Questionnaire identifying the need for training of service personnel. Line manager school. Professional training of personnel. Analysis of the decisions of the governing bodies of the company

An excerpt from the book by Tamara Vorotyntseva

- To identify the need, we used Applications and Clarification Interviews, but what other methods are there?

- Good question! Indeed, we used the simplest methods. If you are interested, I am ready to tell you about other methods that can be used. But now I need to leave for 30 minutes. And at this time, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with these materials, - and Irina handed Dasha a small brochure. I hope we'll have something to talk about when I get back.

Irina left, and Dasha turned with interest to reading the contents of the brochure.

It contained the following.

Methods for identifying training needs

Analysis of the results of the assessment of the candidate when applying for a job

essence this method is to identify areas for development and training of the employee being hired. Currently, companies have a notion of mandatory (must) and desirable (want) requirements for applicants. Thus, mandatory requirements are the minimum qualifications and behavioral characteristics (competences) that will allow the employee to immediately begin to perform job duties. Along with this, there are so-called desirable requirements, the presence of which increases the efficiency of an employee in a particular position. These are the requirements that the company imposes on the applicant, but, in the absence of such, allows them to be acquired after some time: through on-the-job training, independent study and work, by attending trainings, etc.

If during the interview and testing it is revealed that the applicant has the required level of qualification and the required behavioral characteristics, thendesirable requirements can become learning targets and development areas.

This work is carried out by recruitment specialists, but information about training and development zones is important information for the training department.

Advantages of the method: efficiency

Critical points of the method: the degree of completeness and clarity of the description of the requirements for the position; congruence of the description of the requirements for the position and the real requirements, the reliability of the assessment tools, the qualifications of the recruiter, the validity of the assessment methods used, the degree of documentation of the assessment results, the availability of information for the training department (the efficiency of communication).

Analysis of the performance of new employees during the probationary period of induction (adaptation)

The probationary period set for the employee, as well as the adaptation of the newly hired employee, allow him to enter the workflow of the organization. In the course of both procedures, the shortcomings of the employee, which hinder his effective work in a new place, can also be identified. Two options are possible here. The first, unfortunately, often encountered in the practice of trading companies when recruiting employees who directly carry out sales (sales representatives, managers) is to let the employee work until the end of the probationary period, and then dismiss him as not suitable for this position. The second is to organize employee training in one form or another. This technology can be used by both line managers and HR department.

Advantages of the method: a high degree of objectivity of the information received about the knowledge, skills and abilities required by the employee; the conditionality of the required knowledge by the practical activities of the employee.

Critical points of the method : the degree of specificity and certainty of the requirements and tasks facing the employee for the period of the adaptation period / trial period, the degree of documentation of these stages, the availability of information for the training department (communication efficiency).

Questioning of heads of departments and employees

It is expedient to use this method for promptly identifying the needs for training on professional topics for large groups of specialists. The questionnaire should be designed in such a way that it allows an unambiguous and adequate assessment of training needs. The results of the survey will help determine who and what needs to be trained.

The content of the questionnaire should be a suggested list of questions of the study plan for a quarter, half a year, a year, or, more narrowly, a list of topics for a study program for a particular course. Catalogs of authoritative training centers, offering a wide range of programs in professional disciplines. Answers to the questions of the questionnaire will help to identify new areas of training or form groups of employees that are homogeneous in terms of level and needs for training in this area.

Advantages of the method: efficiency

Critical points : degree of reliability, degree of automation of processing results

Interviewing managers and employees

The changes taking place in the company can be different in scale and speed. Major changes, determined by the decisions of the governing bodies of the company, do not happen all that often. Much more often you have to deal with changes in the areas of work of individual departments or individual employees. These changes are difficult or even impossible to track at the organizational level. In this regard, one of the most important technologies for identifying training needs is holding regular meetings and conversations between the training manager and the heads of departments. Such meetings can also serve as a basis for preparing decisions of the company's governing bodies.

Advantages of the method: authenticity

Critical points: efficiency, the level of proficiency of a specialist in teaching interview techniques.

Cases

The case methodology is based on the construction of a specific working situation and the proposal to the tested employee to find a solution for this situation. Cases can be aimed at testing specific knowledge and skills. Such cases have clear correct answers. By comparing the test-taker's response with the correct response, areas for learning can be identified.

