Why are we not training managers?
Managers are the most undertrained and under-appreciated employees in corporate America according to a study conducted by Kelton Research and Root Inc., of 205 Training / HR executives.
Among other findings, the survey respondents report that less than ¼ of their training budgets, if any, are currently allocated to manager training.
You can view the full report here.
Marketing Your Training Offerings Through an Internal Conference
If your organization has a “catalog” or prescribed curriculums, a wonderful way to engage with potential attendees is to hold a yearly “internal conference.”
Schedule a day which mirrors a professional development conference and invite all employees to avail themselves of the informative, free training sessions. Establish tracks, such as technology, leadership, service, etc., and within those tracks schedule one-hour previews of the various courses to give potential students a taste of what attending the full-blown offering might be like.
In order to determine what content to highlight, think about the “ah-ha” moments in each class. Impress your internal conference attendees with things they may not know (wow, I need to take this class in order to find out…), interactive and engaging topics (this seems like it will be a fun class to attend), and previews of how their on-the-job performance will be enhanced (I really should learn more about financial reports if I want to move in to management).
As participants leave the preview, ask them to complete an evaluation form, just like you would at a professional conference. On that form ask them if they would like more information about the topic, if they would refer a colleague to take the class (and that person’s contact info), and of course ask them for their own contact information.
Now you have accumulated a “marketing list” of interested and engaged employees for future class offerings and you’ve also determined what topics are most in-demand in your organization, for the coming year.
Colleges are not teaching what businesses need
According to a research study done by the University of Phoenix and EdAssist of 501 managers and 533 workers from diverse industries:
93% of managers believe college should teach soft skills such as how to think, learn, and communicate - and 75% of workers agree
96% of managers felt that technical training and job-specific skills training was the employers responsibility
Managers want training in using virtual tools; in order to do their jobs better
While 87% of managers say that online meeting tools such as WebEx and Lync are mission critical, only 10% say they're competent and confident using those types of tools.
Source: Virtual Leadership - Closing the Distance, in Training Magazine, May/June 2015
The Value of External Alliances when You are a One Person Training Department
In an earlier post, we talked about the value of creating internal advisory committees in order to help you to determine and prioritize what training is needed in your organization. In this excerpt, we continue in that vein, discussing the value of external alliances.
Relationships with people who are external to your organization are valuable because they will look at your situation in a different light and undoubtedly offer a different perspective. One excellent source of peers who are external to your company is through industry organizations.
Industry organizations are where you will get the most accurate information and feedback about how your industry is implementing training. You'll be able to ask other training professionals in your industry segment about the results they achieved when they implemented training on a particular topic, and in addition, you'll get a sense of what the industry overall feels is important in terms of developing the workforce for the industry.
For example, Maintenance Solutions, the trade publication of the facilities management industry, includes a semi-monthly column regarding training needs and priorities. The October 2004 edition included an article titled "Training Spotlight: Electrical Systems, "which states, "Safety training is a continuous effort that is best done with frequent, short, job-related meetings," and continues, "Safe work performance begins with each technician knowing the personal protective equipment (PPE) he or she should wear and how to adjust and wear it correctly." If you work in the facilities management industry, you don't have to identify what training is essential or even what content should be covered in the training. Your industry is doing it for you!
In addition to having knowledge about the training needs of the industry, joining industry groups and having contacts within the industry may save you from having to reinvent the wheel. Of course, you'll want to validate that an industry need is indeed a need for your organization as well.
Belonging to an industry organization will provide you with a kind of support that you will not receive anywhere else. You can find industry organizations by using a search engine. Type the name of our industry and the word association into the search field. For example, a search on telecommunications association returned, among many others, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, and Industrial Telecommunications Association.
Online learning is gaining in "popularity"
Interest in online learning is growing rapidly, while interest in traditional education is waning. From 2012 - 2013, distance education enrollment rose 1.8% compared with a drop of 4% in overall higher education enrollment according to the US Department of Education.
What does this mean for us? As trainers? It means our new hires are coming to us already equipped to be successful while learning virtually.
Train Managers? Naw, they don't need it.
Managers are the most undertrained and under-appreciated employees in corporate America according to a study conducted by Kelton Research and Root, Inc. of 205 Training / HR executives.
