“What About Us?” What to do When Your Staff Needs Training

Copyright 2001 Cyndi Maxey and Debbie Rakestraw. FORUM Magazine

Introduction

Scenario: One of your associations elects a new president who adds two new directors and three committees to respond to a need for increased Internet marketing and research for their industry. Consequently, you realize that your staff needs training fairly soon on meeting facilitation, Internet research, and web-based communication. Some interpersonal skills training wouldn’t hurt, either, as the new president has a strong personality that will be challenging.

Does this sound familiar?  Your association’s employees need to be prepared for situations like this. Whether working with new volunteers, new technology, new personalities, or new structures, there are constant opportunities to learn in association management. When the need arises, you want to make a wise training investment. Before you grab the first seminar flyer that crosses your desk, it’s important to carefully answer these questions:

•    Learner and Purpose: Who needs to be trained and why?

•    Resources: What are your supplier, time, and cost options.

•    Support: Who needs to support the training and how will you reinforce it?

Who needs to be trained and why?

Executive

Management

Sales/service

Technology/computer

What are your supplier, time, and cost options?

Imagine you are the association that needs to offer training about Internet marketing and communications. Here are some standard training options with buyer benefits and cautions noted for each:

College/university

A college course provides your staff with a thorough review at a reasonable cost during work or off-work hours. Many community colleges have centers devoted to business services and are eager to develop partnerships. Almost every college has some web-based courses.

Benefits: An evening course option is nice if you desperately need your staff every hour of the day. Your staff gets a chance to meet other students who often team on class projects. They will have low-cost access to the college library, faculty, and other resources.

Cautions: You will have to decide how to compensate staff to attend during their personal time. Also, many community college business centers employ lower cost, part-time instructors, semi-retirees, or other consultants as faculty.

Note: College courses offered online are growing rapidly. Costs vary. An example is the University of Wisconsin’s course on Introduction to Online Learning, which costs less than $400 per semester. In contrast, Penn State’s one-semester course “Introduction to the Internet” is $1500 per semester.

Public seminar

Public seminars gained popularity in the 1970s and have managed to survive as a viable training option. Many professional speakers start on the public seminar circuit. The chances are good that the seminar will provide a dynamic instructor, an easy to follow booklet, and the opportunity to purchase countless tapes and books on the topic. (Product sales provide the major revenue for such companies.) Standard daily attendance fees range from $89 to $299 per person and up, depending on the topic.

Benefits: This is a great way for your staff to get an overview so they can judge how much more they need to learn. Many public seminar companies offer money-back guarantees.

Cautions: Your staff’s time away from work is minimal, but so is the amount of individualized attention they will receive, as they will most likely be part of a group of more than 50 attendees. There is no follow-up.

Internal developer/presenter

If you have a talented instructional designer or trainer aboard, you can develop your course internally. Most association management firms, however, don’t have internal training staff. Alternatively, they may ask their own subject matter experts to develop programs on an as-needed basis. If such a person has the time, writing talent, and access to good resources on the topic, this can be a workable solution.

Benefits: An internally developed program is tailored to your association; you may be able to develop it at a lower cost than a vendor would charge, and you have a lot of scheduling freedom. Many companies also use line managers to train.

Cautions: Developing one excellent hour of training can take from 8-24+ hours of research and writing. Plan accordingly.

Training vendor/supplier

Training vendors make it their business to provide leading edge training. Many vendors now offer combinations of classroom, online, CD-ROM, videoconference, and teleconference training, as well as one-on-one coaching services. Here are the basics on each format.

Classroom

Benefits: Classroom training accounts for 70% of corporate learning. Good vendors will provide great facilitation with appropriate methods and materials to enhance your staff’s skills.

Cautions: Prices run the gamut. A vendor course can range from less than $50 to more than $500 per person per day. Comparison shop.

Web-based or online

Benefits: Courses offered over the Internet can increase retention by 50% over classroom training. Some learners respond very well to web-based simulations, case studies, and chats. There is a definite time resource savings; a three-day course can be taught in less than six hours, for example.

Cautions: The jury is still out on the overall effectiveness of online learning. Many learners don’t like the format. In a March 12, 2001, Wall Street Journal article, Motorola’s training director acknowledges, “Our engineers like a change of scenery and the social interaction with others in the class.”

Computer-based training/CD-ROM

Benefits: Five to ten years ago, this format was extremely popular and is still a great way to train technical or information-laden topics. You can purchase CD-ROM training programs in nearly every training resource catalog.

Cautions: This format needs to be in sync with your computer system and be followed up well with personal discussion and commitment.

Video or telephone conference

Benefits: If you have multiple locations, these formats allow your staff to study with an expert without travel expenses; they also allow interaction both with the expert and among the staff attending.

Cautions: To be taken seriously, these formats need pre- and post-work built in to encourage application of concepts. Not every supplier offers these formats.

One-on-one coaching

Benefits: Coaching works well when only a few staff members need to learn specific skills. Expert coaches can be hired at consulting rates of $150 to $300+ an hour.

Cautions: Research the credentials of the coach. Make sure the coach does his/her homework on your association and position the need for coaching carefully with employees.

Who needs to support the training and how will you reinforce it?

Executives
It’s important that you get executive buy-in to make sure that your training is not an isolated event. Be clear about the business need that drives the training. According to a recent Training & Development magazine interview with Steve Cohen of Minneapolis’s Learning Design Group, “Trainers need to link every training initiative with the company’s strategic agenda—which is a new way of thinking.”

Managers/supervisors
The biggest contributor to making training stick is management support. Do learners report back to managers? Is training built into performance goals? Make sure your leaders are involved.

Coworkers
A study led by J. Bruce Tracey from Cornell University found that coworkers also influence training outcomes. Arranging a meeting with self-selected groups of coworkers before training begins, asking them to describe problem situations that training will address, and setting expectations helps them apply learning.

Learner
What should you ask of the learner? Chicago-based consultant Barry Lyerly requires commitment statements, building them in to all of his programs. You can read more about this approach in the book, Training from the Heart: Developing Your Natural Training Abilities to Inspire the Learner and Drive Performance on the Job (ASTD, November 2000).

In conclusion…
If you’ve done your homework, you can feel confident that your training effort will not be wasted. You’ve used your resources wisely; you’ve selected the right program for the right employees with the support built in to continue its success. Ghandi once wrote, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.” Employee training and development is a “forever” factor. It will help you retain your valued association staff.