Cases can also be aimed at identifying the value orientations of the tested person, his individual personality traits, and his characteristic and familiar behavior patterns. Such cases do not have correct answers. The answers given by the tested give an idea of ​​the degree of compliance of the candidate with the corporate culture of the organization, the values ​​and competencies accepted in the company. Thus, it is possible to identify employee development zones.

Advantages of the method: authenticity, low labor intensity

Critical points: non-obviousness of the result for the subject, the need for constant updating of the bank of cases

"360 degrees"

The 360-degree assessment is the acquisition of data on a person's actions in real work situations and on the business qualities shown by him. At the same time, information is obtained from people who communicate with this person on different levels: boss, colleagues, subcontractor, subordinate, clients.

The applicant for the position himself can also be involved as an expert: he is asked to evaluate his work behavior and professional qualities in order to further use these data to correct his self-esteem and create an individual development plan together with him.

Advantages of the method: are due to the qualifications of the specialist conducting this assessment, and the degree of success in resolving critical points.

Critical points: the quality of the preparation and compilation of questionnaires, the degree of awareness of participants about the objectives of the procedure, the processing and interpretation of the results, the literacy of feedback to the object of evaluation.

Assessment center

Assessment Center- a procedure in which candidates take part in a series of exercises and tests in the presence of trained observers. The result of this procedure is the assessment of participants according to a number of predetermined criteria.

The assessment center is used when hiring candidates, in training and developing personnel, when appointing employees to senior positions, to decide on the suitability of an employee for a position, to determine the possibility of performing new functions, when planning further training of employees within the company and determining their potential development.

Advantages of the method: can be assessed by comparing it with other popular methods of personnel assessment.

Assessment differs from testing in that it tests not so much the theoretical knowledge of the participant as his skills that are important for practical work.

Compared to an interview, an assessment gives a more objective picture. After all, as you know, most HR managers, when interviewing a candidate, make one or another decision in the first 30 seconds of the conversation, and then only look for confirmation of their decision.

Unlike questionnaires, assessment participants are much less likely to hide their true skills and psychological attitudes.

Critical points : high cost (when conducted by invited experts), the degree of awareness of the tested about the objectives of the procedure, the literacy of feedback to the object of evaluation.

Analysis of the decisions of the governing bodies of the company

Any changes in the company's activities are formalized in the form of decisions of its governing bodies (board of directors, management board, committees, councils, etc.). The training manager must review these decisions in a timely manner, analyze them in terms of possible training needs, and make appropriate proposals for correcting the training plan and budget.

It's good if he doesn't just keep track turnkey solutions, and participates in their preparation - personally or through the director of personnel. Then the necessary measures to organize training will appear already at the stage of preparing decisions of the executive bodies of the company.

But the ideal option is when not the training manager or HR director, but the department heads and project managers themselves, when drawing up plans and preparing decisions, include personnel training activities that accompany and support the planned changes.

Advantages of the method : authenticity.

Critical points : availability of information for the training department, efficiency of internal communications in the company.

Analysis of changes in the state of human resources within the company

The personnel service of the company periodically analyzes the state of human resources for staff turnover, planned reductions, headcount optimization, etc.

Also, an organization that cares about its future manages the movement of employees, building career plans for certain categories of them. Such plans take into account possible movements employees horizontally and vertically.

Each of the personnel movements must be accompanied by appropriate training.

Advantages of the method: authenticity.

Critical points: the availability of information for the training department, the efficiency of internal communications in the company, the degree of documentation of personnel changes.

Analysis of special external information

Special external information here means any information about changes in the external environment (economic, legal, etc.). This information can be obtained from official sources, information and analytical publications, materials of conferences and seminars.

The analysis of information and the conclusions from it, leading to changes in work and causing training needs, are the prerogative of specialists in their respective fields. However, the training manager should also keep an eye on the main review sources of information in order to important changes did not come as a surprise to him.

Advantages of the method: efficiency, availability.

Critical points: reliability, the need to attract competent specialists to evaluate information.

Analysis of technology changes

Changes in the technologies used in the company's production processes also need to be systematically reviewed for the possible need for staff training. Obviously, training is almost inevitable in the event of a change in the equipment or software used by employees.

Changes in technology are not always so obvious. So, non-material changes, for example, document circulation, including the emergence of new types and forms of documents, also belong to technological ones.

This method of identifying training needs, like the previous one, should be used primarily by line managers.

Advantages of the method: authenticity.

