Engagement is not Enough

I have to give credit for the title to a book, Engagement is not Enough, I most recently read by Keith E. Ayres published by Advantage. He writes that the current strategies being used to increase employee engagement are not working. Even with all the effort, a nominal increase in employee engagement has occurred and based on continued research by the Gallup Organization, less than 1/3 of the workforce is engaged.

In this book, Keith attempts to lay our a step by step process for developing the leadership skills needed to turn an average group of employees into that passionate, spirited high performance team. He points out that there are three primary reasons leadership training fails to achieve results: 1) Most leadership training is an event and to become an exceptional leader, you will have to develop the skills with consistent application over a period of time, 2) Most leadership training does not develop emotional intelligence and to become an exceptional leader, you will have to manage your emotions and behave in a way that brings out the best in everyone, and 3) there is no accountability for the training in terms of holding the leader accountable for applying the learned material and demonstrating that they present changed behaviors.

When I read something like the above, I immediately think of the Kirkpatrick Model of Training Evaluation which includes four levels of outcome evaluation; 1) Reaction, 2) Learning, 3) Behavior, and 4) results. How many companies focus on the results of training?

I had the opportunity to meet with an organization that has over 4000 employees and they prefer to do all of their training with internal staff. They have recently undertaken a Leadership Development focus and have scheduled one day per quarter for the Leadership Training. This is another example of a Leadership event that will not provide the desired results.

I just find it hard to believe that the champions of people development, whether it be the Human Resources Department, Organizational Development or Effectiveness Departments, or the Training and Development Departments, do not focus on results.

What do the results of your training look like? Do you realize that training events don’t necessarily provide the desired outcome? Development of a learning process that includes repetition, application exercises, case studies and more can make a major difference in the bottom-line.

Our expectations of training are now tainted because of this lack of development. We now expect to get no results, changing of behavior is impossible, employee engagement cannot be enhanced, productivity is not related to performance, and to create processes isn’t feasible. It’s time to change that outlook on training!

Isn’t it time the champions of learning stand up and state that the reason nothing is changed is that we haven’t done anything differently? We are still training the employee as if they were children and we are still getting the same results.

So are you going to change the development process or are you going to stay the same and receive zero results from the lack of development?

Innovative Joins Forces with Rose Ludgate

Rose Ludgate of Somers Point, NJ joins Innovative Leadership of Delaware Valley as Human Resources/Training Consultant. Rose brings a wealth of Human Resource experience to the company allowing Innovative Leadership to now serve local companies in a broader aspect. Innovative Leadership already has an effective management training course that many have attended, but can now offer classes such as Diversity, EEO, Affirmative Action, Sexual Harassment and other Human Resource topics.

As an Executive Level Human Resource professional, Rose was involved in the openings and conversions of hotels, companies and accounts. Her 25 years of work experience in Human Resources include: Strategic Planning and Development, Employee Relations, Recruitment, Benefits, Administration and Training and Coaching. Rose holds Training Certifications and specializes in Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity and Leadership Training. A graduate of Penn State University, she is a member of American Society of Training and Development and Society of Human Resources Management and American Cancer Association.

Innovative Leadership looks forward to providing solutions for today’s business challenges in the Human Resource area.

Measuring up to the Unknown

During a recession or economic slow down of sorts or when a major technology initiative occurs, the first budget line item to get the cut is Training. What defines the return on investment look like to most companies? It requires some research and analysis to develop a need or context for the training initiative. It requires a financial review of the analysis to make sure that the metrics used to value the training and development is relevant to the overall business plan or strategy of the company. It is important that you determine the desired outcome and define the metrics to be used to determine its success or failure.

Choosing a baseline or starting point is a must and then a measurement system to note the progress must be established. Many times the tracking of data must be continued well past the end of the training and the data must be recorded for future viewing. Progress reports should be noted periodically to see if the outcome changes to any great degree as time passes. Focusing on the financial return on investment (ROI) has always been our priority in delivering the training to companies.

It is a fact that many companies cut out the budget line that can really have a positive impact on their situation. Marketing expenses including sales personnel, Training and Development expenses including T&D personnel, Advertising and Promotional materials, etc. are all “first to be cut” items. Make sure you assess the ROI before your finance department uses the eraser. Make sure you are not cutting off “your nose to spite your face. Training and Development is an integral component of great retention programs. So don’t make a snap decision to eliminate a training program without making sure your projected ROI is well defined.

