Training & Development
Since been made redundant I went in to do some consultancy work to which was very rewarding and enlightening.
Having come from a company that had an enormous amount of very good quality and process control documents but having very little compliance in people actually working or understanding them due to poor training & just being overloaded with documents.
The solution of the companies higher quality management was to create even more documentation to control their other documentation and processes. As you can imagine this just created more confusion within all layers of the company structure.
During my consultancy work within a number of other companies I found this to be mirrored with management and workforce been overloaded with process controls documents written in a way that their just confusing. This with the lack of meaningful training plan to outline different strategies, objectives and other resources that the business can use to train their employees and to ensure that they understand their roles within the company.
Providing training and development programmes for your employees is one of the most important investments your company can make. Whether you’re looking to train new hires or expand the knowledge base of employees who are already working in a particular department, these programmes are vital to maintaining a motivated and productive workforce and staying competitive. Companies create training and development programmes to improve the skill set of workers in just about all areas, such as corporate policies, customer service, computer skills, diversity, conflict resolution, sexual harassment, safety and quality assurance.
Training can take place in a classroom setting, either on-site or off-site; employees can also benefit from online education. On-the-job learning pairs workers with more seasoned employees; mentoring can also be helpful, but must not be relied upon.
To many companies I have worked in within my consultancy work had very good policy’s and document process controls but unfortunately had poor training structures. It doesn’t matter include your process controls are people undertaking the work don’t adhere to them or understand them.
Of course, there is a cost to develop these training programmes. In addition to the financial investment, training takes employees away from the normal course of business. But many organisations find that developing these programmes is worth the cost.
Being asked to go into to an organisation to improve its quality policies and process controls, only to see the lack of an effective employee training and development programme. Too many times have I seen management organising presentations and conference calls to its employees where its one way traffic and very little engagement.
Planning is critical in setting up an effective training programme for your employees. I have outlined six steps, which I like to call the “6T program” that you can take to plan for and implement a programme to help ensure that you’ll get a solid return on your investment.
These are:
1. Assess your policies & documentation
2. Perform an assessment
3. Consult with experts
4. Develop a targeted training and development plan
5. Conduct a test programme
6. Measure training results
Early in my career I work for an organisation which had proper dedicated training department and workshop. All new employees undertook a 6 week hands on training program in actually learning the processes and risks within the product. Only upon completing and displaying a level of confidence was the employee allow to enter the manufacturing environment together with pairing with a shopfloor tutor.
This approach was also undertaken when quality product, processes & customer concerns were found due to updated processes, change notices, assembly errors etc.
Companies of all sizes can benefit from implementing well thought-out employee training and development programmes. They help organisations remain innovative and competitive while increasing employee motivation and satisfaction.
Once your organisation as this in place you will no doubt see an Increase in productivity and adherence to quality standards, Eliminating weaknesses before they become big problems, Improved employee satisfaction, performance and retention & staying innovative and competitive.