our facilitators ran the program inside a company before she joined us, and she told us the drawback of the internal model plainly: homework spikes and competing priorities pulled at her, and the quality of her facilitation moved with her week.
Ask what the program expects of the supervisor's manager. This is the question that sorts the field fastest, and it is the one most vendors have to think about on the spot. Gallup's research on manager development found that participants improved their own engagement by up to 22 percent more than non-participants, their teams by up to 18 percent, and those teams ran 21 to 28 percent lower turnover.
Ask what you can measure at 30, 60 and 90 days. A vendor who can tell you the numbers before you buy has thought about them.
We put a longer version of these questions into a one-page tool. Adam Boyd, President of Trinity Training and Development, is handing it out at a session on Thursday, November 5 at 10 am CT. He is spending the time on the 90 days after training, which is where all five questions point. Everyone who attends also leaves with a 90-day plan and a 30/60/90 scorecard. The session is free, it runs live on Zoom, and you can save a seat at frontlineleadershipprogram.com/supervisor-training-webinar.