HR Magazine spoke to Graham Barkus, Head of Organisation Development and Learning, Cathay Pacific Airways, and member of the Human Resources Development Management Committee for the HKMA Awards, about the importance of staff development programmes.
Barkus firmly believes, “In an environment characterised by uncertainty and rapid pace of change, supporting people in their efforts to expand and develop their capacity and capabilities is critical not only to success, but to survival itself.” Barkus went on to explain that every business is in business today because it has been successful to date. Unfortunately that is no guarantee that the ‘formula’ of previous, and even current success, will be enough to secure future success.
Equally, competitive advantage has never been as fleeting as it is today; developing new capability and competency is the core of the capacity to innovate and deal with new challenges. This concept is fundamental to sustaining a competitive edge.
Cathay Pacific views staff development as significantly contributing to business success and all staff development programmes start from a business need and focus on leadership capabilities to enhance team performance—critical to success in a service industry.
Development is key to growing a winning team and enabling managers and supervisors at all levels and in all areas of the company to achieve and sustain team effectiveness, according to Barkus.
Development approaches emphasise developing strategic agility and the capacity to adapt quickly to new situations and challenges, and respond effectively.
The CX Management Development Programme at Cathay Pacific requires participants to bring a ‘live’ business challenge into the programme, and their managers must agree that it is a business challenge worth tackling.
As they develop their own competencies and effectiveness, these are applied directly to solving the real business issue, or leveraging a business opportunity they bring into the programme. The coaching and action learning components of the programme help support the participants in making whatever behavioural changes are needed to drive the business improvement.
Barkus went on to explain that the best development programmes recognise three realities:
That human beings are all unique, with different backgrounds, experiences and capabilities.
That technical and factual knowledge on more topics is more readily available now, more than at any time in human history.
That the day-to-day experience of work is the most significant driver of how people in organisations learn
and develop.
In recognising these realities, successful development programmes are customised and tailored, rather than ‘generic’ theory and ‘hard’ business skills, they focus on the interpersonal skills to put technical knowledge into action in the service of the business; and they link learning with real business needs of the participants’ organisation.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
