Filling the gap in the leadership pipeline: training junior and middle management
Training budgets are often allocated to entry level employees and senior executives but an area that is often overlooked is junior and middle management. HR Magazine recently sat down with Audrey Low, Country Manager for Adecco Hong Kong. Low stated, “HR may have a training budget for their entry level staff and C-level staff, but not enough for junior to middle management.” Leaving this vital category of employees, often largely comprising Gen-Y staff, can pose serious challenges to organisations.
Learning, collaboration and a sense of community are all essential to retaining Gen-Y employees remarked Gen-Y expert, Amy Lynch at the recent HR Summit in Hong Kong. Lynch pointed out that the average length of time a Gen-Y employee stays with a company is one and a half years. One of the reasons for this short tenure is no clear career path. Low stated, “Junior Level employees are very fluid, they come to your organisation and six months after they arrive they say look there is no promotion I am going.”
Unfortunately, this low retention rate may be why many companies are reluctant to invest significantly on junior and middle management employees, which in turn helps perpetuate this cycle. Employees who don’t receive training and perceive their employer as interested in their career development are quick to look elsewhere. Employers fear expending precious training resources on employees who may leave after a year and join a competitor after developing their skills, thus footing their competitors’ training costs.
The cost to business of untrained junior and middle management staff is significant. A 2007 study in the UK: Corporate Soufflé—is the middle giving way, authored by consultant Giles Walker, found that 38% of directors believe that their organisation is ‘paralysed’ by ineffective middle management. The study also revealed that 40% of directors identified the same paralysis as the single greatest barrier to achieving company objectives. Walker stated, “Our research reveals an alarming gap at middle management level. Business leaders are struggling to compete in a challenging economy because middle management lacks the skills to make business strategy happen.” According to Walker, training to equip middle managers with skills is the solution. He added, “Rather than expressing frustration over middle management capabilities, business leaders must implement effective training and development programmes along with performance management tools to enable them to improve skills and enhance performance.” Internal training and development is essential for this group of employees.
According to Australian training and learning blogger Dereck Stockley, in recent years there has been a trend for companies to recruit people who already have the skills you are looking for. Stockley stated, “This is a short sighted approach, as it assumes that other companies are training your employees. If all companies rely on this method the whole system breaks down.”
The current time offers a unique opportunity to develop talent from within. Stockley pointed out that most employers recognise that the majority of skills can be taught and expertise can be developed on the job. He added, “These employers focus more on selecting staff with the right attitudes and basic competencies like commitment and communication skills. The technical competencies are built over a period of time.”
Developing programmes for junior and middle management staff
Adecco is most known for its temporary job, contract and permanent placement services. In the past ten years, through a series of acquisitions and new business lines, the organisation has come to be able to provide employee training and development programmes for HR. Low has worked for Adecco for the past 19 years in the APAC region and commented on the company’s evolution, “Nineteen years ago our business model was very different we did a lot of temporary and permanent work placements between the client and the candidate. Today we have shifted from a placement company where ‘you want someone and we find someone’ to one of the leading human resource solutions companies.”
Reflective of this increased capability, Adecco has launched some advanced-level training programmes to help strengthen some of the deficiencies resulting from market challenges. Few professions have changed as much as HR in the past 20 years with globalisation and an increasingly knowledge-based economy placing heavier demands on HR to find, retain and engage top talent. Low pointed out that Adecco has evolved as a partner in the transformation of HR from its primarily being an administrative to a strategic business partner. Low explained, “This is giving training, assessment and helping HR to demonstrate the metrics to senior management.”
Adecco training for junior staff
Seeing the gap in the market Adecco is set to launch ‘Adecco Training’ which will be focused on helping HR to train its junior and middle management staff. Low stated, “If you want your Gen-Y staff to work happily, it is all about communication. This population is very used to speed.”
Adecco training will be based on speed and flexibility. The programmes will be tailor-made for, on average, 12 months and will also be available online. The goal is to show young people a route that will help them develop their careers. Low stated, “If you know you have a very good career path in an organisation, you will probably think twice before you leave. Training is important but so is communication.”
In the book: The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, authored by Leigh Branham, poor communication was one of the key areas why staff left an organisation along with lack of training, lack of career growth and advancement opportunities, lack of teamwork and poor management among others. It is easy to see how training can solve many of these problems before it is too late among the junior staff. The drivers of previous generations such as pay may not be as strong anymore. Low stated, “Money may not be a major factor anymore because most of the families are quite well off these days. It is development that this generation wants but it has to be communicated very clearly communicated.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
