(Published in the Job Market-Working People section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 19, 2007, Sunday, titled "Get more than a break from your training")
By Roel Andag
ContributorA JOINT EMPLOYER-employee responsibility
Paradigm gap
Training is a critical undertaking. Serious companies train their employees thoroughly, even sending them abroad to learn from their foreign counterparts. Three crucial drivers compel companies to invest in training: efficiency (to improve behavior, relationships, and processes), effectiveness (to develop skills, knowledge and potential), and economy (to enhance productivity, competitiveness and motivation). An expert once advised that a company’s training investment should never be less than three percent of total payroll. Competitive companies view training as a necessary investment. As such, the company expects training programs to result in organizational profitability and employee satisfaction.
Employees, however, do not necessarily view company-sponsored training through the same businesslike lens. Some consider training as a brief vacation – a break from the frenetic office environment. Others attend training merely to comply with company requirements. Still others begrudge attending training, feeling that they have been uprooted from their real priorities. Employees oftentimes fail to relate training with company objectives. Negative attitude impedes learning thus defeating the purpose of training.
The cost can be staggering when this paradigm gap is not addressed. The company squanders resources while the mediocre employee coasts along. Both parties lose opportunities in the process. Addressing this handicap can be challenging and at the same time rewarding. The first logical step is for both employer and employee to jointly agree that optimizing training is a joint responsibility. Here are mutually reinforcing tips for both sides.
Employee responsibility: career stewardship
Adopt correct attitude. The modern worker owes it to himself to advance his career. Continuous learning is the most effective way of doing this. Training is an opportunity to learn new things. Based on the training program, list your learning expectations. Proceed to training anticipating to discover and to explore, conscious that you will gain value from the exercise.
Understand the purpose of the training. It is not enough that you know the venue, schedule, program and parking lot location. As soon as you receive the memo for you to attend training, level off with the human resource manager as to why you are being sent and jointly specify subsequent management expectations.
Focus. Be attentive. Listen to what the trainer is sharing. Record your reflection and insights on a training diary. Documentation is very important. If you get distracted by noisy participants, pass them a polite note or take them aside during break time to verbalize your concern. If this does not work, approach the trainer.
Ask questions. Ask the trainer and fellow participants. The objective is to clarify some points and to learn more, not to challenge the intellect of the trainer or to embarrass him. Also dare to ask yourself. How does the training relate to your own situation? How can you apply what you are learning? Adopting an inquisitive mind deepens analysis.
Participate actively. Contribute to the discussion but be careful not to dominate it. Share an experience related to the training subject. Make sure that it is not merely random storytelling. Be able to establish relevance by emphasizing ideas and lessons learned. Join games and workshops, they are opportunities to process learning and to relate with other participants. Overcome shyness and control unhealthy aggressiveness.
Apply what you have learned. Be accountable: volunteer to cascade to your colleagues what you have learned, report to your boss and the HR department your observations and plans on how to apply your learning. Part of career stewardship is internalizing what was learned during training. Use the tools provided by the trainer. Digest, apply, test and improve on the ideas offered.
Company duty: stimulate learning
Create a training calendar. Do this annually as the New Year starts. Capitalize on the heightened sense of renewal, vigor and commitment. A training calendar sets schedules, primes employees and guides budgeting. Dedicate quality time to this activity. It is advisable to make everyone participate to enhance employees’ sense of ownership of the process. When finalized, post the detailed training calendar in conspicuous locations around the workplace and in the company intranet.
Run a responsive training program. This is congruent with the training calendar. Conduct a quick, company-wide training need analysis through an online or paper survey. This bottom-up approach will cement the connection between the lineup of training courses, company objectives and employee needs. Review the training program regularly. It should be dynamic enough so as to accommodate emerging developments.
Deliver impact. See to it that training courses create the desired beneficial effect on the individual, the business unit and the company. It would be better if the impact is measurable. Pretest the responsiveness of a training course by determining its design and overall objectives. Training courses should be creative, trainers need to possess the required skills set and venues conducive to learning.
Promote a learning culture. Encourage employees to initiate training on their own. Make them proactive in looking for appropriate training courses they want to attend. Affirm those who undergo training by providing opportunities to immediately apply what they have learned. Adult learning theory says that an individual retains 80 percent of what he has learned if he is allowed to immediately practice what was taught. Monitor and evaluate improvement with tools such as First 100 Days post-training reports and performance appraisals.
Prep the trainees. HR should arrange a pre-training briefing to clarify expectations. This is to reiterate the company’s learning culture.
Be inclusive. Ditch the practice of sending only favored employees to training, especially abroad. It cultivates the flawed notion that training is a function of office politics rather than of development. The objective of training is to ensure that nobody gets left behind. Company performance is only as strong as its weakest link. Training opportunities should be spread equitably and purposefully. Everyone is trainable.
Genuine employer-employee partnership will make training meaningful.