Some survey highlights include:
32% of respondents don't feel their company views managers as critical to success (who DO they think is critical, would be The Training Doctor's next question)
Reducing overhead and making technology upgrades are prioritized over manager training investments (57%, 48% and 28% respectively)
69% of respondents believe their organization's senior leaders don't believe there is a strong link between effective manager training and business performance
83% of respondents report that less than ¼ of their training budget (if any!) is allocated to manager training
How To Assess Real Results From Your Corporate Training
The four levels of corporate training evaluation (and the futility of most training evaluation) was discussed in this earlier blog post; but in this post we will discuss the types of training evaluation that allow you to assess real results.
Level three evaluations are the most logical evaluations to deploy because they get at the purpose of the training – to change people’s behavior on the job. A Level three evaluation then determines if people have actually changed their behavior by either observing them in action, asking them for their own assessment, or asking for a third-party’s assessment.
Level three evaluations incorporate Level two evaluations because the evaluator is able to determine if the trainee is utilizing the knowledge that they acquired during the training and applying it to their work.
Level Three Evaluations
Observation – by a manager, quality control or even a training person An observation form must be utilized so that the evaluation is not subjective (Did the trainee acquire the customer information, using the five prescribed questions, in the correct order? vs. Did the trainee begin the customer interaction correctly?)
Personal assessment – is frequently used for Level three evaluations because many organizations find observation to be cumbersome (it requires asking a third-party to conduct it, it requires disseminating and retrieving information, and other administrative tasks which are all subject to not being completed). In a personal assessment the trainee, once they are back on the job for a period of tame (three weeks, three months) reports on their own changed behavior.
Questions utilized include:
Have you applied the ___ process in your day-to-day work?
How many times a day would you say you utilize the process?
Have you seen positive results from utilize the process?
Can you provide an example of when you used the process and what the outcome was?
These types of questions not only help the training department to understand how the training is being utilized on the job, they also cause the employee to realize how they have changed their behavior as a result of training, and further, if the individual has not changed their behavior, these types of assessments help to reinforce the fact the training is an investment the organization has made in that individual and it is an investment the organization intends to follow up on.
Level Four Evaluations
Level four evaluations then tell us whether the investment in the training was worth it. For example: if the intention was to increase sales, did sales numbers go up? These types of evaluation require a lot of number crunching AND require a baseline of data to compare against, which many organizations simply don’t possess.
Factors and Nuances
One nuance which makes Level four evaluations difficult to conduct is determining how long it will take for the training to become “the way we work.” When can the training department be confident that what was taught is truly ingrained in to the trainee’s everyday work responsibilities? In other words – when should the measurement take place? If a goal was set prior to the training process - say, increasing sales by 50%, and sales increase by only 20% in the first three months following training – would that be considered a failure? What if, instead, the trainees were able to increase their sales by 20% every quarter following the training? Then that outcome would far exceed the 50% goal. So when is the “line in the sand” drawn and success or failure determined?
Another nuance is that the long-term effects of training can be quite difficult to factor. For instance, if the intent was to increase sales, the training department might evaluate the sales numbers three months or six months after the training; but rarely will they evaluate it again a year after the training. And in some cases, where sales results are residual, the ongoing effect of the training is never quantified. For instance, in insurance sales, teaching salespeople to cross-sell (e.g. selling an umbrella policy to a current homeowner’ policy owner) not only results in an immediate uptick in sales, but also, when the policy is renewed, that sales training results in an ongoing increase in sales.
Sadly, most companies don’t take the time to extrapolate their training outcomes to Level three and Level four. It is acknowledged that evaluation at these levels can be time consuming and cumbersome, but these results are crucial for training departments to measure and communicate their worth to the organization as a whole.
Training Evaluation - What Does It Tell Us? Not Much!
4 levels
Most companies who do conduct evaluation of their training programs will stop at Level 2 evaluations (see graphic).
Level one evaluations are often called smile-sheets or butts-in-seats evaluations. They are realistically opinion gauges. they ask too many questions, including questions about the facilitator’s knowledge and skill, the quality of the learning materials, the comfort of the training room or delivery methodology (e.g. if it were e-Learning), etc. Unfortunately, the responses provide little useable information in return. Smile-sheets could be revitalized and used to a better purpose with just a bit of tweaking of the questioning process.
Level two evaluations are intended to test knowledge. They are typically a type of test – either paper-and-pencil (or these days, computer generated) or a demonstration / performance of skill (for instance, if you are teaching an individual to run a cash register, you wouldn’t want to stop at simply asking them questions about cash register operations – you would want to see them physically operate the cash register as well).The biggest drawback of Level two evaluations is that they realistically gauge short-term memory. They are typically distributed immediately after the training concludes, so most individuals have a relatively good chance of passing that type of evaluation.
