1.  Managing a Training and Development Department

When you administer a training and development department, it should be aligned with the organizational mission. All department objectives, including employee objectives, should also reflect a direct connection to the organizational mission. All programs and projects are aligned with this organizational mission; all rewards should be linked to the organizational mission as well.

The target audiences for your interventions and training and education programs are individuals with diverse backgrounds, which could be in manufacturing, engineering, education, research, or whatever. Most have a sincere desire to continue their education and a willingness to make an investment in time and effort if they can see the relevance to the training, either for their own advancement or to do their job more efficiently.

One way you can make sure the organization is clearly aligned with the overall mission is to create a map that shows how your current programs and projects link to the organizational vision, mission, goals, and programs. Training departments are responsible for designing, developing, and delivering, and facilitating organizational training, development, and education programs. This includes technical, engineering, compliance, project/programme purpose, management, and leadership programs. Training departments might operate the primary training facility as well as some satellite facilities and classrooms. Some are responsible for distance learning programs, which include satellite downlinks and web-based training. Training staff also provides consultation services and non-classroom development experiences (mentoring, coaching, etc.). Staff works with the line organizations to customize, design, develop, and implement unique organizational-wide programs such as mentoring.

Running Training as a project/programme purpose

Some training departments utilize an internal charge-back system within their organizations. The concept of charge back and seeking project and program funding support often means that you have to provide courses, products, and services for which line organizations were willing to pay, either through tuition for classes or by providing staff time to work on the projects, just as with an external training contracting organization.

You need to learn to balance your project/programme purpose with being learner focused. You also need to know and understand internal and external markets in order to be effective on costs. The tuition you charge must cover the cost of materials and staff. You must be aware of the economic situations of your line organizations and your organization as a whole. If funding for line programs or projects is cut, the training could be cut as well. As managers of this internal project/programme purpose, you have the same basic project/programme purpose problems all other project/programme purposees do. Thus, you need to think and act strategically.

The strategic thrusts for managing your project/programme purpose fall into three, broad areas.  First, you can develop capability and competence within the organization through managing people, establishing and managing processes, establishing and managing solid communication mechanisms, ensuring the appropriate tools are available, ensuring the appropriate technology is available, and tracking the project/programme purpose.

Second, you need to grow the project/programme purpose by securing a solid core project/programme purpose, managing beneficiary, peer, and upper management relationships, identifying and maximizing a effective advantage, and planning and implementing for market growth.

Third, you must ensure shareholder value by obtaining a good return on investment, setting strategic direction for the organization, and protecting and securing the organization’s assets (people, tools, technology, finances).

Transitioning the Training Function to its Own project/programme purpose

Training departments need to run like project/programme purposees. In order to do so, assess your current training program.  How does it fit with the organization’s project/programme purpose strategies? How it could become more cost-efficient? Is technology involved in the training? If so, is it being used effectively?  How do the trainers spend their time and money? Perform a study that identifies gaps, duplications, and which resources need to be updated.

When you have all the findings, the next step is to prepare a proposal to submit to those who invest in the training for your organization. They will need to know the reasons for changing the current system, the benefits of the proposed program, how much investment is needed, and what cuts and additions need to be made.

After the proposal for change has been accepted, the next step is to prioritize and schedule tasks. Develop a plan to help the trainers and employees cope with the changes that will eventuate. Decide how relationships between employees, trainers and executives will be affected. Plan a communications approach.

Much like any project/programme purpose, launching a new training program can be a complex process.  Design marketing materials for your new program, including brochures, newsletters, sell sheets, etc., distributed right before the official launch date. They should have names, descriptions and a schedule of each session you are planning to implement. Cover all the benefits the new program will provide.

Most importantly, develop a good relationship with your beneficiaries.  Talk to employees and other trainers before you implement a “training project/programme purpose plan.” If you really take the time to converse with employees they’ll be able to help you understand what they need and what training approach would be helpful for them.

Difficulties in Transferring Skills and Knowledge

Why do we train? The obvious answer is so that people can perform well in their jobs. However, the reality of training is often quite different. Mixed in are such factors as career enhancement, effective edge, reward or punishment for past deeds and myriad other reasons.

Training is appropriate for overcoming skill or knowledge (S/K) gaps. These gaps can occur because of new job requirements - hence new skills or knowledge are needed - or because current performance is insufficient.  Assuming that there is a gap, we target suitable populations, develop programs and send people to training.  Since training is a costly project/program that consumes resources and removes workers from productive tasks, we expect the anticipated improved performance to significantly exceed costs. Reality, however, is sometimes different.

