Best Practices_ Managing People_ Secrets to Leading for New Managers - Barry Silverstein [8]
Behind the Numbers
HIGHER INVESTMENTS IN TRAINING
U.S. organizations are investing more in employee learning, according to a report from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), which used benchmark data from 281 public and private U.S. organizations of varying sizes and industries.
SOURCE: 2005 State of the Industry Report by Brenda Sugrue and Ray J. Rivera (ASTD Press, 2005).
Be supportive of this orientation and reinforce its importance to the employee. New-employee training that is well planned and executed can set the right tone for your new staff member’s experience at your organization and put her on the right track early on.
The BIG Picture
TRAINING AS MOTIVATION
Training programs are an opportunity to reinforce the qualities and skills that your company values in its employees. Provide a common theme or thread to the training instead of making it random and disjointed.
Provide employees with training that is completely relevant to their jobs. Use quality learning materials, hands-on experiences, and excellent instructors. Pre-session questionnaires and post-session reference materials and aids are especially helpful. Encourage employees to use their knowledge to train others.
The orientation session will be your first opportunity to expose her to the core values of your company and department and to set the stage for your work together in the years to come. Good training can even have a positive impact on morale and loyalty and reduce employee turnover.
On-the-Job Training
Two key aspects of on-the-job training are skill development and remediation. Today’s workplace relies on technology to get things done. Employees need to be comfortable with technology, from copy and fax machines to telephone systems and desktop computers. You may need to provide introductory, refresher, or advanced training in software and systems use. In addition, for some otherwise highly competent employees, you may need to provide remedial training. For instance, some workers may lack the basic skills necessary to communicate in writing.
On-the-job training can also be an excellent, informal way to broaden a person’s job and introduce him or her to management duties. It’s a good idea to determine where employees’ responsibilities can be expanded and to give them a chance periodically to make decisions more independently or to participate in establishing priorities. You can assign employees who have leadership potential their own projects to manage, teams to lead, or other employees to supervise.
Dos & Don’ts
MAKING TRAINING EFFECTIVE
Make sure training is relevant to your employees and high in quality.
Do keep training practical and immediately applicable to the job.
Do hire great trainers.
Do break up training sessions into manageable parts.
Do prepare employees beforehand for what they will learn.
Don’t fail to reinforce learning after the session.
Don’t make training a chore—be sure to position it as a privilege and opportunity for growth.
The BIG Picture
TRAINING AS INVESTMENT IN SUCCESS
When you add up all the costs of training, both direct and indirect, you understand why the training budget is one of the first to be slashed when times are tough.
Add the direct training charges (course fees, materials costs, instructor fees) to the indirect costs (the number of employees participating times the number of hours they are in attendance times the sum of their average hourly wages and prorated hourly cost of their benefits). The sum is not negligible.
The tangible and intangible rewards of training are hard to measure. Are people spending fewer hours producing the same amount of work? Is the quality of their work better? Has employee turnover declined? Have employees’ attitudes improved? Yet training has great motivational value and builds leadership skills. And having motivated leaders at all levels of the company