Level three and Level four evaluations - those that assess whether the training is being used on the job and whether the intended business impact of the training was realized, are more complicated to design and administer and more often than not, simply not utilized in most businesses.
If you’d like to learn more about effective training evaluation, see this associated posted: How to Assess Real Results From Your Corporate Training.
How does one "prepare" to work in training?
What makes a "training professional?" Interestingly, the May/June edition of Training Magazine has a feature article, "2015 Emerging Training Leaders" and the formal degrees of the 25 individuals featured include: journalism, psychology, social work, biology (2), mechanical engineering, education (whew! we were getting worried), entrepreneurial studies, English lit, ecommerce, communications (warmer), genetics and French.
Things that make you go "hmmm." (Thanks Arsenio Hall)
Ensure Training Validity with an Advisory Committee
Establish an Advisory Committee
An advisory committee should be created in order to help you determine what training needs to be developed for your organization, and what is a priority. An advisory committee should be made up of front line workers from across the organization and from all levels, from hourly workers to supervisors. For example, if you want store managers to conduct new hire training, it's a good idea to have input from store management, supervisors, front-line workers, and back office workers. They will provide their thoughts on how the training should be delivered and what should be accomplished by the conclusion of it.
An advisory committee should have no more than 13 members, and the membership seats should be rotated regularly. Larger groups can be harder to facilitate, and you want to be sure everyone has an equal chance to participate in the discussion. You'll find that you don't have to do as much marketing of the training function when you have 13 ambassadors who return to their work areas every month understanding that they are responsible in part for the success of the organization.
CLO's Reasons for Outsourcing Training
Outsourcing some of your training functions such as instructional design (ahem) and delivery can help reduce the stress of creating and delivering content in an ever-changing environment. But don't take our word for it, here are some comments from CLO's Business Intelligence Board members, when surveyed about why they outsource:
Headcount reductions force us to seek outside assistance
There is no time for resources internally to develop training (this is the #1 reasons we hear, at The Training Doctor as well )
Outsourcing is more cost effective and flexible than hiring
In-house expertise becomes static and confined to specific areas
Subject matter expertise that the vendor brings
The vendor's ability to act as a partner
Why we can't effectively measure training outcomes (say the CLOs)
CLOs (Chief Learning Officers) believe their ability to deploy an effective [training] measurement process is limited by: Lack of resources, lack of management support, and an inability to bring data together from different functions. When the measurement programs are weak, most CLOs report their influence and role in helping achieve organizational priorities is also weak.
Source: Stagnant Outlook for Learning Measurement published in CLO Magazine, May 2015
How Organizations Set Themselves Up for Training to Fail
In the past year (2014), companies that wanted to do business with us asked us to do the following egregious activities in order to sabotage their own training effectiveness. These are the types of situations we don't want to be a part of:
Cutting time from the delivery process in order to save time and money.
Many organizations think that the same learning outcomes can be achieved in less time if we could just whittle this class down by 3 hours. In their minds, saving training time equates to saving money when organization's figure they are taking people away from their "real work" in order to attend training. But by not providing adequate time for training (and practice and coaching), people will inevitably make mistakes on the job which will cost money.
Cutting practice time out of the learning process so that participants are simply subjected to new content but have no ability to work with that content.
Most individuals do not make the 'transfer of training' on their own. And in many cases it is impossible to go from learning-to-doing without a period of practice. How did you learn to drive a car? Classroom only? Did you watch a video? I remember helping my niece learn to drive; she had a "habit" of braking right at the stop sign rather than slowing down as she approached it. When I asked her why she said, "That's how I learned - you can't crash the simulator."
No interaction or collaboration.
Companies often rely solely on the delivery of information without any activity or collaboration among the learners, even though we know that adults learn best through collaboration and application of their learning with others. Yes, it might only take 25 minutes to teach the information / skill, but it takes another 60 minutes to "get it" while working with others in order to hear their perspective, practice, get feedback, etc. Try brainstorming as many uses for a brick as you can - by yourself; now try it with 3 other people. Point made.
No time for reflection.
Organizations that want their training delivered in one shot, by default exclude time for observation and reflection which is a key adult learning principle
Adults have a lot of "rules" in their heads and a lot of learned behaviors in terms of how they conduct their job. If we ask them to change those "rules", they need time to reflect on the ramifications of those changes - what's in it for me? is this a good thing or a bad thing? Will I have a better outcome in the long-run? etc. A one-time training session does not allow for this critical need for processing information.
