Does your training department feel more like a fast-food restaurant than a professional service group? You know what I mean, an outside department or a manager of some sort overhears something on the phones they don't like, and suddenly you are tasked with immediately rolling out a new customer service training program. A weary facilitator is informed during their session break, that the new hire cohort they scheduled for tomorrow will have five additional people, three of which will arrive next week. An instructional designer, begging for Articulate or Captivate so they can create real online learning is asked, "Can't you do that with PowerPoint?"
Such is the life for many an L & D professional. It is not that we are not appreciated, we are, but we are not always valued the way we should be.
If you are experiencing these types of challenges you may be wondering why it keeps happening. If the business you work for recognizes the need for a training department, why do they make it so difficult for you to succeed? Why do some companies with hundreds of employees have training "departments" with one or two people in it? Why bother at all? I believe the answer is a gap in respect.
Academically, there is an understanding that training is necessary for employee development, otherwise, training departments would not exist. Unfortunately, there appears to be a belief held by many, that the act of training itself is intuitive and therefore simple. The mathematical equation looks something like Subject Matter Expert + PowerPoint = Training.
To combat this, training departments fight hard at the end of every year to retroactively prove their worth. They tear their hair out trying to tie the product, customer service, and leadership courses they provided (as requested) to financial impact. But for many training departments, this rarely ends the way they want. Expectations continue to be high and resources continue to be limited.
The fact is if you wait until the end of the year or the quarter to validate what you have already done you are too late, the minds of your stakeholders have already been made up. Instead, training departments need to work on their image and the way they operate. Start the year from a position of strength, and prove their worth through the way they provide educational support. Here are three ways to get the ball rolling.
Formalize your intake program. If you want to be treated like a professional you need to act like one. Stop taking "fast food" orders from managers that walk past your desk or shoot you a casual Skype message, and start taking reservations. You can start with something as simple as a fillable .pdf form and work your way up to an electronic application. Remember to include basic needs analysis questions like:
"What problem is this training expected to solve?"
"What defined business goal does this project tie to?"
"What is the expected performance result once the project is completed?"
A formal process allows you to track the type of requests you receive and helps you properly prioritize your activities. It also communicates to your stakeholders and customers that your time and expertise are valuable and not available on a whim.
Make stakeholders part of the training. The best way to dispel the belief that training is easy is to make your business associates part of the process. This is especially impactful during new hire training. Rather than give a written exam or electronic assessment after a module, look for opportunities to have the new hires present to their future managers. Give them case scenarios that require them to analyze a business situation and craft a response. Then have them present their responses to a panel of senior staff and members of their management team. Make sure the panel knows that they are responsible for reviewing the scenarios ahead of time and for providing constructive feedback.
This forces the business team to see the people they have chosen in action and makes them partially responsible for their success. This also forces the managers to demonstrate their own value to the new hires. You may be surprised to see how many managers get nervous when they realize they have to do more than just watch!
Run your training department like a business. Just like the business itself, the training department should be out to make a profit. In our case, "profit" equals business impact. Think of your deliverables as products and your recommendations and support activities as services. Evaluate everything that you produce or deliver based on its degree of business impact. Some of your products may need to be shelved while others may need to be rebranded or updated.
Remember, the training department is not a social service agency, you are there to improve performance and yield business results. Any project you work on that does not positively impact the pursuit of a business goal is theft! Theft of your time, talent, and expertise. Do not allow yourself to be robbed by the very people that will claim not to see your value at the end of the year.
Incorporating these three activities will aid you in rebranding your training department as a professional services organization. Focus on impacting the business and question any assignment that smells like busy work or a "check the box" activity. You don't have to be an order taker if you don't want to be, but you do have to work like a boss to get rewarded like a boss. Start getting the respect you deserve today!
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