Wachovia Trains for a Profit

Wachovia Trains for a Profit

To ensure its employees understand commonly used banking products and equipment, Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. created several Web-based training programs. And these have been so successful that many of the banking company's competitors have purchased them for their own internal use. Wachovia has earned more than $300,000 from sales of one of these programs.

Promoting From Within

Promoting From Within

In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an already beleaguered oil industry is finding itself in yet another bind, according to BusinessWeek. In its Oct. 10 issue, the magazine reports that after years of layoffs during slow times, the industry is scrambling to find engineering talent to fill vacant positions. With a coming scarcity of petroleum-engineering graduates – just 1,500 are enrolled this year, down 85 percent since 1982, the article notes – some oil companies are resorting to novel means of recruitment.

Schlumberger, an oil-field services provider based in New York, uses a proprietary online system called PeopleMatch, the company told BusinessWeek. The system, accessed through Schlumberger's intranet site, helps human resources managers fill positions with talent already under the company's roof. Managers can use PeopleMatch to select possible candidates within the company based on desired characteristics. Information on employees' past job performance, salary and resumes are available through the system; managers can also access employees' self-written bios, which include photos, career goals, family information, past assignments and professional affiliations.

Cultivating talent from within rather than scrambling to fill open slots from without is a sound goal for small companies as well. The Washington, D.C.-based SCORE Association, a nonprofit organization that gives advice to small businesses, provides tips for promoting from within. SCORE suggests bringing outsourced work back into the company if it could create an advancement opportunity for an existing employee. In the organization's "5 Tips on Promoting From Within," Tip No. 5 suggests, "If an employee needs outside training for a higher-level job, pay for it. That will be cheaper than recruiting a new employee."

Superior talent management strategies are also behind top-performing hospitals, Linda Wilson wrote in the July 25 issue of Modern Healthcare. The magazine reported on findings from the "2005 Hospital CEO Leadership Survey," published by Evanston, Ill.-based health-care business-intelligence provider Solucient and St. Louis-based health-care staffing firm Cejka Search. The survey, completed by more than 100 hospital CEOs, was designed to identify the hospitals' leadership team composition, organizational performance and future strategies for success.

According to the survey, boards of "top" hospitals select a CEO from inside the organization about 50 percent of the time, while boards of "typical" hospitals promote insiders just 37 percent of the time. For non-CEO senior executives, top hospitals are also more likely to promote from within than typical hospitals are (36 percent of the time versus 21 percent of the time).

"Top" hospitals were defined as institutions that made Solucient's list of top 100 hospitals for three to five years, while "typical" hospitals were defined as those that consistently ranked in the middle quintile of hospitals on the list during the past five years.

The entire report of survey results can be found at www.cejkasearch.com/ceosurvey.

THE BASICS FOR A SUCCESSFUL IN-HOUSE TRAINING PROGRAM

THE BASICS FOR A SUCCESSFUL IN-HOUSE TRAINING PROGRAM

By: Dr Donald E. Wetmore

As a Professional Speaker, I have conducted hundreds of in-house training programs during the last eighteen years and I have observed several practices that make in-house training work better than not. This is not a comprehensive list, or all inclusive, for that matter. It doesrepresent what I would consider the more important “basics” for a successful in-house program.

1. Giving information v changing behavior. Presumably, one of the outcomes of the program is that people will change what they do and how they do. It’s not what happens in the training room that counts as much as what happens after it is over. The hardest thing to get anyone to do (myself included) is to change their behavior. We all value our “comfortzones”. Therefore, attention ought to be given to not only “what to do” and “how to do it”, but, more importantly, “why” they ought to do it. Without an understanding of “why” it ought to be done, it is difficult for adult learners to consider changing what they do.

2. What do I do next? End the program with the answer to that question. Give them a list of specific practices to follow, what additional information or resources they will need to secure and how to get them, or whatever it is that they need to do to now get the value from theprogram into their lives. Just like when a doctor releases a patient, give them the follow-up plan of action to put into practice what was discussed in the program.

3. Offer the program as a reward, not as a punishment. Sounds silly, but some companies use in-house programs to correct deficiencies and failures, almost as a punishment for their failings. Attendees are forced to go to get corrected. Position your programs as an enhancement of whatever they are and wherever they may be. In my Time ManagementSeminars, people are never invited because “they are broken and I’m going to fix them”. I am not going to make them productive. Everyone is productive. The question is, and the emphasis of my programs is, “how much more productive can we help you to become?”

4. Allow only a qualified instructor in the front of the room. Anyone can spend a little time researching to give a “book report” on a topic. Audiences are perceptive. They know when an instructor has “walked the talk”. They know when an instructor is only one chapter ahead of them. Giving a weak program does two things. First, it probably does not accomplish what it was intended to do. Second, and more important, while it is generally a struggle to get people to commit to training in the first place, you are only as good as your last program. If the lastprogram they attended failed to not only meet, but exceed, their expectations, if their lives were really no different after taking the last program, then there will be even more resistance to attending what you offer next.

5. Don’t hold the in-house program in-house. I know about training budgets and issues of convenience. Half of the in-house programs I conduct are on company premises. Having an in-house training room is an asset. The problem may be, however, that it might not be the proper venue for what you need to accomplish. If the training room is on premises, the participants’ temptation is to go back to work during the breaks, to get caught up on email and voicemail, and be interrupted in the session since they are in the building. Often they are coming back late and not having a focus on what the program is intended to accomplish. Holding the session off-site, at a hotel, for example, has an additional cost but alleviates the problems and makes the event somewhat more special. I ask my audiences to be with me not only physically, but also emotionally, just for the duration of the program because they will get a lot more out of it. I ask them to ignore their problems until our program is over, assuring them that their problems will still be there when they return.