Innovative Leadership uses a specific format to define the ROI to any company prior to the initiation of training and development in a company. We also provide a post-training instrument to confirm that our financial objectives have been satisfied. We feel every training and development company should provide just that! Performance is defined and determined by metrics. Remember, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” – Peter Drucker.

Chewing Gum and Band-aids

I just received the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey’s Board Council’s on Responsible Government Report – Phase III – Meeting the Challenge: Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Adopting Best Practices”. The publication pointed out the differences between the Private Sector Practices and that of State Government followed by recommendations to the State for improvement by implementing these best practices.

This publication focused on the following: Job Classification Systems, Hiring Practices, Employee Assessment & Pay for Job Performance, Professional Development, Disciplinary policies, Human Resources and Personnel Management.

This is not a political commentary but when hasn’t the private sector had to focus on hiring and selection, retention, performance management and people development. What I questions, is, “How many companies in the Private Sector do anything more than acknowledge the need or focus on the concern?" Most companies today are aware of the employment statistics facing us today and many have moved on to the planning stage and have started to develop Succession Plans, Behavioral Interviewing Scorecard, utilization of an Assessment Process, implementing some type of “three strike rule”, retention of Key Employees or Top Producers, and a Career Management program.

I still would bet that those same companies have not implemented formalized plans or more importantly, designed processes to compliment the needs and focus of the company. Band-aids and chewing gum are being used to cover the gaps created by the “good to great” employees that are bailing something better or we are doing everything in our power to keep the baby boomers from jumping ship. I really feel that this “quick fix” mentality will not hold for long.

We are loosing a talented management pool that we are not training and developing at a speed equal to that of the exodus from the workforce by the baby boomers. We will find ourselves with a inexperienced, non-communicative, non-inspirational management team that can only lead by example because they will not have the skills to move the workforce upward and onward. They will have to be task-masters to gain the knowledge that the exiting management team declined to share.

There is only one Best Practice out there that satisfies the needs of any company in the areas of productivity, performance, and passion. It can eliminate the worry about employee engagement or motivation and it can provide the foundation for performance management. The Best Practice that needs to be embellished by both the private and public sector is to spend the time and money on your middle management. In simplest of terms, train the immediate supervisor because he or she is the one that is going to make the difference in hiring and selection, personnel development, performance management, positive discipline, and more.

The ROI for the training and development of your management team will easily be satisfied when you look at turnover, key employee retention, knowledge sharing, cross training, and behavior in the workplace.

Training is a Waste of Time

This weekend, I opened the latest issues of Training and Development and my eyes were immediately draw to the title “Why most training is Useless”, written by David H. Maister. My initial “gut” reaction was to say, “Oh no, another article that I have to read and prepare a defense for.” As I continued to read, I started to become more in tune with the ideas presented and certainly started leaning toward the author’s point of view.

I have found that most companies expect training to provide a “quick fix” and they utilize the training as an event to “kick-off” a change initiative. This type of thinking will certainly lead to failure if the desired long term effect is a change in behavior or culture. It takes much more than training but when used properly, training can be the most positive factor in the achievement of the initiative.

I have spent the last ten years in the business of training and I find that it is as difficult as ever to get anyone to view training as a process as opposed to an event. The reason we don’t usually see training as part of the process is that we have no strategy or plan to implement the change over time. We expect our trainers to sprinkle “fairy dust” over the participants and almost immediately, their company’s productivity and performance will elevate beyond possibilities.

I have only found a few companies where the leadership had a good understanding and visualization of the outcome resulting from the training. They know “what matters most!” but they aren’t willing to focus on a plan of action and implementation process to achieve the desired outcome. Most companies just ask, “What do you have for team building, conflict resolution, harassment, or what do you have to improve communication? We want to change behaviors and the culture but we don’t know what we want to look like.” We just want to get better and the prescription calls for training.

I find that most training programs do not have any research-driven basis for application and most training does not focus on the application of the knowledge learned versus the amount of information delivered. I can honestly state that most companies that pay good money for training do not see the learned materials being applied in the workplace to help achieve the desired outcome. The key word is application and as the author states, “helping people develop as managers doesn’t mean discussing management or leadership. It means putting people through a set of processes in which they have to experience, try out, and develop their emotional self-control and interactive styles”. I have yet to hear a customer ask me about how programs allow the participant to apply the learned knowledge in the work environment to improve their skills or competencies needed to make them a better manager.