Critical points: the availability of information for the training department, the efficiency of internal communications in the company, the need to attract competent specialists to evaluate the information.

Analysis of the results of employee appraisal

In the established view and, unfortunately, in most typical cases, certification is associated with a formal assessment of the personal qualities of an employee, as well as his qualifications, the degree of compliance with her position. As a result of such certification, it is planned to assess the gap between the actual and required qualifications of employees, identify gaps and plan to eliminate them.

Critical points: the degree of formality in the approach to assessment, the degree of connection of requirements for an employee with practical activities, the availability of information for the training department (speed of communication)

Employee performance appraisal program

It is a model of personnel management based on management by goals: managing the activities of employees based on managing their individual goals, encouraging the professional growth of employees, providing them with the opportunity to improve the skills and competencies necessary to achieve the goals.

The implementation of this approach allows you to create a personnel management system that allows you to:

Take into account the contribution of each employee to the achievement of the annual goals of the enterprise

Financially reward each employee in accordance with the degree to which he achieves individual goals.

Determine in a personal form the areas of improvements that have taken place and the areas of further development of the employee for the next period.

The cycle of the program should consist of the following steps:

The first stage is planning individual business goals and employee training and development goals.

The second stage is the fulfillment of business goals and learning and development goals

The third stage is the evaluation of the activities and results of training and development for a specified period

The fourth stage - remuneration based on the results of performance evaluation for a specified period

Individual business goals are set based on priority areas work of the department/service/enterprise in the current year.

Training and Development Goals are set based on the behavioral and functional skills and knowledge development needs identified during the last year's performance evaluation phase and/or those needs that are a necessary condition for successfully achieving the business goals of the current/next year.

In both cases goals professional development include goals for the development of corporate and professional competencies and goals for the development of functional knowledge and skills.

Advantages of the method: the connection of the planned training with practical activities, the obviousness of the need for three parties: for the employee, his manager, the training department, high reliability.

Critical points: the complexity of the procedure, the smoothness of its flow, the HR competence of line managers, the degree of automation of processing the evaluation results and the transparency of internal communications in the company.

The main criteria for evaluating the method for identifying training needs:

Aksenova O.A.

Organizations of any type cannot do without constant training of employees, their development is the imperative of the times. The industrial economy is being replaced by a knowledge-based economy. In such an economy, intellectual assets (not only R&D, trademarks, licenses, patents, etc.) play a decisive role, but also human resources, the level of staff development, management qualifications, corporate culture, and corporate ethics.

World experience economic development shows the close relationship of dynamics financial indicators companies that characterize its sustainability, success (marginal profit, share return, revenue per employee) with investments in innovative projects for the transfer and attraction of new knowledge through staff training.

A look at a person, an employee of an organization as a valuable resource in a new way forms an idea of ​​the tasks of managing this area. There is a need to take into account new factors, such as the compliance of human resources with the long-term development of the organization, their ability to adapt and flexibly adapt to the changing needs of the market and business environment.

One of the main and permanent tasks of HR management is to assess the state and efficiency of the use of human resources, analyze the feasibility of investing in human resources and evaluate the effectiveness of investments. The sequence of solving these problems, as well as the general factors that must be taken into account, are presented in Fig. 1.

With this approach, the diagnosis of training needs, a clear formulation of goals and the preparation of a training plan, the choice of programs and sequence training modules become part of the overall human resource management process of the organization. Of course, this not only raises the status and importance of personnel services, but also significantly complicates the functions of this unit, which requires highly qualified employees from them.

Diagnosing the needs for training and development of personnel makes it possible to formulate the goals of the upcoming training in order to reasonably choose both programs and the amount of investment in training, that is, to be able to answer questions - why, whom and what to teach. This allows you to create a training plan that works to improve the efficiency of the company as a whole. Of course, the collection of information for diagnosing the state of human resources and its analysis require time and effort, but without this stage, any training will be useless. Unfortunately, to solve this problem, rather general recommendations are most often offered or the most unpretentious and unrepresentative method is chosen (for example, self-diagnosis). Sometimes companies outsource workforce diagnostics (including assessment of training needs) to specialized Assessment Centers. At the same time, one must be aware that in this case the company transfers such important human resource management tools as comprehensive assessment human resources and building a management system for these resources, identifying the causes of existing problems and issuing recommendations to bring the human resource management system in line with the goals of personnel assessment centers. As for the latter, their services are quite expensive - the simplest analysis of the results of a standard survey of one employee costs more than 30 thousand rubles.