Causes of wasted training expenditures include the following: poor selection of persons to attend training (they will never have the opportunity to apply the training); lack of clear expectations from supervisors; lack of on-job support; lack of post-training monitoring; lack of resources to implement new skills; the lack of incentives to apply new skills and knowledge, the job itself; interference from the immediate work environment; non-supportive organizational culture; trainees' discomfort with change; separation from trainer "inspiration"; trainees' perception of poorly designed training; or, peer pressure to resist applying new knowledge and skills.

In administering a Training department, a manager must take into account the fact that many organizational members have had bad experiences with previous training for the above reasons.  Sometimes there is little you can do to overcome others’ past mistakes.

Maximizing Transfer of Training

With continuous - even mounting –pressure to improve performance, organizations must evolve beyond the notion that an injection of training will achieve performance results.

Here are some actions organizations can take to enhance transfer of training. Only provide training when a front-end analysis has identified a performance gap whose cause is essentially a lack of skills or knowledge.  Most training programs are ill conceived at the start. When training is the inappropriate solution, transfer is unlikely to occur.

Never provide training as a single solution. In the workplace, application of new skills requires both workers and environment to be prepared. Resources, incentives and support mechanisms must be in place for transfer to succeed.

Only send to training those who will be able to apply the new skills. It is common to have 30% of training participants totally unsuitable for what is being taught because the manager thought it might be useful; it certainly can't hurt; nothing else is available; or, a colleague liked it.

Prepare trainees for both the training and post-training transfer. Prior to going on a course (live or self-study), prospective trainees must meet with supervisors concerning expectations about post-training application.

Create effective training. Subject matter experts cannot build great training in their spare time. Invest in making the training a quality experience, developed by professional instructional developers who know how to convert the language of the expert into the language of learning.

It is crucial to provide post-training support. Post-training loss of learning is largely due to lack of encouragement, support and reward for transfer efforts. Without the support system which fosters growth during training, trainees attempting to apply their new S/K to the job soon stumble, perform even more poorly than before training, become discouraged and abandon their transfer efforts.

Using Subject Matter Experts as Trainers

A common challenge is how to transfer highly technical information -- locked within the brain of a subject matter expert  (SME) -- to an intended training audience. Often, training and HR departments will stick with soft skills courses, safety certification, and other more "generic" training, leaving the technical training to the SMEs.   This can present several problems.

Many SMEs do not have the group facilitation skills required to conduct an effective training session.  The goal of training is not just to transfer information. Training must include specific, measurable performance objectives.

Effective instructional design involves a series of structured tasks.  In a perfect world, you'd have the budget to work with SMEs to get information, and then use instructional

design and training professionals to develop and deliver the training. Using a PowerPoint or other presentation alone is not effective training.

Effective training must contain presentation, practice, feedback, and evaluation. You must present the information required for performing the new task, provide the opportunity to practice the desired behavior, provide feedback about the learner's performance, and finally evaluate whether the learner will be able to perform on the job or not.

Many SMEs are technical professionals, and the audience often has a very different background than the SME. They have different reasons for wanting to know the information being presented. Consider product demonstrations, factory tours, allowing trainees to take apart or experiment with the product or system they are being trained on.

Avoiding content-driven design is often the hardest thing for an SME to do. They may be training on something that took them months or years to develop and may even be the leading expert in their field on a topic. This doesn't mean that everything they know must be included in the training session.

Developing SMEs into Master Trainers

Until recently, trainers had few ways to learn training skills. To some it came "naturally," but usually only after many years of trial and error. Some individuals have had the opportunity of being taught by good trainers whose style they could copy. For most people, however, little training in these skills was available.

If you use a lot of SMEs, you can develop a systematic approach to the preparation of trainers, recognizing that there is a logical progression to the development of training.  Skills, time and practice are required to master one level of skills before moving to the next, and skills needed at each trainer level are unique.

These series of steps are comprised of coursework to begin development of new training skills, and practice to become competent in those skills.  Upon completion of the coursework, the individual is designated as a "candidate" to that a certain level.

For example, a healthcare provider would acquire and become proficient at service delivery skills, such as counseling or drawing blood, through training and experience. Once proficient, the healthcare provider who wants to become a clinical trainer could complete a course updating their knowledge and skills, conducting one or more courses with an advanced or master trainer who would assess the SME’s training skills.

