Training: When should you choose a RTO?

Not all RTOs are created equal

First, what is a RTO? (for those of you who don’t know)

A RTO is a registered training organisation, accredited to provide your people with nationally recognised qualifications… a qualification and skills they can take with them as they develop both professionally and personally. Because of this, a RTO can deliver a program that  is more than just a course; it is a career pathway.

Another big advantage of working with a RTO over a non-accredited training provider is that RTOs can often help you access Government funding for use training your people.

Given that academy is a RTO, you might assume I would say you should always choose to work with a RTO.  But that’s not the case.

Not many, but some, RTOs are very focused on the funding they can access on your behalf – and much less focused on your people. You might call these ‘tick and flick’ providers, companies that aren’t really doing it for the training.

My advice is always to find a training provider that fits your needs and values, a firm that will work with you to identify your skills gaps and really work on meeting your specific needs.

While RTOs have nationally-recognised courses and therefore a framework they need to follow, the best ones are flexible in how they present content and will work with you to tailor it for your company’s needs.

In short, you want to look for RTOs that:

• put people and training needs ahead of funding (but who can still help you access these in order to be cost efficient)
• work with you to understand the real issues you are training for
• customise content
• employ full-time trainers, committed people who know the course inside-out
• own their intellectual property, again showing a commitment to content

Training is a precious resource, for you and your teams. Like all precious resources it should be valued and enjoyed. It’s possible to get great training and funding if you partner with the right RTO.

If you have any questions at all about the difference between a RTO and a non-accredited training provider, please do get in touch. What do you look for when you are appointing a trainer?

Training with benefits

People who train together, strive together

Building a community during corporate training programs

New skills, increased productivity, career and personal development. These are all the natural benefits of corporate training – and if you are not getting them from your training provider, you probably need to ask questions.

But there is one extra benefit of training, which is not often thought about upfront or factored in, and I believe it is time to change that. People who experience a training program together, bond. They form a community, a network, call it what you will.

That’s a massive advantage for nearly any organisation, and nearly any person within that organisation.

It is the power to pick up the phone to another department and personally know someone who can help. It is a ticket to informal corporate knowledge, insight into how other areas operate (as distinct from office gossip!). It is a connection beyond simply working for the same company. It is shared experience.

If companies foster a sense of community among course participants they are giving people a ready-made cross-functional team – or, in the case of people who are training in their teams, a much stronger link.

Here’s the kicker… community, connections to other people, keep people with their employers longer. Community is a retention tool.

As trainers, we can almost physically see these links between people forming, even in the most trying of circumstances. We recently trained people from a state Government department in the middle of a restructure. These were not happy people and they had been told they had to be at training to keep their job (not much fun for anyone at first!).

They all did similar jobs but didn’t know each other. The body language at the beginning of the first session was daunting to say the least.

As the icebreaker got underway, the participants started to realise they were all facing similar problems and had similar fears and concerns. As they shared their experience and chatted over morning tea, this became more obvious. By dinner, they were sharing positive ideas and solutions.

Between classes, they started sharing thoughts on approaching the assignments and by the last session, they were regularly contacting each other to offer and access support and bounce ideas around.

No doubt the participants learnt new skills throughout the course, but it was clear that the most valuable thing they got from the training was the community to support them in applying their new skills.

Community is not the sole reason you would choose to train people, but it certainly deserves its place on the honour role of training benefits.

Business talk

Complex buzzwords may lead to crossed wires

Why being you is the best form of communication

Why do many of us in business have two personas? There’s the work you; the man or woman who knows what’s going on, looks and sounds crisp and professional and uses corporate lingo. And then there’s the real you.

At one extreme, I heard of a workaholic and very successful man saying to his ex-wife, “We’re just not results-aligned.” You can sort of see what may have gone wrong there, can’t you?

In this guy’s case, he brought the work-speak (and the work!) home. But many of us are adept at being one person at work and another with our friends and family.

What do you think of this? Is it necessary? Do you need a kind of mental barrier between what you do in the workplace and how you are outside of it?

I’ve been giving it some thought and in many cases you actually need to speak this language in order to communicate with others who are so ingrained in corporate speak that anything else would confuse them. (Buzzword Bingo, anyone?)

But there are other times when being you, you, and only you, might surprise and delight someone in a business context. “Ah,” they might think, “… finally someone who I can talk with.”

I’m not suggesting we all go cold turkey on buzzwords, but I do think we should be aware of the power of simplicity… clear language, real ideas, straightforward relationships. That sounds like someone I’d like to deal with.

