Every year, drawing up the training plan can feel like an obstacle course for HR professionals: gathering needs, prioritising requests, staying within budget, all while ticking the compliance boxes.

Yet a training plan should never be just an administrative document to meet a legal obligation or spend a budget. To deliver real value, it must be useful: useful to employees, useful to managers, and directly aligned with the company strategy.

How do you move from a “catalogue” approach to a training plan with real impact? Here are the key steps to build a useful and effective programme.

1. Aligning training with company strategy

A useful training plan starts first and foremost with a clear view of the organisation's challenges.

• Anticipate changes in jobs: What skills will we need in 1, 2 or 3 years? What technological, regulatory or sector changes should we anticipate?
• Support business objectives: If the company wants to expand internationally, accelerate its digital transformation or improve customer loyalty, training initiatives must directly reflect these priorities.

The HR reflex: Before listing individual wishes, talk to senior management to identify the critical skills to develop as a priority.

2. Gather and analyse real needs on the ground

Gathering needs is often the sticking point. To avoid ending up with a wish list disconnected from operational realities:

• Make the most of annual and career reviews: Use feedback, observed performance gaps and career development wishes.
• Involve managers: They are closest to day-to-day realities. Help them tell the difference between a motivation or organisation problem and a genuine need to build skills.
• Consult employees directly: Self-assessments help identify areas of discomfort or everyday obstacles.

3. Prioritise and decide methodically

The classic mistake is trying to accept everything to please everyone. With limited budgets and time, making choices is essential.

Use a clear decision grid based on two main criteria:

1. Urgency and operational impact: Is the training mandatory (safety, compliance) or strategic for the business?
2. Collective benefit: Does the training benefit only one person, or can it be replicated to upskill an entire team?

4. Vary formats for lasting learning

Training does not always mean sending an employee to a classroom for three days. To be useful, a training plan must adapt to today's learning rhythms and styles:

• Internal training and mentoring: Encourage peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and tutoring.
• Hybrid formats (blended learning): Combine short online modules (e-learning, micro-learning) with hands-on workshops in person.
• On-the-job training: Learning directly while carrying out day-to-day tasks, supported by a mentor.

5. Measure impact and skills retention

A training plan is not finished once the sessions have been delivered. Effectiveness is measured over time:

• Immediately after: Assess participant satisfaction at the end of the session.
• Later (3 to 6 months after): Assess with the manager whether the training has led to a concrete change in working practices.
• ROI (return on investment): Track changes in key indicators (fewer errors, productivity gains, better workplace climate or talent retention).

In conclusion

Building a useful training plan means moving from a mindset of obligation to one of investment. By placing strategic alignment, listening to the field and a variety of formats at the heart of your approach, you turn training into a powerful driver of employee engagement and company performance.