Learning Transfer: How to Make Training Stick in the Workplace

A training session can be engaging, receive excellent feedback and achieve impressive assessment scores, yet still have very little impact on workplace performance.

The reason is simple: learning something and applying it are not the same thing.

Employees may understand a new technique during training but return to established habits once they are back at work. They may encounter processes that make the new behaviour difficult, receive little encouragement from their manager or simply forget what they learned.

This gap between learning and application is one of the biggest challenges facing Learning and Development professionals.

Learning transfer focuses on closing that gap. Rather than treating completion of training as the end of the learning process, it considers what needs to happen before, during and after training to help employees turn learning into lasting workplace behaviour.

This guide explores learning transfer, the factors that influence it and the practical steps L&D professionals can take to make training more likely to produce meaningful change.

What Is Learning Transfer?

Learning transfer is the extent to which knowledge, skills and behaviours developed through learning are subsequently applied in another context, particularly the workplace. For example, imagine a manager attends a course on giving effective feedback.

During the course, they learn a structured feedback technique, practise it in a scenario and demonstrate that they understand how to use it.

Successful learning transfer occurs when that manager later uses the technique effectively during real conversations with employees. If they return to their previous approach, learning may have taken place, but meaningful transfer has not.

This distinction matters because organisations ultimately invest in training to influence what happens after the training, not simply what happens during it.

Why Does Learning Fail to Transfer?

When employees fail to apply learning, it is tempting to assume that the training was ineffective.

Sometimes that is true. However, learning transfer is influenced by many factors beyond the quality of the course itself. An employee may leave training fully intending to apply a new skill but find that:

• Their manager prefers the existing approach.
• They have no opportunity to practise.
• Workplace pressures encourage old habits.
• Processes conflict with what was taught.
• They lack confidence applying the skill in real situations.
• There are no reminders or follow-up activities.
• Too much time passes before the skill is needed.
• Colleagues do not support the new behaviour.

This means improving learning transfer requires L&D professionals to look beyond course design and consider the wider environment in which learning will be applied.

Think About Transfer Before Training Begins

Learning transfer should not be something considered once a programme has finished.

It should influence the design from the beginning.

Before developing training, ask:

What do we want people to do differently afterwards?

This is more useful than simply asking what employees need to know. For example, an objective such as “understand effective delegation” describes knowledge.

A stronger performance-focused outcome might be:

“Managers will use an appropriate delegation process when allocating responsibilities to team members.”

The second version immediately encourages different design decisions. Learners will need opportunities to practise delegation, receive feedback and consider how the process applies to their own teams.

Starting with workplace behaviour makes transfer part of the learning design rather than an afterthought.

Make Learning Relevant to Real Work

The greater the similarity between training and the situations employees encounter at work, the easier it becomes to transfer learning. Generic examples may explain a concept, but realistic scenarios help learners understand how to use it. Where possible, incorporate:

• Genuine workplace challenges.
• Familiar terminology.
• Realistic decisions.
• Role-specific scenarios.
• Typical conversations.
• Problems employees regularly encounter.

Ask learners to consider how concepts apply to their own roles rather than simply discussing hypothetical situations.

This helps create a bridge between the learning environment and the workplace.

Give Learners Opportunities to Practise

Knowing what to do does not necessarily mean someone can do it. Imagine learning how to conduct a difficult performance conversation entirely through a presentation. You might understand the principles, but applying them confidently during a real conversation would be considerably harder. Practice allows learners to experiment without the consequences associated with real workplace situations.

Depending on the topic, this could involve:

• Role play.
• Simulations.
• Case studies.
• Decision-making exercises.
• Demonstrations.
• Problem-solving activities.
• Scenario discussions.

Practice should also include useful feedback. Learners need to understand not only whether an approach worked, but why.

Avoid Overloading Learners

More content does not necessarily produce more learning. When courses attempt to cover too much information, learners may struggle to identify what is most important, making later application more difficult. Consider what employees genuinely need to remember and apply.

Supporting information can often be provided through reference materials rather than expecting learners to memorise everything during training.

This distinction between what employees need to know and what employees need to know where to find can significantly improve learning design.

Build Reinforcement Into the Learning Journey

Memory fades over time, particularly when knowledge is not regularly retrieved or used. For important learning, a single training event is rarely sufficient. Reinforcement might include:

• Follow-up questions.
• Refresher activities.
• Short workplace challenges.
• Coaching conversations.
• Scenario-based assessments.
• Reference guides.
• Team discussions.
• Opportunities to practise.

Rather than repeating the original course, reinforcement should encourage learners to retrieve and apply what they learned.

For example, several weeks after leadership training, managers might receive a workplace challenge asking them to use one of the techniques during an upcoming team conversation and reflect on the outcome.

This moves reinforcement away from simply reminding people about content and towards encouraging application.

Involve Managers

Managers can have a significant influence on whether learning becomes workplace behaviour.

Before training, managers can discuss why the learning matters and what employees should expect.

Afterwards, they can ask:

• What did you learn?
• What will you do differently?
• Where could you apply this?
• What support do you need?
• How will we know whether it is working?

These conversations signal that the organisation expects learning to be applied.

