Drawing a training line with managers

Time is the single biggest obstacle for effective training of line managers, according to the Australian Institute of Management’s director of business development, Serge Sardo. “Taking employees off the job is a costly exercise which many senior managers thoroughly challenge. That’s why flexible delivery options that don’t impact heavily on daily business activities are vital,” he says.

The other perennial challenge for HR professionals is getting managers to appreciate the value of non-technical training. There is still a stigma of soft-skills training among line managers, and Sardo says any training around human relationship competencies of any kind, such as motivating people, is still often seen as a ‘touchy feely’, non-core management ability.

HR professionals face a dual challenge when it comes to line managers and training, says Stephen Holgate, performance coach, Dale Carnegie Corporation. The first challenge is getting their attitude towards development right, followed by effective execution and implementation. “In relation to attitude, most development initiatives are forced upon managers, rather than having managers effectively engaged,” he says.

Managers receive the biggest piece of the development and training pie by the dollar, not by percentage. Yet, Holgate notes that year after year, they still ask for some of the same coaching. “360 feedback and other instruments like this can assist in building awareness before the development program,” he says.

Spaced repetition is still the way to make permanent performance changes within management, he adds.

Tackling the challenges

HR must demonstrate a clear understanding of business imperatives and link this to the line managers’immediate priorities if they are to get their attention.

“It’s vital for HR professionals to demonstrate a strong connection with the business unit’s needs and customise training solutions to meet those needs,”says Sardo. “So being able to offer flexible, effective, concise and targeted training will generate an element of trust and buy-in from line managers.”

Getting line managers involved in the decision making process is often a great way to ensure commitment and ownership, he adds.

On the consulting side, Holgate recommends finding an organistion that can fearlessly coach for implementation and accountability for application at every stage of learning, and can work with HR in ensuring managers are implementing newly developed skills where it matters most – back in the work environment.

Proving your training worth

Establishing a hard return on investment for line manager training is a perennially sticky issue for HR professionals. While it’s widely recognised that such training does provide benefits, proving this to hard-nosed CFOs is an ongoing challenge for HR.

Evaluating management training programs has long been a vexing question, says Glenn Martin, national president of the Australian Institute of Training & Development. However, many organisations have realised that measures such as retention and employee engagement, taken over a period of time of 12 months or more, give some indications that management development is worth the investment.

“The other important consideration in evaluating management training programs is to remember what the objectives of the program were,” he notes. “If the objective was to improve the confidence of managers, then asking them about their level of confidence in six months’ time would be an appropriate measure.”

Martin says the four-level evaluation model that Donald Kirkpatrick developed more than 35 years ago is still robust. Kirkpatrick said begin with the learners’ reaction to the program, and end with the effect of the program on the organisation’s business. Where possible and appropriate, measure the financial impact (return on investment), he says.

Sardo also recognises that there are numerous studies that can demonstrate the ROI of good training programs, however, he says the best business case for any training activities lies in the company’s overall strategic plan.

“Training activates should never occur in vacuums without clear connection with business objectives,” he says.

Holgate also underlines the need for HR professionals to link management development and training to business strategy. HR professionals must look beyond competencies such as communication or motivating their team, and quantify what these changes in performance should do for the business. “The real question becomes, so what?” he says. “So what will enhancing my communication skills result in, in relation to bottom line profits?”

For example, Holgate says that if a line manager can hold more effective meetings (usually lumped under the competency of communication) and establish stronger team commitments to implementation, they might be able to finish projects on time and on budget. In some environments, this might mean that they can take on more projects for the company.

“That’s the ‘so what’ factor. It makes it real and tangible for the organisation, and not just another training program,” he says. “The best way to do this is to have them link this initiative on development to the strategic plan of the company.”

Line management training trends

There have been a number of developments in line management and development training in recent times, with a shift to initiatives designed to be more effective and efficient. “Organisations are now looking for short, sharp, very focused training with key deliverables,” says Sardo.

Customised accredited programs such as diplomas are becoming increasingly popular where a flexible delivery option can be achieved. This includes half to one day modules (rather than a two day intensive), distance and online learning options. Having course participants assessed on each module completed certainly adds an element of accountability and is very desirable, he says.

For larger organisations, Sardo says national consistency and centralised coordination of training activities is becoming a hot issue. “Many organisations would struggle to expediently determine their year-to-date training spend at any given time. This presents all sorts of quality and ROI issues as training activities are not effectively monitored for appropriateness and quality. Therefore, formalised provider panels and centralised booking systems are becoming more prevalent.”

Martin says that emotional intelligence (EQ) has also been a big influence on training courses for managers. “It has long been said that there is limited value in people learning the rational skills of management if they cannot deal productively with other people … Management training programs now try to incorporate EQ principles,” he says.

Similarly, another growing aspect of management training programs is coaching. “Coaching ties in nicely with the above developments. It provides a context where EQ can be recognised and developed. It facilitates the learning process so that off-the-job time can be used most effectively. And it is a context where the underpinnings of behaviour, that is, beliefs and values, can be addressed in a supportive way,” he says.

Another reason why coaching is important is that it needs to be a product of the learning as well as a method of learning, Martin adds. Effective managers need to have the interpersonal skills to lead their staff, and being able to coach staff is an aspect of effective leadership. The command-and-control approach to management is no longer suitable for most situations, he says.

The rise of training competencies

A great deal of work has gone into identifying the underlying competencies of management, according to Glenn Martin, national president of the Australian Institute of Training & Development. In Australia, for example, the frontline management initiative (in the wake of the Karpin Report) offered a set of generic competencies, and training has been developed around these. In Britain, Martin says a set of generic competencies for managers was devised, while in the USA, the Centre for Creative Leadership has also assembled a list of 20 competencies.

"Training programs for managers have been strongly influenced by these frameworks for managerial competencies," he says. "At the same time, some leaders in the field of management development have started to place stronger emphasis on understanding the particular context where management is exercised. Generic competencies can only be enacted if the manager has 'local knowledge' - that is, an understanding of the particular dynamics of the company, the industry and the people."

Sardo also says many organisations are continuing the trend of developing their own management competency frameworks and having training programs designed around these frameworks. Even with this model, he says the modules are usually very short and sharp with some companies wanting independent two-hour modules that can be delivered at any time. "Internally designed management competency frameworks are usually common in middle to senior management levels," he says.