The Strategic Exchange – The Organizational Change Consultant Report, March 2006
Training - Value for Money
Peter F. Drucker a renowned Writer, Consultant and Professor of Social Sciences and Management, believed that if you empower your people with constant learning, increased knowledge, allow them to apply the knowledge, and give them control over their environment then they could achieve the company's goals. He argued that your companies could attain sustainable profits only by treating employees as valuable assets. This is only possible, if you foster a constant learning and developmental environment - in other words, an institution of learning and teaching. He stated that as executives and managers your duty is to develop people – "a manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge."
Make careful and cautious plans to invest in your human resource development, to achieve the goals set out in your strategic plans.
Let the result of your training impact your organization's ability to motivate and retain staff, to develop good and positive customer experience, to improve working environment, to display positive company image and to improve sales and profit.
Involve the entire organization in the education and training of management and staff, not just the training department, if you want training to be effective in improving the performance and profitability of the organization. Relate the training objectives to the organization's vision and culture.
Your objectives should clearly set out what the trainee should know and be able to do after training. It should determine the following:
- What learning will be accomplished?
- What changes in behaviour and performance are expected?
- Will they get them?
- What are the expected economic costs and benefits of any projected solutions?
Make training a learning process of gaining knowledge, skills, or attitudes through formal or informal means. You must tie it to specific situational results. Base your focus on improving individual and group behaviour and performance that will positively impact your organization. Focus on facilitating learning where people are challenged from the inside out to find solutions and to effectively manage their tasks. This is the way to develop a competitive edge and the ability to sustain it over a long period of time.
Conduct needs analyses to explore and identify the gap between where the organization wants to go and its inventory of knowledge, skills and abilities that will take it to that destination. Make performance needs assessment and task/duty analyses an on-going function.
Examine all the needs identified, and list them in the order of priority and importance to the organization's goals, realities and constraints.
Look at the growth opportunities in the corporation and match them with the performance requirements and apply them as solutions.
You must provide adequate support for the progammes in the structure of the organization, in the reward system and in the procedural and processes operations, to allow for flexibility, creativity and innovation, so that learning can be applied.
Have a proactive approach to employees training and development. Promote a programme that is in sync with the strategic visions and goals of the organization. Let it have the power to convert employees into engines that propel the desired changes and bring about the kind of future engraved with excellent performance and unmatched productivity. Just training them merely in response to crises will not bring the desired results.
Your organization's success depends on you cultivating a committed workforce – the kind that will develop a positive attitude toward their job and are able to respond effectively to organizational changes.
Please email and give me your comments and or questions on this subject.
Sharon Ho–Sang
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