Next, we propose to consider methods for collecting information to determine training needs, identify the most priority areas, draw up a plan and, ultimately, justify the budget for the upcoming training. The most popular method of collecting information - through questionnaires is not considered here. The organization and procedures associated with this method are described and analyzed in detail in.

Let us dwell in more detail on the description of other, less common, but accessible and at the same time reliable methods of collecting information that can be carried out by both HR service employees and invited consultants.

observation. An indispensable source of information at the stage of general intelligence; allows you to identify the features of the structure of the organization, its organizational culture, real (and not declared) values, the general level of management, adaptation to the surrounding business environment. This is an excellent method for diagnosing the state of labor resources, it allows you to identify groups (divisions) of people, possible areas and directions that need development.

Table 1

Suggested Observation Contexts

The use of a combination of techniques makes it possible to make this observation structured. The main steps are as follows:

1) identification of the contexts (contents) of observation, which are determined by the purposes of collecting information. In table. 1 are given possible options contexts of observation to identify training and development needs;

2) defining the role of the person (HR employee or consultant) who collects information. For example, he may act as a participant in some training programs or meetings held on this topic. Although in these situations, he can choose the role of an observer. Both roles can be useful at certain stages of the work, and in some situations the consultant simply does not have a choice;

3) fixation/registration of the results of observation. Of course, immediate fixation of all observations is preferable. But this most often violates the natural course of events: a person who constantly writes down something “gets on the nerves” of others. Therefore, most of the results of observations must be reproduced from memory, and during the observation, only brief notes should be taken, using a pre-prepared “framework” to fix important points, which will also facilitate the process of recreating the observed picture.

Observation as a method allows one to compose general idea about the organization, business environment, organizational culture, shared values, identify problem areas and main cause-and-effect relationships in the process of human resource management. In table. 2 shows a fragment of fixing the results of the observation and comments on them.

Interview. Information collected from observations is used to prepare and conduct subsequent information collection through several interviews. It is advisable to use semi-formalized interviews related to the so-called focused type.

Interviews with leaders. First of all, you should conduct interviews with managers who act as a customer curricula. That is, with those leaders who are empowered to make decisions and are responsible (bear responsible) for problems related to general level performance quality. Therefore, initial interviews should not be conducted with lower or middle level “line” managers, as they do not have the right to make decisions on the introduction of new training systems.

table 2

Results of Structured Observation*

* General understanding of the organization, business environment, problem areas related to the organization's human resources.

The interviews of the above type provide only a list of basic questions, and the information obtained serves to clarify information about training needs. The main questions that need to be answered as a result of these interviews, examples of answers and comments are given in Table. 3.

The results of the interview with the head-customer

(Director of Human Resources)

Interviews with line managers can clarify the relationship of training to existing problems in the organization, as well as enlist their consent to training and support. These informal interviews make it possible to clarify whether the existing problems are really related to insufficient qualifications of employees and the lack of certain competencies, and not caused by any other reasons. Therefore, as a result of the interview, the following questions should be clarified:

• How does the manager evaluate general situation in the department?
• Are the implementers provided with sufficient resources?
• is there enough Information Support for support high level performance?
• how effective is the reward and compensation system?
• Does the burden on employees match their capabilities?
• Are employees motivated enough?
• what can be improved?
• What skills (knowledge, skills) are missing?
• what kind of training do employees need?
• what form of education is most appropriate?
• if the decision to train is made, is the manager ready to provide support?
• What information about the upcoming training would the manager like to receive?

Interviews with ordinary employees. These interviews make it possible to understand how people are motivated to learn. Here are the main questions to be answered:

• Tell us about the nature of your work, what does it consist of?
• your activities, terms of reference, who are your subordinates? If there are no subordinates, then with whom do you work in cooperation?
• what are you working on now?
• is this your regular job?
• how is it common/unusual?
• In the job you are currently in, how important is the skill?
• How do you feel about the opportunity to take part in the training program...?
• do you support.? If “yes”, then why, if “no”, then why?

Conducting an interview. When conducting interviews, it is necessary to take into account all the rules for conducting interviews and, first of all, the conditions (environment) in which they are conducted.