The right approach is to focus on the outcome and then determine the best format to present the knowledge, demonstrate how they can apply the knowledge, and monitor the results whether it is a behavioral or a culture change. Our unique adult learning process is much more effective than event training, yet we have never been asked what format we use to initiate change or focus on desired behaviors. Awareness is an event, planning is an event; implementation requires a process of application and understanding to provide a desired result. The process you choose is the most important ingredient, yet most don’t even care. The learning process you choose can make your training initiative not only immensely powerful, but effective as well. I really find it ironic that most executives are process and results-oriented except when it comes to training. Training is a process that needs to satisfy the needs and desired outcome for any organization or company.

Is your training initiative an event or a process? I bet I know the answer.

Talent Management Means Competent Leadership

Talent Management is an entity that has been slowly evolving within many corporations. Most corporations list the following practices as part of their overall program:

• High potential employee development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Learning and Training
• Performance Management
• Competency Management
• Retention
• Employee Engagement

Talent Management should concern itself with competencies. Companies should focus on the competencies that make a difference today and will continue to make a difference tomorrow. It means fitting the “right person” to the “right job” and then measuring their impact on the company’s strategy or goals.

In simplest of terms, Talent Management is people development associated with organizational effectiveness. Most companies do not have a clue about what Talent Management means to them and what competencies will provide sustained growth and success. It is important that they focus on their Strategic Development plan now and don’t wait until it is too late. It will be too late when they do not have the people who are able to learn and perform the roles and responsibilities needed for sustained growth. Do we have the people that can respond to the rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace?

Most companies have not yet assessed the talent within their organization. How can the learning and training components be applied when you don’t know what is needed to develop the people. People are starting to talk about succession planning only because a lot of key people are leaving the workforce for retirement or alternative careers. I joined a pharmaceutical company in the late sixties and within three weeks, the company has decided that I was a “High Potential”….an HP as we called it back then.

A fast track of combined learning and training programs were laid out before me while at the same time, my performance was monitored as if I was under the microscope. It appears that many companies have strayed away from labeling “high potentials” and providing a program to accelerate their careers within the company. Now, I know some companies have accelerated programs and call these designated potential leaders something, like top producers, achievers, or whatever.

It just seems like the same old story. We have been concerned about this problem for many, many years but we have done nothing to provide a fully integrated set of human resource functions that can be called a people development process. We hesitate to assess anyone or anything because it will cause conflict and we can’t have conflict when we need to retain good talent.

Is Talent Management really meeting the needs of most companies? What are we waiting for? The leadership of our companies must step up and focus on a Strategic Development Plan that includes people, processes, and performance. The integration of those three entities often results in employee engagement, motivation, and success.

Human Resources in many companies is defined as the human capital experts. So, when are these so-called experts going to jump up and down and give their leadership team a real assessment of the culture, the people, and the potential to more forward while sustaining growth and reaching goals? It will probably be when all the Talent has left.

Behavioral Interviewing Workshop

Recently Innovative Leadership conducted a public Behavioral Interviewing Workshop. It is a 3 hour workshop that teaches business owners, managers, and professionals how to excel in an interviewing environment.

It introduced the participants to a questioning approach that will help them determine a candidate's abilities based on past experience, not hearsay. Behavioral based interviewing is touted as providing a more objective set of facts to make employment decision than other interviewing methods.

What our participants said:

"The workshop provided a clarity and simplification of the interview process." Matt Bell - VP of ARI

"The real-life examples and role-playing provided an excellent method for learning the Behavioral Interviewing Process." - Sam Bell - Vp of ARI

"The workshop provided a more defined questioning technique in the Interviewing Process." - Jamie Rubini - HR of The Golden Inn

"The Behavioral Interviewing Workshop created a structure for interviewing that I really need in my position." Joel Inman - General Manager, Greate Bay Country Club

All participants received a complimentary Behavioral Interviewing Action Plan for immediate use with their next interview. If you would like to have this workshop or any other workshop conducted for your employees, call 609.390.2830.

Public Workshops are also available. Send a little as one person or send up to 10!

If you are looking to improve yourself and would like to sign up for a workshop or a course, see what is coming up! Click Here