Never let the bosses (whether they be the C-level executives, the manager or director of your department, or even the heads of other departments that you build training programs with) wonder what you're doing. This is especially important in economy crunches like this, when everyone's looking at the bottom line and checking on how much they're getting from you and your team for their money.
But nobody (most of us with sense, anyway) wants to waste emails or meetings tooting their own horn and boring people to tears. Reports have to be quick to read and contain useful information. Everyone's organization and processes will be different, but here's the system I use to try to keep people informed without burying them in too much information.
I send a report once a month; I have a reminder set in Outlook to make sure I do it. I rotate which report I send between four different topics:
- What courses are people using the most?
- What training topics are our clients and prospects requesting the most?
- What information are students searching for on our web site?
- How are students rating our courses in their evaluations?
My reports have a slightly different bent than the average training manager because I'm at the marketing end of the business. What topics would be of most interest to your "audience," the people you work for and provide training services to?
- Classes, courses, and online books that are used the most?
- The training topics that are most in demand in your company?
- Amount of training that's been completed, maybe divided by team or department to see which ones are most active in furthering their careers?
In my reports, I attach a spreadsheet with complete data, but provide the top 10 or highlights in the email itself so that readers can skim or get as in-depth as they want.
MindLeaders Central provides detailed reports about your training activity that can be a great start for keeping others updated. Our Course Utilization report is especially useful for a birds-eye view of the training people are using.
What information can you provide (regularly) to the people you influence and who influence you? What will really provide value and show the results of your work?
