11 Ways to Reinforce Training

U.S. organizations spent an average of $874 per learner on training in 2025, and small companies spent $1,091 per learner, according to Training magazine's 2025 Training Industry Report [1]. How do you ensure those dollars result in a change of skill and behavior? Reinforce training. The 11 ways below are inexpensive and easy to implement, and most of them can be added to a program that already exists. This article also covers why training fades without reinforcement, how to choose among the 11 ways, a cadence for the year after a program, the manager's role, reinforcing sales training and how to know that reinforcement is working.

Why training fades without reinforcement

Two findings from the research explain why a workshop on its own rarely changes behavior for long. The first is the forgetting curve. In a 2015 replication of Ebbinghaus' classic experiment, most of what participants learned was lost within the first day, and the loss continued slowly over the following month [2]. Workplace skills fade more slowly than the nonsense syllables used in that study because they have meaning and context, but the shape of the curve holds: what is not used soon after learning tends to be lost.

The second is transfer. In a survey of training professionals in 150 organizations, Saks and Belcourt found that 62% of employees applied what they had learned immediately after training, 44% were still applying it after six months and 34% after one year [3]. The same study found that transfer was higher in organizations that used reinforcement activities before, during and after training. Baldwin and Ford's review of the transfer research identified three sets of factors that determine whether training is used on the job: the trainee, the design of the training and the work environment, including supervisor and peer support and the opportunity to perform the new behaviors [4]. Reinforcement is what an organization does about the third factor, and it is the one talent development professionals can change most quickly.

11 ways to reinforce training

Here are 11 ways to reinforce training that we have used with clients across industries. None requires a new system, and several can be run by the participants themselves.

1. Application homework. The time between training days offers valuable opportunities for participants to practice skills in real-life situations. Assignments can be given to participants, creating an opportunity for them to practice new skills while still having access to a skilled facilitator. Simple example assignments are to use reflective listening with someone and take note of reactions from the speaker, or to visit a competitor's store to see how sales associates greet them.
2. Participant-built action plans. At the conclusion of workshops, participants can be asked to develop a specific action plan, choosing where and when to use the skills. They can be asked to have a review of the plan by a facilitator or peer. The plan is aimed at supporting their use of workshop models and skills at work, where it counts. To really drive home the point, make copies of the plans and email them back to the participants periodically as a reminder to take action. Where the organization uses individual development plans, the workshop action plan can feed directly into them.
3. Skill cards and toolkits. Some skills are learned but then not used frequently, for example confronting poor performance and conducting hiring and selection interviews. In these situations, it can be useful to have a reference card or toolkit that acts as "training wheels" when the skill is implemented on the job. In some cases, a strong toolkit can even be a replacement for formal training.
4. Reinforcement email, instant message or text series. Send a series of reinforcement messages to participants after any facilitator-led portion of learning. These can include case situations, on-the-job application suggestions, readings and motivational quotations. Reinforcement messages also serve as reminders to practice and use the skills taught during the course. We suggest sending them through a channel participants already open, such as Microsoft Teams, rather than a new system.
5. Follow-up webinar sessions. Include brief (30-minute) reinforcement sessions delivered via web conference once every three months for one full year after the completion of formal learning. These sessions are an opportunity for participants to check in, share experiences and discuss both successes and challenges. They may also contain practices and role plays to help reinforce skills learned and help participants feel more competent and more natural when using the skills. Each reinforcement session can be recorded and made available online for replay.
6. Coaching or open office hours. Allow participants to access facilitators one on one or within group coaching settings. Structured agendas for the coaching can include problem solving of challenges faced or introduction of enhanced skill models (for instance, using Interaction Styles® to onboard new team members or to work across cultures). Having access to experts can help participants have the confidence to try out new skills. Our article on group coaching describes how to offer this at scale.
7. Manager debriefing discussions. Provide managers of learners with a structured agenda to hold a conversation about what was learned and how best to apply it in the organization. Even a 15-minute discussion embedded within weekly touch-bases or other meetings can boost retention and application.
8. Alumni participation in future cohorts. Alumni of formal learning programs are powerful support networks for the current population of learners. The key here is to use alumni in significant ways: teaching segments, presenting case situations or observing and giving feedback during practices. The more the alumni are responsible for, the better they prepare and integrate their learning into the workplace.
9. Participant-driven observation and feedback checklists. Provide feedback checklists to participants along with a structured agenda for them to use in asking someone such as a peer to provide formal feedback. On topics such as presentation skills, meeting management and customer service, ongoing feedback reinforces the learning process. And, by giving the checklists and the method directly to the participant, you can avoid the challenge of over-reliance on managers for feedback.
10. Published learning maps. Often, organizations have e-learning, access to reading libraries and other resources for learning available. Create learning maps that list all skills and concepts covered and link to additional resources for learning more. These simple learning maps can encourage the motivated participant to dive deeper into topics of interest to them.
11. Demonstration videos. Create standalone demonstration videos for specific skills. These videos act as a close-to-real way for participants to review skills and see them in action. Participants who see the skills modeled are more likely to implement them.