Click here for more on academy sales and service and frontline management courses – we help people communicate with greater clarity and power.

Open for business

A guide to help adults open up to learning

Open minds for learning

Some adults have shut up shop when it comes to learning. Perhaps not consciously, and for a wide variety of reasons.

There are the senior managers who are accustomed to leading and so used to being experts that it takes a big adjustment to learn from someone else. There are people who are about to change their life in some way, people who struggled in formal learning environments in the past, people who believe they are too busy at work and training is a waste of their valuable time.

And then there are people who are scared to learn, to not know, in front of their colleagues.

What does this mean for your training efforts? Sometimes it means you have someone who doesn’t get much out of a training program. Or worse, it can mean one participant’s negativity can bring others down.

But it certainly does not have to be that way.

HR Managers can help

If you know you are placing potentially reluctant people into a course, have a chat with your trainer about it ahead of time.

There are some great ways trainers can help turn people around, open their minds to the experience, and a discussion ahead of time can help them plan for this. Together, you may even decide that there is a better learning strategy for that person… one-on-one coaching perhaps, but in most cases, forewarned is forearmed.

Trainer strategies for reluctant learners

In a nutshell, the strategy depends on the person and the reason for their reluctance. One thing you must ensure is an experienced trainer.

Strategies used can be quite simple, but must be executed with skill. These are just a few:

1)    The opening words from the trainer set the tone for the whole session. They must establish their credibility, the reason they can guide others in their subject. However, an acknowledgement of the experience in the room goes a long way with experienced people – a ‘we can learn from each other’ message.

2)    Catering for the busy and deadline driven, a trainer should let participants know that there will be regular breaks for catching up with any urgent work issues. This seems to visibly relax some people

3)    A gentle reminder that participants’ managers have prioritised their training (signing off on their temporary absence) should also help some people realise that their full attention is the only way to maximise the value of their time on the program.

4)    Perhaps the simplest of all, one of our trainers says he always starts by finding out what each and every person wants to achieve from being there. Sure he might get a multitude of very different responses, but he knows exactly where he stands in helping each person meet their goals. After all, knowledge is power.

A ‘frank’ case study

Most reluctant learners are quietly reluctant but sometimes you get someone like (let’s call him) Frank.

Frank told one of our trainers in the first five minutes of session one, “I was made to come. I’m about to retire. If I hate you, don’t take it personally.”

Whoompa. What’s a trainer to do?

Well, actually he discovered that Frank loved mentoring the younger trainees, so made sure there was a peer-mentoring component to each session.

Frank blossomed and, instead of disrupting his colleagues with his attitude, actually helped them to learn.

At the end of the program he said, “You know I didn’t want to be here, but this wasn’t bad really.” His manager later told our trainers that this was a huge compliment from Frank.

Lifelong learning

Luckily, most trainees are excited to learn and share the academy philosophy that lifelong learning leads to a rewarding life and career, but should you encounter someone who does not; there are certainly ways to help them. I’d love to hear about any strategies you may have used (or seen used).

Retention is not a dirty word

Retention springs from developing, challenging and respecting employees

Retention is clearly one of those issues that keep Australia’s HR managers up at night.  It’s not unusual to be met with a gap in conversation and people shifting in their seats if I ask about the ‘r’ word. Most people just do not want to talk about it (unless of course you are with one of those rare and impressive companies with great retention figures).

The thing is, even if you don’t say it out loud, it’s still there. And retention issues are incredibly common in the post- global financial crisis labour market… it’s fair to say you are not alone.

There is a great deal of pressure on HR (and hopefully on all your managers!) to improve retention – and rightly so.  Companies that treat people well, develop their careers and knowledge, keep them challenged and interested, and respect people’s ideas and opinions, save a fortune on recruitment, time spent getting newbies up to scratch and lost company knowledge. This is easy to understand, and strangely difficult to do well, especially in a large organisation.

I have never worked in HR in-house, so please consider this an observation from a very interested bystander.  Like smoking, admitting you have a problem is the first, and arguably the most important, step.

You are probably already doing a great deal to address any employee engagement or loyalty issues you may have.  Hopefully the figures are moving in the right direction.

So next time it comes up, see if talking about it outside the organisation throws up any new ideas.  Be proud of what you are implementing as well as talking with others to see what else may help.

Each company will have its own optimal solution, so I’m not going to proffer ideas here and now. I guess what I am saying is how will you know what’s on offer, what might resonate with your people, if you don’t talk about it?

Is retention the elephant in your company’s room?

Innovation, velcro and the university of life

Ideas + change = innovation

Innovation has been on my mind lately. Why? Because frankly, no business survives without it.  And my partners and I want a great deal more than mere survival for academy!

