Blended learning solutions that can be customised to suit HR requirements.
As the concept of traditional staff ‘training’ has morphed into ‘learning and development,’ HR Magazine was eager to find out what this transition actually means in practical terms for those in HR responsible for rolling out such programmes. We spoke with Cherry Tsang, Project Manager, Training & Development Division and Etta Wong, Director, Greater China for Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH), the global talent management company from the Adecco Group to get their take on the rapidly changing landscape of staff learning and development.
Changing face of T&D
With over 31,000 employees in 60 countries around the world, Tsang and Wong have had ringside seats within the Adecco Group in witnessing the changing face of T&D in HR over the last decade. Wong pointed out that HR now tends to focus more on behavioural change training, rather than traditional skills training.
It is important to allow staff time for self-reflection so that they can be more aware of their own style and individual strengths. The next step is to help them master key job skills, which often include things such as presentation skills. This skills mastery is a long-term process and Wong suggests deploying coaches to help effect these changes within staff–transforming these key ‘skills’ into ‘habits.’ Wong noted, “This is a similar process to sports coaching, and we are, in fact, seeing an increasing number of ex-sports coaches become business coaches, as the same fundamental concepts apply.
In both roles they must identify strategic skills; and determine how energized, how good at, and how often the candidates are currently using such skills.” Coaches can then highlight candidates’ unrealised strengths and help them to ‘exercise’ those skills to maximise them in order to reach their full potential.
Tsang highlighted a key difference between training and development, “Training tends to operate on a more short-term basis, for example, running workshops to improve leadership, negotiation, communication and team skills. Development is a much longer-term process, for example, after rolling out T&D skills workshops, companies may provide on-the-job coaches to help further develop these skills.”
This process will involve initial identification of staff limitations–information may be gleaned from capability assessments, interviews and surveys. Based on these results, suitable training programmes can then be recommended to help support staff and enhance their skill sets.
Integrated talent development programme.
To meet these needs, LHH has developed a revolutionary integrated talent development programme: DevelopMe. The programme is a blended learning solution for talent and leadership development on three areas: Coaching, Change Management and Career Planning. The content of the e-Portal is a supplementary tool of LHH blended learning with classroom training. DevelopMe is delivered through interactive online tools so staff can access training as, and when, they are free. Under the coaching portal, for example, users follow four key learning stages:
- Understand–introduction to the concept of coaching
- Prepare–how to prepare for coaching sessions
- Coach–coaching skills and best practices
- Sustain–sustaining behavioural change
A library of configurable learning modules has been developed to help maximise HR managers’ time by blending live instructor-led training with an assortment of interactive technology tools.
Peter Alcide, Global President, LHH explained that the portal had been developed in response to a re-energized demand for staff development programmes in the growing economy. He said, “As the economy continues to improve, employers are taking a renewed focus on career and leadership development not only to engage and retain their high potentials, but also to develop managers, one of their most critical talent segments.”
Programme aims
The platform is aimed at achieving a wide range of leadership development learning objectives for managers through learning experiences and customised development plans. Through the platform HR managers can help staff:
- Conduct results-driven conversations on career and leadership development
- Enhance mentoring and coaching skills
- Deliver consistent messages that are aligned with the business strategy and objectives
- Hold challenging conversations constructively
- Navigate and lead individuals and teams through change
- Develop stronger, more effective and productive leaders
Ensuring effective coaching
One of the key criteria of a successful coaching process is that LHH would draw up a ‘Coaching Agreement’ with every coachee prior to any coaching programme to give them the opportunity to think about their expectations of the programme and what they and the stakeholders want to achieve. In addition, LHH also offers coaching workshops to build up coaching capabilities for
in-house HR and business managers. The workshop would adopt six key LHH coaching practices.
- Ask, Don't Tell™
- Reframe from Picture™
- Truth Talk™
- In-the-Moment Feedback™
- Explore Possibilities™
- Create Partnerships™
Key T&D design issues for HR
It is becoming increasingly important for HR to demonstrate the ROI on training programmes that they roll out. In this regard, Wong said, “It is vital for HR to get business results linked to training objectives.”
In order to ensure training programmes are effective, post-training feedback on staff engagement and satisfaction via surveys is an essential part of any programme.
Tsang explained, “We will follow up three to six months after conducting training programmes to gauge both staff and managements’ perception of the degree of cultural change that has been possible since the training.” She added, “It’s also just as important that participants are willing to commit to a training programme. So HR should encourage participants to set goals and achieve these.”
Tsang emphasised that HR must be careful not to oversimplify the rationale behind rolling out new T&D programmes. For example, if a company is experiencing high turnover, this may not simply be due to a lack of leadership, but may be due to other core issues at play such as company culture or interpersonal relationships.In such cases, training programmes alone may not be enough to resolve the skills gap. To help get to the root of such problems Tsang advised, “First, investigate exactly where the problem is arising within the organisation; look at all possible methods you can use to solve it, and finally if staff are leaving–conduct exit interviews to gain an insight into the reasons behind such moves.”
She also pointed out that exit interviews are best conducted by an independent third party, rather than the HR managers or direct line managers, to provide a more neutral environment which would be more conducive for exiting staff to share the real reasons for their move.
The role of HR managers and heads of T&D continues to increase in complexity, but if time is spent prior to training on identifying the exact nature of skills gaps, and ensuring staff are committed to the selected training programmes, staff engagement can be significantly enhanced. If HR managers combine this ethos with the use of more interactive and customisable training programmes, the effectiveness of future T&D programmes can be dramatically improved.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
