Staff Development Approaches, Skills and Issues

1. Staff Development Approaches, Skills and Issues

2. Training, Education and Development • TrainingSkills, knowledge, the "affective" – attitudes, values and beliefs. • EducationInstitutional process includes qualifications up to & incl. degrees. Major contributor to personal development. Direct & indirect enhancement of knowledge, ability, character, culture, aspiration & achievement. • DevelopmentPrimary process - positive or negative. Individual (& organisation?) adaptation to achieve potential. Become more complex, elaborate, settled, aware, differentiated & autonomous

3. What training? • Operational competence • aggregate of knowledge, understanding, skill & personal orientation • in a situation • at a standard or level of performance. • Product, service, procedural and system know-how • Task and situation specific • Reduced, double-sided and stapled photocopying • Return of goods procedure • Advanced Powerpoint Skills • Recruitment interviewing • Gall-stone removal • Desert survival • Aircraft emergency landing • New policy on patient care Open and closed competencies + pre- and co-requisites

4. Scientific/philosophical rigour Critical evaluation Complex synthesis Analytical explanation Technical application Contextual understanding Descriptive knowledge and categorisation Education? 3Rs and access to learning • Open capacities – may include task specific? • knowledge, wisdom, skill (physical, conceptual, procedural, social) & personal orientation • analysis + problem solving bridging concept and practice • standards/level of performance? • levels of product, service, procedural and system know-how?

5. What education - 2 • National curriculum and school/university quality • Education for • citizenship • occupational success • personal development and life • School, college, university, community/adult • Life long learning • Public attitudes about the value of education • Government, employer and individual responsibility for education

6. Business Strategy & Training Training policy & programmes Mission Know-how for competitive advantage & performance Staffing plan Skill gaps Demand for skills Skills audit Data for audit recruitment, redundancies redeployment Performance review Development needs Current performance Data to integrate individual & organisational needs Development action Training, seminars, delegation, coaching, private study, day release, learning company, IIP Improved capability, competence + motivation

7. Business Training development • Programme and task focused learning • Developmental needs of employees (group + individual) • Technical and management development • Self-managed learning & career management • Learning organisations/knowledge management • Culture and its role in organisations – HRM levers for change, in particular, shifts in attitudes and beliefs (as well as behaviour)

8. Programmes & Interventions • New recruits • induction to firm & job, familiarisation  comprehensive job training • Develop & up-date know-how for “live” situations. • Technical: product, procedure & specialism training • Social skills e.g. handling demanding situations • Corporate training for all e.g. for ISO9000 or new policy • Supervisory & management training • from leadership to corporate analysis, change & Action learning • Sales training • Customer, dealer & supplier training • Face-to-face vs. package training - from manuals to CBL • Corporate education e.g. to counter institutional racism? • Company University - Ford, McDonalds, LotusU?

9. Organisational Expectations • FE & HE preparation to enable new technology & empower • adapt & learn new skills, continuous occupational development • Learning for CQI, flexibility, multi-skilling & shifts in management style • Empowerment • Flatter project/team structures. • less supervision, set own objectives, self monitoring and corrective action • Manage interfaces & delight customers - external & internal

10. Disappointment with “Training Services and Schemes” • Much talk, expenditure & effort in training • Many initiatives and events • Evidence of outcomes and value for money: from training events, coaching, secondments, learning from experience (success & failure) & role models. Yet, T&D strategies often disappoint. Why? • What determines & influences training effectiveness? • How do training needs become apparent? • What factors hinder/help investment in T&D? • Training as a strategic issue?

11. Whose is served? • The individual Well placed (job demands + aspirations) to evaluate development needs (SWOT)? But is time & effort invested? Perception of“market” gaps, demands, relevance, support & learning opportunities? • Training Sponsors Top managers (“lack of know-how is jeopardising performance”)? Line Managers? HRD specialists who speak for T&D activity? Employer attitudes to training. Voluntarism. • Institutional and Market factors? • Civic, intellectual & cultural factors. Workforce competencies & international comparisons. Industrial re-structuring.