Managers can also create opportunities for employees to practise new skills and provide feedback as confidence develops.

If managers are unaware of what employees have learned, an important opportunity for reinforcement is lost.

Give People the Opportunity to Apply Learning

Employees cannot transfer a skill they never have the opportunity to use.

This may sound obvious, but the timing of training is frequently overlooked.

Training employees months before they need a new system or process creates a significant gap between learning and application. By the time the skill is required, much of the knowledge may have been forgotten.

Where possible, learning should take place close to the point of need.

L&D teams should therefore consider not only what employees need to learn, but when they need to learn it.

Remove Barriers in the Workplace

Sometimes the problem is not learning at all.

Consider an organisation that trains managers to hold regular development conversations but continues to reward managers almost exclusively for short-term operational performance.

Managers may understand the new approach perfectly but feel they have little time or incentive to use it.

Similarly, employees may be trained in a new process while existing systems continue to encourage the old one.

Before assuming additional training is required, investigate whether the working environment supports the desired behaviour.

Possible barriers include:

• Conflicting processes.
• Lack of time.
• Inadequate resources.
• Unsupportive management.
• Conflicting performance measures.
• Poor systems.
• Cultural expectations.

Learning cannot compensate indefinitely for an environment that discourages the behaviour being taught.

Encourage Learners to Make an Application Plan

One simple way to support transfer is to ask learners to decide what they will do differently before leaving the training.

Rather than ending with:

“Any questions?”

ask learners to identify:

1. One thing they will apply.
2. When they will apply it.
3. What situation they will use it in.
4. What might prevent them from doing it.
5. How they will overcome that barrier.

This turns a general intention to “use what I’ve learned” into a specific commitment.

For longer development programmes, these actions can be revisited during later sessions.

Measure Application, Not Just Completion

Completion data tells you whether someone finished training. It does not tell you whether anything changed. If the purpose of learning is to influence workplace behaviour, evaluation should investigate that behaviour. Depending on the programme, evidence might come from:

• Manager observations.
• Employee self-reflection.
• Performance measures.
• Workplace assessments.
• Quality data.
• Customer feedback.
• Follow-up interviews.
• Peer feedback.

The measures chosen should reflect the original reason for providing the training.

If a programme was designed to reduce errors, for example, tracking course satisfaction alone provides little useful evidence of success.

Recognise That Transfer Takes Time

Not every behaviour changes immediately. Some skills require repeated practice before they become comfortable. Others may only be needed occasionally. This is why evaluation immediately after training can provide an incomplete picture.

An assessment at the end of a course can establish whether learning occurred. Evaluation several weeks or months later can investigate whether that learning has become part of workplace behaviour. The appropriate timeframe will depend on the skill and how frequently employees have opportunities to use it.

Who Is Responsible for Learning Transfer?

Learning transfer should not be treated as the sole responsibility of the L&D team.

Effective transfer usually requires several people to contribute.

L&D professionals need to design learning with application in mind.

Learners need to practise and take responsibility for applying their development.

Managers need to reinforce learning and provide opportunities to use new skills.

Senior leaders need to create an environment where the desired behaviours are supported.

This shared responsibility is important. Even excellent training can struggle to create change when the surrounding organisation works against it.

Questions to Ask When Designing for Learning Transfer

Before launching a learning programme, L&D professionals can use a simple set of questions:

Before learning

What should employees do differently?

What currently prevents this behaviour?

Does training genuinely address the problem?

Will managers support the change?

During learning

Are learners practising realistic situations?

Can they connect the learning to their own roles?

Are we focusing on the most important behaviours?

After learning

When will employees apply the learning?

Who will reinforce it?

What follow-up support will be provided?

How will we know whether behaviour has changed?

These questions shift attention from delivering training towards achieving performance improvement.

From Training Events to Learning Journeys

One of the most useful changes an organisation can make is to stop thinking of learning as an isolated event.

A workshop may last a day. An e-learning course may take 30 minutes. But the process of changing behaviour extends beyond both. A more effective learning journey might involve:

Before training: identifying expectations and existing knowledge.

During training: developing knowledge, practising skills and receiving feedback.

Immediately afterwards: creating an action plan.

Several weeks later: completing a workplace activity and discussing progress with a manager.

Later still: evaluating whether the behaviour and relevant performance measures have changed.

The training event remains important, but it becomes one part of a broader process.

Final Thoughts

The success of workplace learning should not be judged by what happens in the training room or on the learning platform alone. The real test is what happens afterwards.

Do employees remember what they learned? Do they use it? Does their behaviour change? Does that change contribute to better performance?

Improving learning transfer requires L&D professionals to think beyond content and consider practice, reinforcement, management support, workplace barriers and opportunities for application. When these elements work together, training becomes much more than an event employees complete. It becomes a genuine mechanism for changing workplace performance.

Continue Exploring Effective Learning

Learning transfer connects closely with several other areas of Learning and Development, including Training Needs Analysis, training evaluation, learning objectives, instructional design, coaching and performance improvement.

Trainer Bubble provides professionally developed training course materials, activities and facilitator resources that help L&D professionals create practical, engaging learning experiences. Our resources are designed not simply to present information, but to encourage discussion, practice and application in the workplace.