Games for Time Management Training

Games for Time Management Training

Activity for you which can be derived the Activity and the Derivation would take 2 Hrs and then the House can be opened for Brain Storming, You could summarise the whole thing in the end.

Activity:

Building the Tallest Tower in 45 Mins to 1 Hr ( Please be specific and choose either one of them)

Resources alloted to all Teams( Team size 4-6 Only), any number of Teams can participate and would depend on your batch size,
1.Straws-50 nos per Team
2.Disposable Plastic Cups 30 nos per Team
3. Cello Tape-Small Roll

Ask the Team to imagine a Tower and Build the Tallest one Possible using only the Resources provided, indicate the time alloted and clearly specify that the tower shuld stand on its own without any support from the Ceiling, Walls etc and watch them get into action.

At the end of the alloted time ask them,

How they managed the activity?
How they allocated the Tasks and Resouces?
How they Planned the Time Schedule ?
Who was the Time Keeper?
How the Time was managed by managing the Task?
What happened when they realised that some other Team was faster?

Derive that if they planned it Timed the whole thing and allocated even the Human Resorces would they have more than enough time to complete the activity??

Ask them to list out Activities they are supposed to do in their line of Business and allocate the time required for each activity and see how much they can achieve in a day!!

Also Explain thet there are only three Kinds of Jobs
1. Urgent
2.Important
3.Priority

Ask them where they would focus their attention and energies, Derive that if we do important things we dont have to worry since nothing will be urgent or Priority, however if something urgent should crop up which was not planned for then Brainstrom on which should be given due importance based on various situations. You could add in more content and Power point based on your requirement

Learning the do's and don'ts of training

Learning the do's and don'ts of training

Debra Davenport

From bizwomen.com

Smart executives understand the value of smart employees -- and the value of keeping them ahead of the learning curve.

Ongoing employee education can contribute significantly to profitability, productivity, customer service, safety, wellness, efficiency, and reduced turnover and absenteeism.

Whether you've been providing education programs for years, or you're considering implementing a program, there are a number of important do's and don'ts to keep in mind where your employees' learning is concerned.

First, let's distinguish "employee education" from "training."

Historically, the word "training" has been used when referring to dogs and circus animals. Today, we incorporate the training of simple human workplace tasks into this definition.

"Employee education," or what I prefer to call "professional education," requires and develops critical thinking skills. It's one thing to train someone how to answer the telephone. It's quite another to help them learn and understand the importance of interpersonal communication.

When you're developing educational programs, decide from the get-go if they're training-based or education-based.

Here are some other do's and don'ts:

1. Do identify relevant learning needs and bring in experts to deliver appropriate education.

2. Don't conduct training programs simply to check off a box. Laissez-faire training programs generate similar results.

3. Do invest adequate time in the development and delivery of your education programs.

Often clients will ask us what we can teach in an hour. Well, in an hour, we can toss out a lot of information that will neither be retained or implemented. You can't get your BA in six months; neither can you expect your employees to learn anything profound in 60 minutes.

Additionally, classroom learning must be reinforced with both hands-on practice and "homework." Repetitive practice of any concept or task is necessary in order to master it.

Too often we encounter prospective clients who want the quick and dirty fix to internal issues that realistically require a year of intensive re-education, practical application, data collection, and learning reinforcement.

4. Do expect to spend some money. High quality corporate education reflects the knowledge of adult education and curriculum development that only comes with proper experience and education on the part of the instructors.

Keep in mind that your workplace comprises people with varying degrees of IQ and EQ.

In addition, some may have mild learning disabilities, learning resistance or anxiety, language barriers, or many other issues of which you are not even remotely aware.

Skilled educators can assess your team and design learning modules that will ensure success for virtually every employee.

In the long run, it's much more cost-effective to invest in quality education, rather than quickie seminar programs that take a cookie cutter approach.

5. Don't engage in training programs if you're not going to follow through.

Learning is a process -- it takes time and reinforcement to break old habits and form new ones.

Before-and-after metrics will let you know if your employees learned, what they learned, how much they understood, what information they've retained (and what they've forgotten), what they're actually applying, and if they're applying it correctly.

6. Do understand that bad training is worse than no training at all.

7. Do make learning experiential.

8. Do require accountability from all sides.

9. Do assess new hires. As you're assessing personality, communication, problem-solving and work styles, also identify new employees' learning styles. Knowing how they learn best will ensure success.

10. Do encourage off-site learning. Out-of-the-ordinary environments, with minimal distractions, can help to imprint the material being presented.

11. Do motivate your employees to learn. The best way to motivate employees is to enhance their reasons for learning and decrease their barriers.

Adult learning pioneer Malcolm Knowles identified various characteristics of adult learners (for more: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/adults-2.htm):

- They are autonomous and self-directed.
- They bring a wealth of life experiences and knowledge to the workplace.
- They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base.
- They are practical, goal-centric and relevancy-oriented.
- Adult learners need to be shown respect for their experience.

Professional education is one of the most important investments you will make in your company, so always choose quality over other factors -- you and your employees will most certainly reap the benefits of this smart decision.