Well begun is half done: Toward an understanding of predictors for initial training transfer

As organizations face a rapidly changing marketing environment, they have an increased investment in training programs that aim to improve employees’ hard skills to successfully execute tasks and soft skills for healthy social relationships. Although managers question the transfer problem in hard- and soft-skills training, researchers have limited knowledge on this topic. This study focuses on improving the initial training transfer, an essential phase of the transfer process. Specifically, drawing on signaling theory, we introduce training characteristics (i.e., training content validity and transfer design) as the antecedents. This study also assesses the potential underlying mechanisms by examining the roles of training engagement and training criticality. Using a sample of 182 employees enrolled in a typical hard- and soft-skills training program (i.e., quality management training), we test a mediation model. As expected, the results indicate that both training content validity and transfer design positively impact initial training transfer. Furthermore, the links between training characteristics and initial training transfer are mediated by training engagement and training criticality. This study contributes to the research on initial training transfer by exploring training characteristics as the antecedents and integrating the research on transfer and personal attitudes under hard- and soft-skills training.