Company History
How We Started
In 1990, Carolyn B. Thompson saw continuous turnover in employees, an inability to find great employees, and a waste of recruiting dollars on un-targeted channels, like newspaper classifieds, in companies in which she worked. The companies also failed to determine the real outcome and need for training and therefore had inadequate training programs and thus, more wasted money. Carolyn soon realized other companies were having much the same problems and believed that with specific performance oriented training and HR programs quality employees would be attracted to stay and grow with these organizations.
During Training Systems’ initial year the company brand and distinctions in the performance improvement market emerged:
Three Markets – organizations with no formally trained HR or training staff needed professional guidance and some others had one trained person but needed help as their organizations grew. So we became the boots on the ground for small and medium-sized organizations in all industries. All the Training Systems’ Associates have a strong attachment to their own professional associations and so trade and professional associations with their myriad of member training needs was a natural market. As we grew we added Associates so clients needs could always be met no matter what the date or volume was which led us to start helping training companies who needed vendors for projects.
Customized – so many organizations wanted training but didn’t have a specific, measurable outcome so it became clear that our role was to help define the objectives which then allowed us to choose the right learning medium, participative learning methods, reinforcement and measurement methods to successfully achieve those objectives. Customized also means which of the steps of learning are we needed in – beginning to end, or just design, or just determine the need, or just figure out why current training wasn’t working, etc. And it means the topics, the amount of time, the locations, days, in short, anything that’s needed to get a person from current performance to desired performance!
Highly Interactive – study after study, and our own experience showed that accelerated and experiential learning, learning using real work and highly participative methods would help people learn the fastest and retain the most. This led us to develop the Training Systems’ Learning Format - the order in which learning needs to progress in order to achieve that quick learning with high retention. And the Format is used for any learning – in-person group, self-study paper-based, one-on-one, elearning asynchronous or synchronous.
What We're Best At
We know how to learn your processes quickly, and use our knowledge of how people learn to turn your processes/information into something people can learn from:
quickly and easily
with the least expense in time and money
with the least intrusion to getting the rest of their job done
About Our Team
Our Designers, Facilitators, and Consultants live and work all over the U.S., just like our clients. They are freelancers, some running their own training companies, others working for universities and still others who only freelance for performance improvement companies. Each of our twenty Associates was involved in an extensive assessment process to determine their fit with Training Systems’ operating style and beliefs about adult learning. Associates are added on an ongoing basis as client needs (either time or expertise) require and as people who match Training Systems’ style contact us with interest in being an Associate approach us. Because of this, we always have the time and expertise to handle your customized training and HR consulting needs.
Our Associates work together by phone, on-line, through a shared computer file system and every so often even get to work with each other in person! Training Systems is run in a unique way, and we're able to meet your needs because of our unique structure.