Happy with mediocre designs that sort-of get at the necessary learning.
One client asked us to create "the best design possible," and then, during the design review said "This learning process is too long and we will never get participants to do the pre-work or on-the-job assignments, so cut out the parts that aren't critical" (if this was the best design possible, exactly what parts would not be critical?).
Cut topics to save time.
When redesigning training to accommodate less training time and people's busy schedules, organizations often cut topics or content from their training programs. Our question is: at what point did that particular piece of content become unnecessary? If it was relevant in the original design, how did it become irrelevant in the redesign?
Cut feedback.
One of our clients has an independent assignment which learners have a month to complete. In its original incarnation, that assignment was then graded by an expert and feedback was provided to the participants. It was entirely possible to fail and be requested to re-work the assignment.
In an attempt to save money the grading of the assignment was eliminated, which of course, trickled down to the learners asking, "Then what is the point of doing the assignment?" or "Why do a quality job?"
Training is both an art and a science. It is much more than providing information and saying "good luck with that!" Transmission of information is only half the battle; in fact, it may only be 1/3 of the battle (with the other two-thirds being practice/collaboration and on-the-job application/coaching)!
If you want your organizational training efforts to succeed, please, don't fall victim to the missteps just discussed!
Tell us YOUR "fail" story here !https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XXMBCZX
Quotable: Jay Titus
Millennials will account for close to 50 percent of the workforce within the next five years. Corporate learning leaders need to be the champion for making professional development an organizational priority. We need to be taking educational benefits out of the last page of the employee handbook and shining a spotlight on it. In the next five to 10 years it’s going to be a key differentiator for employers who do it well.
Jay Titus, EdAssist
Excerpted from: http://www.clomedia.com/blogs/1-ask-a-gen-y/post/6303-millennials-will-work-for-knowledge
Training: Free? Money Maker? Or Gift of the organization?
In an article in SHRM's HR Magazine in May 2015, an interview with the VP of Organizational Development and Chief Talent Officer at Hospira, Inc., Pamela Puryear, revealed an interesting approach to learning and development: employee-teams can apply for a grant from the Training Department to meet a learning and development need in their business unit.
Guest Blog: 3 Ideas for Leadership Development Outside the Classroom
By Halelly Azulay, TalentGrow LLC
Your current leader population wants to grow and needs to continue to improve their leadership competencies. You have Baby Boomer leaders set to retire, but many of those 'on the bench' to succeed them are not quite promotion-ready. Millennials are chomping at the bit for ongoing leadership development opportunities.
You need to create 'bench strength' in the form of a pool of ready-to-lead talent .Does this sound familiar? Don't despair. Hope awaits...When we deploy a wide variety of development methods to get our leaders to the next level, everyone benefits. It is not merely a training issue, either. It's bigger than that. Here are three ideas to help you approach leadership development in a broad, and inclusive way that doesn't require developing coursework or having people attend classes!
Rotation/stretch assignments
A job rotation means that the leader is temporarily assigned to a different job, usually laterally, in another role in the same organization, for an agreed-upon period of time. A stretch assignment is a task or project that these leaders perform usually within their current role but beyond their job description that challenges and broadens (stretches) their current skills and capabilities.
In leadership workshops or seminars, leaders are usually isolated and focused on learning outside the context of their workday. But when they are strategically working in a job rotation or stretch assignment with a developmental lens, leaders learn new skills in the context of their daily work experience and apply their lessons immediately, continually.
These kinds of assignments, when coupled with specific development goals, are a rich growth opportunity that yields many benefits to the leader as learner. They are a wonderful platform for leadership development that is readily available and completely scalable to the specifics of the leader, team, and organization.
Volunteering in a leadership role
How can your future and current leaders practice new leadership skills on-the-job without any downside for your organization whatsoever? By practicing on someone else's turf as a volunteer.
Volunteer jobs in leadership positions provide a great opportunity for leaders to 'get their feet wet', try new approaches, and practice skills they haven't yet mastered. And they do this all away from work where their mistakes don't affect your organization directly or cause any hardship.
There are endless leadership positions in non-profit and community-based organizations that need volunteers to serve their constituents. Leaders can craft a development strategy for leveraging a volunteer job for their own learning and growth, then deploy the plan and bring back the newly developed skills back to your organization. It's a win-win-win.
Mentor/protégé
Do your current or high potential future leaders have a mentor? And, are they mentoring someone themselves?
