“I have trained a team member on his job tasks many times, and he still cannot perform the tasks reliably,” a frustrated manager said to me.

“Over what period of time, has the training occurred?” I asked.

“At least two years, probably longer.”

“How much training does it take most persons to learn to perform these tasks?”

“I’ve never had an employee that took more than ten hours of training to perform well.  After two months on the job, most everyone produces good results.”

“Why have you continued training and retraining the person for two years?”

“I just thought, sooner or later, he would catch on.”

Unfortunately, some managers believe that additional training is the cure for all subpar performances.  The fact is no matter how simple the task, some will not be able to learn to perform well. 

Good performance requires training, experience and innate ability.  Managers recognize the importance of training and experience, but some do not accept the innate ability requirement.  Thus, they continue training when it is obvious the training does not produce results.  

If, after reasonable training and experience, a person is not performing job tasks acceptably, it is better for all to transfer or remove the person.