An unfavorable environment is characterized by the fact that there is no separate room (the interview is conducted at the workplace), the respondent occasionally returns to his duties/occupations, third parties are present, someone interferes in the interview, repeatedly interrupting with extraneous conversations, phone calls, etc. In an unfavorable environment a long interview is generally impossible, and a short, standardized one (answers to prepared questions) is quite acceptable.

Document analysis method. The method is a set of techniques and procedures associated with the analysis of text documents. The most accessible for analysis are the following documents:

• according to individual performance evaluation;
• job descriptions;
• professional standards.

The most effective from the point of view of diagnosing the state of the organization's labor resources is the analysis of documents related to the results of an individual assessment of the activities of employees. Of course, in the event that such a procedure exists and is regularly carried out in the organization. Usually this document is quite large and has several sections, therefore, to simplify and further work with it, it is recommended to transfer the data for each employee to an intermediate form (see Table 4).

Table 4

Summary of performance evaluation

The processing of this information using modern computer statistical data processing programs (SPSS) makes it possible to identify existing problem areas:

• departments in which individual performance scores are the lowest;
• specific performers with the lowest ratings;
• important competencies that received low marks.

If a regular assessment of the individual level of performance in the organization is not carried out, then the content analysis of job descriptions or professional standards can serve as a source of information about the importance or demand for certain skills, the sequence of procedures for content analysis of documents is as follows:

1. selection of parameters (required competencies) that interest us;
2. selection of text indicators that characterize these parameters;
3. selection of documents (job descriptions, professional standards);
4. selection of a group of people (division, certain positions, specialists);
5. conducting a content analysis for the presence in the texts of a professional standard for these positions or job descriptions of selected text indicators:
   • calculation of the total number of considered documents;
   • determination of the frequency of mention in the considered documents of these indicators.

When processing a large number of texts, you can use a special computer program QDA Miner (WordStat application).

In table. 5 shows the results of processing job descriptions and professional standards (twenty-seven documents) for middle managers of an enterprise that is part of an international concern.

Table 5

Results of content analysis of documents*

* The total number of considered documents is 27.

The results of processing the above data showed that the most mentioned indicators related to complex knowledge (competence), defined as "strategic thinking", are:

• item 10 - the ability to foresee possible problems (22);
• item 1 - the ability to collect, structure and analyze information (20);
• p. 3 - make thoughtful decisions (19);
• item 5 - set clear goals (17).

Such an analysis makes it possible to identify the competencies most frequently mentioned in the documents and, consequently, the competencies most in demand for these positions, which can serve as a rationale for diagnosing and determining the needs for the necessary knowledge.

Summarizing the above, we can conclude the following:

• conducting structured observation allows you to get a general idea of ​​​​the organization, the surrounding business environment, highlight problem areas and the main cause-and-effect relationships;
• information that is collected through interviews with managers who have the right to decide on the conduct of training, line managers and ordinary employees should clarify the overall picture;
• observations and interviews are supplemented by another method of collecting information - document analysis (according to individual performance assessment, job descriptions, professional standards).

The processing of this information makes it possible to more clearly identify existing problem areas: departments in which individual performance ratings are the lowest; specific performers who received the lowest ratings; competencies that received low marks. The use of content analysis allows you to identify the most frequently mentioned in the documents, and therefore the most relevant competencies for these positions, which can serve as a rationale for determining the need for new knowledge.

The templates of the above methods make them much easier for HR employees to use even without the involvement of external consultants.

In the future, the information collected using the above methods can be combined into a "Report on the diagnostics of the organization's human resources" with the main sections:

1. Results of structured observation (general idea about the organization, business environment, problem areas related to the organization's human resources);
2. The results of the analysis of the documents "Individual assessment of activities" (departments / divisions with a large percentage of employees who received "unsatisfactory" ratings according to the list of competencies are indicated);
3. Recommendations on the use and development of human resources;
4. Learning and development plan

Thus, the work of diagnosing the state of the labor force and determining the training needs ends with the preparation of a preliminary plan, including short description necessary programs, their sequence and the time period during which they should be carried out, as well as their summary, the number of people with indication of units and recommendations for the formation of groups. Subsequently, this plan, its implementation, must be supplemented by monitoring procedures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Glukhov V.V., Korobko S.B., Marinina T.V. Economy of knowledge. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2003. 528 p.

2. Aksenova O.A. Organization corporate system learning. St. Petersburg: Publishing house of Politekhn. un-ta, 2005. 268 p.