As a business owner, I obviously have a very personal stake in managing innovation. But whether you own the business you work in or not, everyone should  passionately care about it.

The benefits for the business are inarguable, but for the individual too… wouldn’t you rather work somewhere where your ideas are valued and you are encouraged (and given time) to think about what you are doing?  I know I would.

An innovative idea about, well… ideas

One of my favourite examples of innovation is a recent one. It speaks to the educator in me and it has at its core the DNA of innovation…  a simple idea arrived at by thinking about something in a different way.

Chris Anderson, entrepreneur and owner of TED, connected the dots; curious people looking for ideas and inspiration, people with inspiring ideas they were willing to share, and a technologically and socially linked planet. Thus TED (in its current form) was born.  Anderson has now loosened the brand’s apron strings, giving rise to a multitude of TEDx events and ideas translated into many languages.

If you haven’t yet seen a TED – or TEDx – video, I’ll post my two favourites at the end.  If you’re not a ‘TED person’ already, I bet you will be after having a look.

Indeed, this whole blog post was originally going to be about how TED is a virtual university of life and business; one that encourages life long learning and also delivers it to people in a form that they control… but then I saw this excellent Fast Company article. Please have a read.

TED is a big idea; a simple one that has changed how many people spread ideas. It’s an innovation itself, but it’s also a cultural phenomenon that can help others to innovate, stimulating new ways of looking at things.

But you don’t have to have one big idea to create a culture of innovation. Sometimes innovation is merely doing better with what you have, doing something in a slightly different way because you took the time to think through a process that made more sense.

Supporting an innovation culture

Just a few of the actions academy takes to support an innovation culture in this workplace are (not surprisingly!) internal and external education and development programs for all staff; cross-functional (and self-directed) teams to manage new initiatives and training projects; and regular  ‘Velcro’ Days for trainers (so things stick!). Even more importantly, I hope we communicate the value we place of innovation across the company.

What happens in your workplace to support innovation? Could where you work be more innovative? What would you suggest to senior management?

P.S. Here are the two TED and TEDx videos I was talking about… one is Nigel Marsh on work / life balance and was presented in May 2010 in Sydney. And the other is Sir Ken Robinson on education and creativity – inspiring stuff.

Green is the new black

Or why your environmental credentials will play a huge role in your status as an ‘employer of choice’…

Green can mean business success

Off the back of our recent launch of academy green, our new sustainable learning brand, I spoke with HR Daily journalist Emma Wilkins.  The green message is certainly not a new one, but I believe it is important to continually talk about it and improve our efforts (note to Australian political parties!).

Rather than rewrite our conversation, please click through to Emma’s article here.

I’d love to hear how your company is addressing environmental issues, what’s working and where more could be done.

A standing ovation

Applaud business successes, big and small

Bow ties are being tied (or at least clipped!), hair is being dressed and fancy clothes donned. It’s that time of year again… tonight is the academy Awards.

No, not those Academy Awards, rather the ATA academy Awards, celebrating contact centre excellence across NSW. academy is the proud sponsor of tonight’s event at Star City in Sydney, and very excited to see the 800 or so attendees in just a few short hours.

Tonight is a big deal and a perfect way to celebrate success. Individuals and teams are nominated by their managers, feel valued and celebrate their successes with their peers across the industry.

It’s going to be huge.

Celebrating success is vital in business. Both to help staff feel appreciated and valued and also for business leaders to take stock of how far they have come.

You can’t have an awards night every week though. Sometimes a handwritten note, or a shared email copied to all peers (or someone’s manager) is an equally effective way to applaud achievement. Take the time to appreciate someone today!

Congratulations to all the nominees for the ATA academy Awards. I look forward to celebrating with you this evening.

PS – I would love to hear how you acknowledge the successes of the people you work with.

Australia’s next MasterManager

Adriano Zumbo's V8 cake: Perfect teamwork

As a manager you have to hope your team is not going to be as hard for you to wrangle as an Adriano Zumbo creation is for an aspiring MasterChef.

Did you see that angelic-looking V8 cake on the show last night? For those of you who did not, it was eight thin layers of cake heaven (well, Adriano’s was, anyway!)… eight layers of vanilla used in different ways, with more than 140 ingredients and four hours of cooking.  The picture is to the left and the recipe link is here.

The reason the cake is such a showstopper is that each layer builds on a theme and is very different from the others, but (and it’s a big but*), they are perfectly complementary and would not work nearly so well without the others. Hang on… isn’t that how a team should be?