Lots of employers already have, or are considering adding, a mentoring program. Often, we view these opportunities as intended to benefit the newest members of the workforce. Yet, the potential developmental benefits of mentoring and being mentored can be equally valuable to those in leadership positions.
When in the role of protégé (aka mentee), leaders can gain insights from those who are a few steps ahead of them on a similar leadership journey. Even the most experienced and successful executive coaches have an executive coach of their own.
Leaders of all levels should also keep their skills sharp by getting a mentor. These leader mentors create value for their protégés, but don't they also grow their own skills as a result of mentoring others? Yes! For example, they may develop patience or empathy, or gain a new perspective on organizational challenges and trends, or enhance their coaching skills while playing the role of a mentor. These new skills can then be leveraged back on the job. This is leadership development at its best. There is dual-value delivered to the organization as a result of both parties developing.
Developing leaders is an ongoing challenge many organizations face, and by expanding the idea of "development" to include non-training-related methods, we can all benefit richly. Whether by completing a stretch or rotational assignment, volunteering in a leadership capacity, mentoring or being mentored, current and future leaders can grow their skills, stretch outside their comfort zone, and bring the benefits of their expanded skillsets to their organization without ever stepping foot in a leadership development workshop.
Look for these and many more non-training employee development ideas in Halelly's book, Employee Development on a Shoestring published by ATD Press.
About Halelly Azulay, TalentGrow LLC
Halelly Azulay is an author, speaker, facilitator, and leadership development strategist, as well as an expert in communication skills and emotional intelligence. She is the founder of TalentGrow LLC.a consulting company that develops leaders and teams experiencing explosive growth. TalentGrow specializes in people leadership skills, which include communication skills, teambuilding, coaching and emotional intelligence. TalentGrow works with all organizational levels, including C-level leaders, frontline managers and individuals.
Halelly is the author of two books, Employee Development on a Shoestring and Strengths Can Help You Lead a MoreFulfilling Life .She also hosts The TalentGrow Show, a leadership development podcast. She brings 20 years of professional experience in workplace learning and leadership development to her work with corporate, government, nonprofit, and academic organizations.
Quotable: Thomas Handcock
Worldwide, organizations spend at least 11% more on training per person than is cost-effective, according to Thomas Handcock, senior director at Corporate Executive Board Co. (CEB) in London. That's time employees spend away from their core jobs engaged in learning that is not germane to the business.
You May Go Out of Business in the Next Five Years....
There is no lack of chatter in business and human resource journal's these days regarding the imminent brain drain as the Baby Boomers retire at a rate of 6,000 to 10,000 per day, depending on the source of your information. By 2030 all of the Baby Boomers will be over age 65. This means that the next generation(s) need to be ready willing and able and to fill critical roles. The problem is-they are not ready.
Your lack of a skilled workforce may cause you to go out of business in the next 5 to 10 years. What are your options?
Plan A - Hire skilled workers
While the younger generation cohort (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) is actually the largest cohort in history, they've had a tough time securing employment while the Baby Boomers have been in place. Therefore, while there are a lot of them, they often lack skills.
Plan B - Promote from within
Many employee satisfaction surveys over the years have revealed that the most frequent cause of an employee leaving his current employer is because they see a lack of career advancement. This is often coupled with a lack of training which would enable that career advancement. Therefore, without a concerted plan to develop incumbent workers (see plan D), this is not a realistic option for most organizations.
Plan C - Hire from the competition
While this a somewhat logical short-term solution, the reality is you're simply exchanging the current talent pool. At some point in their tenure with you, an employee will leave for your competition because they don't see career advancement with you.
Plan D - Grow your own
College graduates may demonstrate an ability to learn but have few-to-zero skills. While this might seem like a challenge, it is actually a wonderful opportunity for you to be the first employer to shape the way in which they work. Since they will not have preconceived notions about how work is done or their roles and responsibilities, you can " design" the ideal employee with the future in mind. If you have a well thought out career / curriculum path, you not only will "build" the perfect employee but they will stay with you for many years to come as well.
Employee's aren't so satisfied with their career advancement opportunities
This year marks the greatest increase in the number of employees satisfied with their current job since SHRM began administering the Employee Job Satisfaction Survey in 2002.
However, they appear to be least satisfied with their ability to advance in their careers. The satisfaction levels that relate to training and development include:
Organization's commitment to professional development - 23%
Job specific training - 22%
Career development opportunities - 21%
Company paid general training - 24%