These 11 ways to reinforce training are options for ensuring learning transfers to the workplace, and they are just a few of the many ways to increase the potential for return on training.

Choosing among the 11 ways

Few programs need all 11. The table rates each way by the effort to set it up and the effort to sustain it, and names the situations where we tend to reach for it first:

Keep in mind that the ways that cost the least to set up, such as action plans and manager debriefs, often depend the most on follow-through, and the ones that cost the most to build, such as videos and toolkits, keep working with little attention once they exist.

A reinforcement cadence for the year after a program

Reinforcement works best when it is designed before the program runs rather than added when application turns out to be low. Here is the cadence we suggest as a starting point, using the numbered ways above:

When PPS International Limited worked with a global financial services organization on a 15-month development program, we designed structured networking and action learning groups whose purpose was to advance informal networks and support on-the-job application. At a three-year check-in with the global cohorts, nearly 50% of the action learning groups were still meeting, even when members were in new roles and in some cases new organizations. Peer structures that outlast the program are among the strongest reinforcers we have seen.

In a new manager development program for a global, technically focused organization, participants completed a strategic area management plan during a four-day event and implemented key actions in the 90 days that followed, with mentoring and coaching by mid- and senior leaders structured and monitored as part of the program. Two hundred first-line managers completed it across six global regions, and sales leadership attributed increased revenue, customer retention and engagement to the program.

The manager's role in reinforcing training

Managers of those in the cohort have more influence on whether skills are used than the facilitator does, because they control both the opportunity to use a new skill and the reaction when it is used. Most managers want to be supportive and struggle to find the time, so the practices that work are short and attached to meetings that already exist. A few practices to consider include:

• A briefing before the program, covering what will be taught, what the manager can expect to see and what to ask about in the first one-on-one afterward.
• The 15-minute debrief described in Way 7, "Manager debriefing discussions," with a written agenda so that it happens the same way for every participant.
• Acknowledgement when a new skill is tried, even imperfectly. Our acknowledgement and reinforcement tool is a quick reference for giving that kind of feedback.
• Observation against the same checklist participants use in Way 9, "Participant-driven observation and feedback checklists," so the manager and the participant are looking at the same behaviors.
• Protected time for the application assignments, which are the first thing dropped when the week fills up.

When supporting the merger of two global pharmaceutical organizations, we gave managers a brief agenda with preparation questions and a single discussion point that could be bolted onto existing meetings. Keeping each debrief to a single point made it realistic for managers to hold. A program that is strong in formal learning but weak in manager involvement is among the most common reasons a leadership program stops producing behavior change, and adding manager prompts and follow-up tools is often a better fix than redesigning the program.

Reinforcing sales training

Sales representatives and sales leaders are discerning about their learning and especially about demands on their time. They are likely to dismiss anything that does not fit their business reality, which makes reinforcement of sales training both more difficult and more valuable. What works in our experience:

• Reinforcement that runs with the business cadence. Pipeline reviews, account planning and ride-alongs are the moments when the skills are needed, so attach the reinforcement to them rather than scheduling separate events.
• Sales manager coaching against a shared checklist, so managers observe and coach the same behaviors the workshop taught, and the coaching conversation is concrete because both people are looking at the same map.
• Tools that stay in the business. In our sales enablement engagement for a sales engineer role, the competency model, the sales process diagram and the manager support tools were what sustained the change after the workshops ended.
• Learning metrics tied to the metrics the sales organization already tracks, such as retention of priority accounts or the share of at-risk accounts with action plans, which keeps the reinforcement focused on the business outcome. Our guide to planning sales leadership development describes the program structure.