3. Aloian D.C., Fowler W.R. How to create a High-Performance Training Plan // Training & Development Journal, November 1994, pp. 43-44.

4. Hubbard A. Evaluating a Training Session // Mortgage Banking, March 2004, vol. 6416, pp. 124-127.

5. Freeman J. Human resources planning - training needs analysis // Management Quarterly, Fall 1993, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 44-50.

6. Wagner R., Weigand R. Can the value of training be measured? // The Health Care Manager, Jan-March 2004, vol. 23 i1, pp. 71-75.

7. Vorotyntseva T., Nedelin E. We are building a personnel training system. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2008. 124 p.

8. Yadov V.A. Strategy of sociological research. Description, explanation, understanding of social reality. Moscow: Dobrosvet, 2003. 595 p.

9. Alekseev A.N. Observant participation in simulation situations. St. Petersburg: Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1997. 75 p.

10. Fenetto E. Interview and questionnaire: forms, procedures, results. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2004. 160 p.

11. Rogozhnikov M., Tarusin M. Workshops of curved mirrors // Expert. 2006. No. 40. P. 110-112.

12. Berelson B. Content Analysis in Communication Research. Glencoe, I 11. N. Y.: The Free Press, 1952. 120 p.

13. Klaus Krippenendorff. Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology, Sage Publication, Beverly Hill, CA, 1980. 225 p.

14. Averyanov L.Ya. Content analysis. M.: Kno-Rus, 2007. 456 p.

1. 1. What are the goals of the organization?
2. 2. What are the tasks to be completed in order to achieve these goals?
3. 3. How should an employee behave in order to fulfill the tasks assigned to him?
4. 4. What gaps do employees have in skills, knowledge, attitudes to perform current and future tasks?
5. 5. What exactly is the difference between the current situation and the desired situation?

What areas (topics) of training are necessary and relevant for employees of your department?

4. Specify the desired ways of obtaining knowledge in areas of interest to you(mark "+")

5. What kind of support/information from experts/trainers would you like to receive?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Information about the person who filled out the questionnaire

FULL NAME. ________________________________________________________

Job title __________________________________________________

Personal signature ___________________________________________________

A training need diagnosis should achieve the following goals:
- clarification of the company's development goals - clarification of the strategy ( those. WHY LEARN);
- determining what competencies need to be taught ( those. WHAT to teach);
- identifying categories of employees who do not have the necessary competencies to achieve goals ( those. WHO to teach);
- identification of problem areas of the company (express diagnostics of management quality);
- identifying existing problems and difficulties in the work of employees scheduled for training;
- identifying the degree of compliance of the declared topic of training with a real-life need for training;
- determining the priority in training various target groups of employees based on the results of express diagnostics;
- providing the most accurately developed training programs.

