A trainer must walk the talk—asserted Bianca Wong, Group Human Resources Director, Jebsen & Co. Ltd. at the ‘How to be a Top Trainer’ sharing session at the HKMA’s 2012 Annual Conference. We share Wong’s advice along with tips from Eva Lo, Director of Knowledge Management, Langham Place; and Anthony Rushton, Head of Learning—Hong Kong, Human Resources, Asia Pacific, HSBC on getting the most out of L&D.
Wong explained that a top trainer must also always be learning, especially in regard to technology—a trainer must ask, she said, “How can technology be integrated to maximise learning effectiveness?” She conceded that to get younger employees to do a two-day training programme without checking Facebook or WhatsApp is one of the many challenges faced by the L&D function today, so ever more creative solutions are needed such as the integration of WhatsApp into the training facilitation. When asked about organisations using training as a retention tool, Wong warned, “I’m not sure training is a solution to high turnover.” She continued, “Training, however, must be tailored to satisfy younger employees—they need a tailored road map in order to see in which direction they are moving if an organisation wants any chance of retention.”
Understand branding
Eva Lo, Director of Knowledge Management, Langham Place in Mongkok highlighted the need for trainers to fully know the business, have the ability to give authoritative recommendations and have the assertiveness to push through those recommendations. Trainers also need to understand that success is much more than people simply leaving the workshop happy and so evaluation of results is critical. Lo questioned how a trainer could possibly support the organisation if they do not fully know the business, she said, “I have to understand the finances of the business in order to understand which products to focus on.”
Understanding the brand is key to the design, implementation and evaluation of L&D programmes, she continued, “If you do not understand marketing and branding, you cannot do customer service skills well enough.” When developing employees’ customer service skills, every trainer teaches smiling, addressing customers by their first name and the open-palm gesture—but she asked, what is your USP? Lo made it clear that the littlest things can differentiate an organisation from its competitors, the Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok teaches staff to say ‘Hi’ when they answer the phone as the hotel believes this better reflects their brand.
Lo continued by using the W Hotel as a case study which initially did not have such a good market response as the staff did not understand branding and the brand’s relationship with customer interaction. Staff at the hotel wore sunglasses without truly understanding why they were wearing sunglasses and customers felt uncomfortable. Lo asserted, “The staff forgot that it wasn’t for the staff to be cool, they were supposed to make the customer feel cool.”
Do no harm
‘Above all, do no harm’ is the Hippocratic Oath, normally taken by healthcare professionals promising to practise medicine ethically, but Lo explained why this oath is also relevant for L&D professionals. She said that some trainers do a topic over and over again, becoming lazy and demotivating their audience—thus doing harm. Trainers must be more concerned about the audience and they must not worry about what they look like. Lo advised, “Put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts.” Lo then asked the audience if they won the lottery would they still be involved in L&D and she stated that if she won the lottery, she would quit her job and set up a training company for those who really needed it.
Lo advised L&D to understand that every member of staff has the ability to share knowledge with another member of staff. Lo’s title is Director of Knowledge Management—she realises that knowledge management is not yet a well-established field in Asia and because of this, she has defined it on her own terms to essentially mean ‘developing a sharing culture’ in her hotel. Lo explained that her role involves creating practices and channels to develop sharing of knowledge. Lo added that a challenge to this is that line managers cannot possibly give L&D 30 hours to develop staff members, maybe a line manager can give three hours—so L&D needs to know what to put into those three hours to maximise staff development.
Doing before teaching
Anthony Rushton, Head of Learning—Hong Kong, Human Resources, Asia Pacific, HSBC explaining that if a trainer is teaching leadership, that trainer needs to have been a leader at some point in their own career, if the L&D programme is going to be truly effective. Rushton acknowledged that throughout his career, only a small handful of trainers who did not have this real experience could create an effective L&D programme. Rushton said, “People who walk the talk have proved to give the most impactful training.” For an effective programme, he advised, “Trainers must adjust accordingly to what their delegates require.” Rushton said that he has been surprised about the amount of trainers he has met that want the spotlight on themselves—he suggested, “They could be training cardboard cut-outs.” A great trainer must be able to answer these questions after their programme:
- Who was the most interesting delegate?
- Who was the most bored?
- Who was the most inquisitive?
Rushton further advised that training is not a popularity contest and that trainers must challenge delegates even if this makes them an unpopular trainer—in the right way—this mindset will create impactful training.
HSBC has robust mechanisms in place to ensure accreditation of trainers—two trainers co-deliver and feedback from co-trainers is always provided. The training is balanced with technology, e-learning, and instructional face-to-face time. To ensure accreditation of e-learning, all e-learning modules undergo user tests and when a member of staff is testing the module—L&D must observe the staff member using it to truly discover how stimulating the module is and how engaged the employee is. Rushton explained that follow-up focus groups, in which 360 feedback can be given, were crucial when trying to measure behavioural change and ROI. Rushton concluded by asserting that, for HSBC, “The focus is not just on measuring the end result, but on the way it is achieved.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