12. Staff Development Strategies • Laissez-faire - little or no training, buy-in. • Training for workforce maintenance: induction, product, policy/procedure • Off-the-job training vs. on-the-job • Staff appraisal, coaching & mentoring • Central training vs. devolved • Recognising, valuing & accrediting “competencies” (NVQs) • Learning Company model. Investors in People • Supported self-organised learning, Life-Long Learning & CPD

13. Apply Legge‘s critical analysis framework to HRD. Karen Legge: HRM Rhetorics & Realities 1995

14. Training Manager - Service provider or change agent? Forecast, plan, organise, direct & control. Strategic analysis, choice and implementation of programmes Maintainer-Instructor Reactive + provider of T&D within existing brief, structure & culture Change Agent (Facilitator) Proactive + consultancy. Define problems. Facilitate organisational & individual learning, innovation & cultural change. Role in transition? • from provider to change agent • in-house or outsourced

15. Analysing training needs? • Blanket/Comprehensive or Selective • Who does it? • Define needs, objectives, frequency, difficulty, performance standards & measurements • Brief/train all according to level. • Job curriculums - ALL or SOME job facets: skills, knowledge & attitudes for tasks/situations • New legislation, strategy/policy drive. • Identify • key tasks and problems/difficulties • competencies to handle it. • learner involvement + individual & group needs • best learning approach, training media & methods • Is a training solution vital for performance? • Self-organised learning: opportunity or cop-out?

16. Competence, Experience & the Job • a composite of knowledge & behaviour/skill comprising ability to do something to a defined level in a performance situation • Existing staff may be competent or less than competent. • Perceived gaps in mastery of performance. • The organisation may urge enhanced competence. • Can the organisation reward enhanced competence?

17. Pre-requisite (Foundation) competencies For • A trainee airline cabin crew member? • midwife? • bought ledger clerk? • marketing assistant manning a stand at the Ideal Homes Exhibition? • new CEO for Rail-Track?

18. Return to job • Transfer of learning • to performance • Has training solved the problem? Environment of change Learning for knowledge, competence & creativity Organisational & trainee feedback Learning needs & outcomes - individual & group Training Content Methods of delivery, learning opps & materials Programme and implementation Learners on completion Symptoms Learning Contract Assessment & test criteria - validity, reliability & utility General Model for Training Interventions

19. How do we measure learning - degree of behaviour change? • Compare - performance & progress between individuals • Against established norms or standard levels of performance/progress for specific applications • Assess/test- individual progress & performance

20. Generic, Core/Key Skills (Open capacities ) • transferable across jobs/or tasks • awareness, investigation, observation/reflection, analysis & learning • decision-making/problem-solving, creativity & evaluation • communication & social skills, interacting/working with others, influencing • numerical & information oriented skills plus IT abilities • Critical success factor competences • Occupational competencies (NVQ) • Boyatzis : threshold competencies & clusters for management • Kolb : learning to learn and the experiential learning cycle

21. Boyatsis - Seven Threshold Competencies • Use of unilateral power - forms of influence to gain compliance • Accurate self-assessment - realistic/grounded view of self, strengths & weaknesses/limitations • Positive regard - basic belief/optimistic in others • Spontaneity - free/easy self-expression. • Logical thought - orderly, sequential, systematic • Specialised knowledge - usable facts, frameworks, models • Developing others - helping, coach, feedback skills, facilitating, supporting (1982, The Competent Manager, Wiley)

22. Boyatzis - Clusters of Mgt Competence • Goal & action management cluster • concern with impact, diagnostic use of concepts, • efficiency orientation, proactivity • Leadership • conceptualisation, self-confidence, oral presentation • HRM • use of socialised power, managing group processes • Focus on other clusters • perceptual objectivity, self control, stamina & adaptability • Directing subordinates • Threshold competencies - developing others, spontaneity, use of unilateral power

23. Concrete Experience (Activist) Active Experimentation (Pragmatist) LEARNING CYCLE Reflective Observation (Reflector) Abstract Conceptualisation (Theorist) Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle A useful model for personal awareness and development D Kolb, Rubin & McIntyre Organisational Psychology, Addison Wesley

24. Successes/Failures of Training & Educational Interventions • Pre 1964. Collapse of apprenticeships • 1964 Industrial Training Act and ITBs • CATs and Polytechnics • BTEC and City and Guilds • From 1972 onwards – the marginalisation of ITBs. Abolished 1982 • Manpower Services Commission. YOPs and TOPs • Training Services Agency • National Curriculum • Local management of schools • Expansion of university education – from Polys to Universities • National Vocational Qualifications • Investors in People • Fees for Higher Education, education loans and training credits

