Managing Employee Skills and Knowledge Oklahoma

Last month's column discussed how to pinpoint the staff skills your company requires, set training objectives, and research the training opportunities and delivery methods.

Now you're ready to determine a training budget and plan, including ways to encourage staff to participate, monitor attendance, and measure return on investment. Choose a time and place that will help maximize staff attendance. A particular risk of internal training is that it will not be taken seriously, and will be overshadowed by day-to-day work; in such cases, a policy of mandatory attendance may be necessary.

Some companies elect to pay for employee training programs outright. Others have the employees pay, and then reimburse them upon proof of course completion. Other reimbursement methods can also be devised based on predetermined achievements resulting from training. Evaluating the effectiveness of training is crucial. Monitor its impact on both staff and business performance, using such indicators as waste and error reduction, sales, employee turnover, or the number and nature of customer complaints. Ask employees whether the training was relevant and appropriate.

Establish a Process, Not an Event

Skills needs-analysis and training is a continual process. Think of them as the basis for opportunities to improve your profits. The ideal is to build a culture of professional development. Accordingly, empower management to establish a formal procedure for planning, implementing, and evaluating training. Make sure they have the expertise and resources; if equipping them appropriately requires a financial investment, it will be money well spent.

Consider a train-the-trainer program so your managers or supervisors can conduct the required training themselves. Might this method portend the return of an apprenticeship program that acknowledges the value of seasoned employees? Just be sure you alleviate the fear veteran staff may feel for their job security when asked to participate in this type of planning.

One area where inside trainers may prove to be a boon is strategy training to integrate new equipment into your workflow. An example is a capital equipment company that trains salespeople and customer service reps on how to sell capabilities. If the company does not offer this type of training, it will at least have statistics on how others have made money from the equipment. In this case, an added bonus to having insiders as trainers is that they are well positioned to address staff concerns over job security.

A Tool to Evaluate Trainees

At PrintLink we encourage the use of personal profile testing for a multitude of functions—including to confirm an individual's suitability for a specific position, or promotion potential, or capacity to acquire new knowledge and skills. Your financial outlay for a reputable test and a qualified interpretation of the results is more than recovered in protection for your business's future.

Your skills-needs-analysis and training plan should be integrated with your hiring strategy. When you identify criteria, aim for a balance between education, training, career goals, and experience. (But remember to hire not only for the job, but also for the company.) And when you are hiring, let prospective employees know you are a company that advocates professional development—a significant drawing card as an employer, since the best employees seek opportunities for betterment, and are motivated to join companies that nurture their careers.

To be most effective, training, retraining, and skills upgrading must have full management support. Encourage your managers and supervisors to know, value, and invest in people, then allow those people to make decisions, and participate in the growth of the business. Not only will you accomplish more through maximizing your staff's talents, but when you do so, your staff and your customers will respect and value your company far more highly.

Arnold Kahn is president of PrintLink, North America's leading professional placement firm specializing in the graphic communications industry.