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Staff, personnel, teams, associates, partners ...
whatever term we have for employees the care and management
of them falls under the banner of 'human resources'.
In the old days it was the 'Personnel Dept' and the
personnel manager often hired and fired, confirmed
holiday dates and wages, sick pay, maternity and compassionate
leave.
Training was limited and internal memorandums were
the main source of corporate communication and instruction.
Work to rule was the norm - people did just what they
were paid to do ... and no more. Psychometric testing
was a futuristic idealism. Stress did not exist and
we were often ordered to " Pull ourselves together
!! " . Presentation skills where generally learned
by those who would be tasked with demonstrating products
and performance appraisal seemed to be a 'gripe session'.
Nobody really trained the trainers and an induction
course was your lot !
We are now in the 21st Century and human resources
is more of a minefield, but when focused upon in the
right way the results can be incredibly positive and
staff become part of a successful team. Bosses are
becoming aware that training and developing their
people makes the difference to organisational performance
and success. There is now a new breed of Human Resource
Development specialist which include training and
psychometric tests as well as counseling for redundancy
and retirement.
Employees are our most precious commodity !
No matter what our product and service is, without
a good quality team, we do not have a good quality
business. Competitors are not only seeking our customers
but our staff too. Staff retention is crucial and
equally staff training has never been so important,
but the biggest problem is identifying training needs
and designing programs to meet specified objectives.
The training manual supplies industry can be a jungle
with so many self appointed staff training experts
and motivational gurus. Who really knows what training
manual to go for and how can we find out who is qualified
to teach us?
It is important to ensure that the author of any
training resource manual is recognised by leaders
within the industry. I spoke with Fenman, one of Britain's
leading publishers of training resource manuals and
asked if they could recommend an author who not only
writes books on training but one who is an accomplished
active successful trainer.
Fenman refereed me to Eddie Davies, author of ' Interviewing
Skills,', ' Unlocking Your Peoples' Potential' , 'Motivation
in Practice', 'The Manager as Trainer, Coach and Guide',
' The Essentials of Management ', The Project Management
Activity Pack ', ' Light Bulb Learning' , ' Also recipient
of "Fenman Author of the Year."
He established Davies Training Services in 1989 and
his portfolio included: Department of Transport, Age
Concern, South Wales Electricity, British Rail, City
of Westminster, Marine Safety Agency, Guardian Business
Services, Henley Management College and the list grows.
I spoke with Eddie Davies about his training services
and asked why Davies Training Services are successfully
unique and why a company such as Fenman would recommend
him, he replied:
"All of our courses are designed to be run on
your premises, in your environment and familiar surroundings
unless of course you have preference to a suitably
equipped venue locally. The added value is that for
the price of sending just two people on a typical
commercial course, you will receive high quality training
for up to ten participants with Davies Training Services."
It isn't all about training to serve customers better,
Eddie Davies covers;
Stress Management, this is becoming more and more
important in today's highly competitive world, for
both our health sake and personal development we need
to control the impact it has on our lives, at work
and at home. We no longer live in an era where stress
is deemed as a self inflicted curse and are told to
'Pull ourselves together !'. We may have just finished
dealing with a very angry client - phone rage is accelerating,
and we really cannot expect to walk away from that
one confrontation and deal with the next immediate
one as if the previous incident never happened.
Psychometric testing. Apart from personality traits,
employers and interviewers may also want to look at
ability. In a nutshell , personality tests are usually
completed in the candidate's own time whereas ability
tests have a fixed time limit. Be aware though, these
tests are only as good as the purpose for which they
are used. Therefore if they are used as part of a
good professional selection procedure then they can
be extremely useful - but they can be badly misused
if not deployed under expert supervision. Eddie Davies
is happy to explain and discuss the many options available.
Presentation Skills. At some stage in our professional
career, we will have to make a presentation. On the
basis that first impressions are the most important
, it is fair to assume that we may only get one chance
to present ourselves, product and service. Whether
it be a one to one presentation or one in front of
an audience, it is very important to receive a certain
amount of presentation skills training rather than
stumbling through like a nervous best man - because
the sympathy vote holds no value in business.
Performance Appraisal. For many reasons including
corporate expansion and under-sizing we need to take
a closer look at our personnel. Perhaps a vacancy
has occurred and it is deemed that an internal promotion
is essential. Often the 'next in line' is not always
the most appropriate and another individual who is
not is obvious could be exactly right for the role.
It may be that we simply need to look at all members
of a team and appraise their performance with a view
to creating a specific training development manual
based on those findings. A growing number of businesses
are deploying experts to focus upon performance appraisal
by introducing performance review and performance
improvement processes.
Executive Coaching. Finding ways to develop and evolve
your key personnel to meet changing needs is a challenge
that faces every organisation. Difficulties in tracking
individual improvement and ROI for conventional training
means that more and more organisations are turning
to professional executive and corporate coaching for
senior and middle managers. Recent studies show that
when combine with training coaching is at least 20%
more effective than the same course without coaching.
Coaching increase personal productivity, improves
motivation and is ideal for executives who are successful
but want to aim higher.
A successful coaching partnership is composed primarily
of one-to-one interactions between a professional
coach and one of your executives. CIPD recommends
you find a coach with the relevant knowledge and track
record which is why you will find Eddie Davies on
their select Approved Consultants Register and why
Fenman Training asked him to write their best selling
trainer's activity pack "the manager as trainer,
coach and guide". If you want to improve your
personal effectiveness, strengthen your performance
and achieve positive sustainable growth then Eddie
Davies can provide high-impact executive guidance.
Redundancy Counseling. Create a comprehensive program
of coaching within all aspects of jobsearch. Including
a practice interview for an actual job vacancy prior
to attending the real thing, Self Marketing, focusing
upon each individual's most marketable skills, knowledge
and experience. Creating a CV and finding employment
opportunities.Introducing effective marketing and
discovering non-marketed jobs, introducing methods
of discovering new sources of advertised vacancies.
If they are long-standing members of staff who have
not been unemployed for many years they may require
guidance on improving applications for real vacancies
and reintroducing to the recruitment process. A psychometric
assessment familiarisation "practice" session
may also be a good idea.
Training Training. Winston Churchill said "I
am always ready to learn, but I do not always like
being taught", this is true to just about all
of us and in order for us to learn more effectively
we need to enjoy the process. Good experienced trainers
will often embark upon knew courses to learn new methods
of presenting a training session - understand vocal
language, body language and behaviours voice, mannerisms.
Using and answering questions to their best advantage.
Producing and using visual aids materials and creating
training handouts and manuals.
You can discover more about
a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Often we look at our business, sometimes we ride
on the crest of a wave and other times we are in difficult
times. Changes cannot be avoided especially in this
very competitive world in which we survive. If we
looked at a small part of Eddie Davies' consultancy,
we may see something within our own company that could
benefit from him. I often wondered about trainers,
and was very sceptical about their own experience
and I have to admit that I have listened to individuals
at seminars and wondered which text book or video
thet gleaned their information.
In a real world with costs and budgets being an issue,
we cannot employ someone full time but accept the
need for a Human Resource Development specialist.
We need someone to understand our business and methods,
someone who will get to know each key member of our
staff and be familiar with our divisions and team
players. This Human Resource Development specialist
should be able to identify our training needs, design
programmes to meet specific objectives and then write
comprehensive training manuals to support the programmes
when required. We don't want some sutffed shirt repeating
someone else's training manual we want a lively humourous
style of training and last but not least we need the
effective transfer of learning to our workplace.
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