It really made me think… if managers (and I am one) put as much effort and passion into understanding the ingredients of their teams, how they work together and how they work as a whole, many businesses may just be in even better shape.

I certainly can’t tell you how to do that in one blog post, it takes different combinations of training, personal development, mentoring and coaching, passion and plain old hard work, for different people. But if we think of Adriano Zumbo as manager and cake as team, we can better understand how important care and attention to each element is when you are creating something greater than the sum of its parts.

* Madly trying to avoid a joke about eating too much cake here

5 ideas for building employee loyalty

Loyalty

Type “loyalty” into your favourite search engine and see what comes up.  It won’t paraphrase a line from Winston Churchill or reference the family pooch, but will instead focus on marketing methods associated with customer engagement. Any references to employee loyalty ultimately end up discussing share schemes and health programs, hardly the stuff of inspiration!

In all the leadership and management study I have undertaken and reviewed over the years, there is a ‘school of thought’ that appears to have been overlooked by even the most erudite of behavioural theorists.

While business embraces employee engagement strategies – connectivity, work/life balance and authentic leadership – these notions are all aimed inextricably at driving increases in productivity and profitability and ignore a critical intangible factor in the relationship.

You can see this in the response to an economic downturn, when the same businesses use the opportunity to “jettison the deadwood”, “lighten the load” and to “right-size” so they may continue unimpeded by less productive staff (and unfortunate euphemisms).

While the research tells us that people are attracted to working for (as well as buying from) strong and iconic brands that resonate with their values, it confirms that “once bitten people are twice shy” and are therefore less likely to share their heart with another employer in the future once that trust has been abused.

Team loyalty: The missing link?

The logical outcome of this cycle is that people become less loyal to their employers over time, and this is the idea that I am surprised has escaped the notice of even the most passionate of corporate motivators and people researchers.

So why has the idea of building loyalty amongst teams slipped from the leadership lexicon?

Building employee loyalty is a slippery concept, especially as managers and business leaders are often at the mercy of capital markets and head office decisions that they have little influence over.

Often it is the local branch manager who is left to deal with the unpopular decision of how to cut costs by removing the coffee bar, cancelling the Christmas party and who to ‘downsize’ when the going gets tough.  The even harder job for that person is how to rebuild trust and support in the team that remains, and how to continue to achieve the productivity outcomes expected when everyone is feeling flat and unmotivated.

And yet loyalty for authority figures, especially under adversity, is one of the qualities that has driven human experience throughout history. Sherpa Tenzing climbed Everest, and may have arrived first, but it was his loyalty to Sir Edmund Hillary that kept his mouth closed on the matter for the rest of his life.  When Nelson sailed into Trafalgar he asked that “England expects that every man will do his duty”, and the English sailors fell over themselves to die under the French canons as a result!  The essential concept of Australian ‘mateship’ is rooted in loyalty to the people who we find most dear and would trust above all others.

So what do we need to do to build loyalty in the workplace?

Is it simply about giving people the right working hours and regular pay-rises?

The following five ideas spring from my experiences in business over the past fifteen years, and while I don’t claim to be a guru on these matters, I certainly believe that we ignore that matter of employee loyalty at our peril.

1) Tell it like it is and be honest

Don’t gild the lily and use ‘management speak’ when bad (or good!) news needs to be shared with your business. Don’t avoid the issue, but speak directly and calmly on the topic and be ready to answer difficult and personal questions.

Even the appearance of dishonesty will give the game away. If it looks like you are dissembling then you probably are and people won’t trust you in any situation.

2) Be yourself

It’s ok to appear uncomfortable or awkward as long as people know you are telling the truth. People are highly attuned to spin these days, which is why the idea of authentic leadership has taken off. In essence, relax and be comfortable in your own skin.

3) Stand for something

Find what you believe in, make it your hallmark and stand by it. History’s most popular leaders had a clear agenda that was well communicated to their constituents. People understood what they stood for and they followed them as a result.

4) Share and invest

The more you hoard the less you will receive. Give freely of your knowledge, your competence and capability. Passionately commit to replacing yourself and be selfless in that mission. People will notice and give their support in kind.

5) Be clear and unwavering in your expectations

If people don’t understand what you need from them, then they will fail. If people aren’t aware of the consequences of their inability to achieve, then they will fail. There is no such thing as a free ride. It is ok to expect that everyone will do their duty and enact punitive measures on those that don’t.

Now I can’t say whether these five points will build employee loyalty in every workplace, but they certainly can’t hurt. I would be fascinated to hear what others have to say or think on this very old (yet new!) topic.