HRD talks to Train’s Program Director Michelle Gilmore about how HR can enhance workforce skills
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What do you think are the key challenges organisations are facing in terms of building skills?
Across both the private and public sectors, the practical application of valuable skills – and then measuring them – is an increasing challenge.
There’s a vast difference between general, and often superficial, training for staff and focused skill-based training that effectively embeds a capability within teams.
The latter is going to become more and more important as budgets decrease and value is more closely monitored.
How is the employee-manager relationship evolving, and why is this significant for L&D?
There are cultural signals telling us that the hierarchical way in which we used to work is slowly transitioning into professional partnerships and two-way relationships between staff and their leadership. This change needs to be reflected in L&D approaches.
Managers and employees often take part in different, and at times conflicting, training for their roles.
Training employees in a skill, field or discipline is useless if leadership doesn’t know how to coach, govern and measure their application.
What do you think HR needs to get better at to enhance workforce skills?
As budgets are (rightly) watched more closely, HR managers will need to be more accountable for the demonstrable impact of the L&D models they deploy.
General and superficial training that can’t be measured within the context of the work people do will no longer be acceptable.
Organisations must select better training partners, better design training content and its delivery, and better measure its impact.
Enhancing workforce skills also means ensuring they anchor and contribute to the business’s overarching goals. This is what moves companies forward, and training without this is just an expensive way to give teams some time away from their day jobs.
Michelle Gilmore
Program director
TRAIN