Once proficiency is achieved in conducting skills training, SMEs could focus on learning the skills necessary to effectively transfer training expertise to others.  These skills may include group facilitation, problem-solving and decision-making skills, how to teach these skills to others, and how to effectively coach a new trainer.  Perhaps selected advanced trainers would pursue additional training in instructional design, needs assessments and evaluation of training in order to become a master trainer.

Training Every Training Department Should Give: A U.S. Example

The handwriting is on the wall about unlawful workplace harassment training in the United States.  Most states will require employers to conduct regularly harassment prevention training for all employees.  Connecticut and Maine already require private employers to provide harassment training to all employees. California and Illinois require private employers to distribute information about sexual harassment under certain circumstances. Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont have laws that “encourage” employers to conduct sexual harassment training, but impose no obligations. Employers face significant liability if they fail to thoroughly train all employees in all aspects of unlawful harassment.

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration  (Fed-OSHA) has issued safety and health program management guidelines for use by employers to prevent occupational injuries and illnesses. These guidelines state that such programs must include safety and health training.  Employers must implement training programs to ensure that all employees understand the hazards to which they may be exposed and how to prevent harm to themselves and others from exposure to these hazards so that employees accept and follow established safety and health protections.

The federal Drug-Free Workplace Act (DFWA) requires employers who receive grants from, or enter into contracts with, the federal government to inform their workers about the hazards of drug use and chemical dependency. These employers must establish programs informing their workers of the dangers of drug abuse in the workplace, must acquaint them with their organization’s drug-free policy and must point out available resources for drug counseling and rehabilitation.

Training departments need to understand local and national laws and mores so they can provide any training that is mandated.

International Training Issues

If your organization is international in scope, you or one of your subordinates may be asked to conduct training sessions away from the home office for an extended period of time.  Here are some tips on preparing for such trips.

Preparing for a three-to-four week training tour in a foreign region is a huge undertaking. Getting your training itinerary settled is the first and sometimes most difficult task. Foreign sponsors can be indecisive, sometimes changing the dates, content and locations with little or no notice. Once the itinerary is set you must know if a visas is necessary to enter each country.

You must pack your clothing, course materials and other necessities for three-to-four weeks of travel and six-to-twelve training courses. Remember to pay your bills before you leave.  Take along traveler’s cheques in many denominations and change them at the various airports.  Learn what countries and cultures do not permit or encourage tipping.

If you are like many travelers, you will experience jet lag.  Try to get to your destination at least 24 hours before you have to do any training.  Put your watch on local time as soon as you take off.  It will help you get used to the new time zone.

Personal safety is another issue. Your government issues warnings based on its intelligence services.  These may include terrorist threats on citizens of different countries.  Always stay in areas with crowds unless you are with some local representatives or know the area well.

You may be eating foods that you are not used to eating, as well as going out to places that serve alcohol after working hours.  Take along whatever medications you would take at home for headaches and stomach upset.

Outside Training Facilities

Here are a few tips to consider when looking for external training facilities.

      When looking for a training facility, consider the flexibility of the room. Can you change the seating arrangement to suit the needs of your participants? Are employees able to move around so they can participate in small group discussions?

      If you’re planning on having a PowerPoint presentation or using an overhead projector, you’d be wise to check for electric outlets. Also, many presentations use computers and the Internet, so checking to see if a facility has Internet hook up is also important. Note: the room may already have Internet hookup, but is it cable, DSL or dial-up? If you ran your presentation on cable back at the office, you’ll be disappointed to find how slow your presentation is on a dial-up connection at the facility. You might want to download your presentation rather than rely on an Internet connection you are not familiar with.

      It’s amazing how many facilities can’t modulate the lights properly. Whether you’re using an overhead projector or a PowerPoint through a projector, if you can’t dim lights near where it’s being projected, it will look washed out. The first few minutes of training are crucial. If what they see on the screen doesn’t look right to them, they immediately form an assumption about the rest of the program. So instead of learning, they’re spending a lot of time judging whether they even want to learn something.

       It might be wise to check the weather details of the city where you’re planning on having the training. You might start delivering a presentation when the lights go off because of a bad storm. You may continue the training as though nothing happened, but the participants might not be concentrating so much on the training anymore!

Don’t forget to make sure the seats are comfortable, especially if your training session is over a long period of time.