25. Investors in People: National voluntarism accreditation to promote Er-led, quality, effective staff development • top level, commitment to develop all employees to achieve business objectives • regular review of T&D needs of all staff • action to train & develop individuals on recruitment + throughout employment • evaluate T&D to assess achievement & improve future effectiveness • written plan: business goals/targets, how employees will contribute, assess needs etc. Identify T&D resources • agree T&D needs with each employee. Link to NVQ if poss. Action: train new recruits & improve skills of existing staff • Review investment, competence & commitment of employees & skills learnt against business plan + at all levels • T&D effectiveness reviewed by top level  renewed commitment & targets

26. National Vocational Qualifications • 1986: desire for a skilled, flexible workforce ›› ›› NCVQ + NVQs based on • National Occupational Standards = performance standards developed by employer-led NTOs • what competent people in the occupation are expected to be able to do • main aspects of an occupation • best practice & ability to adapt • knowledge-base underpinning competent performance. • GNVQs in schools (but A Level "gold standard") • 1997 NCVQ merged with the School Curriculum & Assessment Authority (SCAA) ›› ›› Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA). • Remit: pre-school learning, national curriculum and tests, GCSEs, A-levels, GNVQs, NVQs, higher level vocational qualifications.

27. Underpinning principles - NVQ Approach • Open access. No artificial barriers to training • Focus on what people CAN DO > learning for qualifications (process & time) + APL • uniform standards (devised by industry lead bodies) - no rival qualifications. • flexibility & modularisation + a learning contract • assessment principles - portfolio & work-based (demos at work or simulations). • Time to complete. Criteria = “currency”. • assessment by qualified (NVQ’d) assessor

28. Differing Views on NVQs “Enormous potential for the health of the nation & the creation of a learning society”. Sue Slipman, a lead body representative, 1995 “A disaster of epic proportion” Prof. Ian Smithers, Brunel University, Channel 4 documentary, 1993

29. Tesco Implementation of NVQs • flatter, lean, flexible organisation • line managers as assessors. Store managers internal verifiers • every line manager is responsible for structured training & assessment + involved with NVQs • improved performance through pay links • integration of needs of individual with needs of organisation • staff development through accreditation of higher competence

30. Tesco NVQ Policy - Perceived Benefits • ideal training for a retail organisation? • training assessed internally by line managers & at store level • high performances from staff? • less absenteeism, increased motivation & improved general staff moral • reduced labour turnover • career progression for staff - helps with selection of core staff • customers benefit from improved quality standards & services • IIP kite mark

31. Criticisms of National NVQ Strategy • Not market-led - under-represented in mgt, professions, financial, technical & international • Shift from “learning” to assessment (laborious process) • Bureaucracy, evidence portfolio, charting, assessment of each unit/element • Employers want local tailored NVQs ---> challenges validity of “national model” & generality of standards • Assessment standard depends on assessor supply/quality. Institutional HE antipathy to “training agenda” “technically equipped but intellectually incapable (underpinning ideas)” • Low take-up. Growth at Levels 1/2, none at Level 3, fall at Levels 4/5. Traditional vocational awards outstrip NVQs by wide margin esp. at higher levels. • TEC funding linked to NVQ take-up. TECs disappear.

32. HRM and ingredients of a “Learning Organisation” • Adopt a Learning Approach to Strategy • Participative Policy Making • Informating (Information Systems) • Formative accounting • Internal Exchange (Client-Server relationships) • Reward Flexibility • Roles and flexible, matrix structures • Boundary workers as intelligence agents • Company-to-company learning • Learning climate • Self-development opportunities for all Pedler et al The Learning Company Senge The Fifth Discipline

33. Training & Rewards - Issues • Best practice in a learning organisation • Integration with “appraisal and rewards strategy”. • Locals + cosmopolitans (Gouldner) & market mobility • Investors in People • Good training …more pay, less pay? Increments for qualifications? • Certification as a job requirement. • Selling job competence. Strong CV. Career progression, job change, employee independence & life long learning • Who pays? Should the leaver reimburse the employer who has just paid £2500 for their training? • CPD stress - compulsory, evidence-based continuous “professional” up-dating

34. Reading • Buchanan and Huczynski - Chapters • 5: Learning • 17: Organisational Development • Mabey and Salaman Chapters • 10: Learning Organisations • 11: Promoting Learning in Organisations • 12: Managing the Process of Training and Development • BOLA: • http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/bola/training/