Reinforcing training when time and budget are limited

Reinforcement does not require a budget of its own. Ways 1, 2, 7 and 9 cost nothing beyond the effort to prepare a one-page agenda or checklist, and Way 4 can run on the messaging platform the organization already uses. Where the live program itself has to be short, a common pattern from our client work is a "skinny" live core for the difficult skills, followed by a microlearning path over the following weeks with application prompts a manager can reinforce. Our articles on providing training when time is limited and the digital microlearning case study, in which use of data analysis tools rose by 31% among about 2,500 manufacturing employees trained through short modules on an existing platform, show both patterns in practice. When resources are limited, we suggest choosing two or three of the 11 ways and running them consistently rather than starting all 11 and sustaining none.

How to know reinforcement is working

Reinforcement should be measured against the behaviors the program set out to change, not against attendance at the follow-up sessions. Here are a few indicators we use with clients:

• Application rate: the share of participants who report using each target behavior at 30, 90 and 180 days, collected through the reinforcement messages or the manager debrief.
• Observation scores: checklist ratings from peers or managers at the first and second observed practices.
• Manager debrief completion: whether the debriefs happened, which in our experience predicts most of the rest.
• Participation in the follow-up webinars and office hours, treated as a leading indicator rather than a result.
• The business measure the program was tied to, such as account retention, time-to-productivity or early team turnover.

Our guides to measuring training effectiveness and measuring leadership development cover the methods in detail.

Reinforcement, retention and transfer of training

The three terms are often used interchangeably, and they describe different things. Transfer of training, in Baldwin and Ford's definition, has two parts: generalization, meaning the learned behavior is used on the job, and maintenance, meaning it continues to be used over time [4]. Knowledge retention is the narrower question of whether what was learned is still available to the participant, which the forgetting curve describes. Reinforcement is the set of activities, such as the 11 above, that an organization uses to support retention and to create the opportunity, support and accountability that transfer depends on. A program can achieve high retention and low transfer when participants remember the content and never have a reason to use it, which is why the manager's role matters more than any single reinforcement activity.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to reinforce learning after training?

In our experience, a structured manager debrief within two weeks of the program, combined with an application assignment that gives the participant a reason to use the skill, produces more behavior change than any other single activity. Add a peer or manager observation against a checklist at about 30 days and the skill has been used at least three times with feedback, which is usually enough for the new behavior to take hold.

How long should training reinforcement last?

Plan for one year after the formal learning ends, with the most activity in the first 90 days. The cadence above runs quarterly webinars for a full year and a manager check-in at the one-year mark; most of the fading happens early, but the habits that replace old ones take months to settle.

How do you improve knowledge retention after training?

Spacing and use. Deliver content in segments over time rather than in one block, bring it back at intervals through messages, webinars and demonstration videos, and give participants a reason to use it within days of learning it. Retrieval, meaning recalling and applying the content rather than rereading it, is what slows the forgetting curve.

Who is responsible for reinforcing training, the trainer or the manager?

Both, in different roles. The talent development team designs the reinforcement, supplies the tools and runs the follow-up sessions. The manager creates the opportunity to use the skill and reacts when it is used. Programs that rely on the trainer alone tend to see application fall off within a few months.

How do you reinforce sales training after a program?

Attach it to the sales cadence. Use pipeline reviews and ride-alongs as the practice moments, give sales managers a coaching checklist that matches the workshop behaviors, keep the tools such as the sales process diagram and conversation guides in daily use and track the learning against a sales metric the organization already reports.

What is the difference between reinforcement and transfer of training?

Transfer is the outcome: the skill is used on the job and continues to be used. Reinforcement is the set of activities that make transfer more likely. Retention, whether the content is still remembered, is necessary for transfer but not sufficient for it.

Where to start

If a program is already running, add Way 7, "Manager debriefing discussions," and Way 2, "Participant-built action plans," to the next cohort; both can be in place within a week. If a program is being designed, put the reinforcement cadence in the design brief so that the year after the program is planned with the same care as the workshop days. PPS International Limited designs reinforcement into the programs we build and supplies the performance support tools that hold learning in place afterward. Contact us to talk through the reinforcement plan for a program you are running.

References

1. Training magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report, November 2025. https://trainingmag.com/2025-training-industry-report/
2. Murre, J. M. J., and Dros, J. (2015). Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0120644. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120644
3. Saks, A. M., and Belcourt, M. (2006). An investigation of training activities and transfer of training in organizations. Human Resource Management, 45(4), 629–648. doi:10.1002/hrm.20135
4. Baldwin, T. T., and Ford, J. K. (1988). Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research. Personnel Psychology, 41(1), 63–105. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1988.tb00632.x