Methods for collecting information when identifying training needs:
- interviews or individual consultation sessions with the customer (usually the HR manager);
- interviews with students;
- pre-training questionnaire or questionnaire;
- analysis of the structure, in particular, analysis of the text of job descriptions of students;
- "field studies".
In order to accurately determine, for example, WHAT learn, enterprises in advanced economies, with the help of consultants, create and implement the so-called corporate competency model. In the corporate competency model, position profiling is strictly tied to the company's development strategy. That is, first a strategy is developed, an image of the desired future is created, and only then the competencies necessary to achieve this future are identified. The corporate competency model changes along with the change in strategy.
Russian companies, unlike Western ones, do not have a hundred years to evolve, to "try on" themselves different approaches and management models. They follow the path of "catching up development". Most do not have a formalized strategy and do not yet have funds for consultants. Therefore, for companies where there is no strategy or it exists only in the heads of managers, such an element of management consulting as diagnosing the need for training becomes critical in terms of saving the company's funds so that the company's funds allocated for training do not turn into "money". thrown into the wind."
The results of the diagnosis of learning needs:
- the most accurate development of training programs;
- changing the topic of training in accordance with the identified need;
- shifting priority in training from one target group to another.
In the process of providing a service for diagnosing the need for training, interacting with the customer company at different levels, analyzing the materials provided, trainers-consultants, voluntarily or involuntarily, but always carry out express diagnostics of control quality. The very event of conducting a training or seminar turns into a diagnostic stage. In particular, trainers-consultants see and analyze the following information lying “on the surface”:
- efficiency of personnel motivation;
- effectiveness of corporate culture (leadership style, in particular);
- efficiency of information circulation within the company;
- the effectiveness of the organizational structure and its compliance with the goals of the company;
- the effectiveness of the organization of various business processes, their compliance with the strategic goals of the company, if any, and formulated in the company at least in a general form in the form of a mission.
It is a pity if, after the training, the information collected by the trainer-consultant about the problem areas of the company is taken away by him and not brought to the attention of the manager. Meanwhile, it can be competently and skillfully transferred to company executives, depending on the cost of one day of training in oral or writing(). For this purpose, it is provided Report on the results of the training, which acts here as a management consulting tool.
The report on the results of the training may contain the following information:
- analytical information based on the results of express diagnostics and diagnostics of training needs;
- analytical information based on the results of "field studies" with an assessment of the effectiveness of the work of personnel and the level of motivation;
- personnel development program in the form of a package of training programs for various target groups of employees with their detailed study, taking into account the specifics of the company;
- providing recommendations in the form of methodological materials.
Types of methodological materials provided in the report:
- teaching materials for conducting digital "measurements", for evaluating the effectiveness of training using a formula that displays the index of assimilation of knowledge by a group;
- provision of a Learning Contract form, a non-legal document;
- provision of another form of contract - Follow-Up Contract - on the methods of monitoring the application of the acquired knowledge with a description of the procedure for its use, etc.
Disadvantages of the report on the results of the training as a management consulting tool:
- the trainer-consultant, with his conclusions and recommendations, motivates the client for changes, innovations, but does not monitor them;
- the report, as a rule, is provided within the framework of the contract for the provision of training services and does not imply feedback.
Therefore, quite often a simple event for conducting a training “poured out” into the beginning of an extensive consulting project with the conclusion of an agreement for the provision of consulting services. That is why way goes formation of demand for consulting services in Russia.
Since in the process of diagnosing the training needs the largest number"pitfalls" arises when identifying the degree of compliance with the declared, ordered topic of study, really the existing need for staff in training, in this article I would like to give some of the most striking examples of such a discrepancy.
The author of the article had a chance to conduct a one-day seminar "Project Management" in a well-known telecommunications company. However, the analysis of training needs - a pre-training questionnaire and individual interviews with trainees - showed that the company does not have project management in the classical, scientific understanding of this stable phrase as a term. Project management as a special form of management with a certain structure is just emerging in Russia.
In the client company, the term "project management" was used in the following senses:
1) execution (implementation) technical project;
2) fulfillment of a certain type of work or task type placed in front of the employee;
3) project = client.
The group of students on the topic "Project Management" was formed in such a way that out of ten people it included only three manager in the classical sense of the meaning of the word: a manager is a leader who has the right to make managerial decisions and has at least one person in subordination. Among them, only one project manager basically a manager technical project, not a project in the classical sense.
Diagnostics of the need for training - interviews and a questionnaire - showed that project planning, determining the necessary resources, including financial ones, and writing a business plan were not the responsibility of most of the students. Therefore, these topics were excluded by the trainer-consultant from the original program already approved by the company's management.
Diagnostics of training needs also showed that employees had problems in interaction, communication between different departments of the company working on the same technical project.
Ultimately, the original training program was revised and a workshop on management, whose program combined the two most important topics for this group: (technical) project management(decision making, control over implementation, work with information) and communications. That is what really the company needed. The participants of the seminar were ready to learn “something”, according to Pushkin, and “for the future”.
Another company held a seminar on "Stress Management". It was an international, non-profit organization providing information and educational services.
The workshop, designed by a trainer-consultant, was designed to “arm” the trainees:
1. techniques for coping with stress;
2. knowledge on effective communications;
3. knowledge on time management.
However, during a meeting with the customer, a certain “hope” for getting rid of stress only through a seminar was revealed. Question effective organization of work, question management quality did not rise and was not considered.
Meanwhile, the analysis of pre-training questionnaires of students to identify the causes of stress, as well as discussions organized by the trainer during training, revealed such causes of stress, sources of negative emotions at work,
How:
unclear development prospects;
lack of understanding of our problems on the part of British colleagues (managers);
change in corporate culture, poor feedback from management, the introduction of standards that make it difficult to take the initiative, make decisions promptly;
noise, lack of air;
inconvenient location of the workplace, table.
And:
Insufficiently clearly defined job responsibilities for some related groups of employees;
Insufficient involvement of ordinary employees in the company's decision-making process;
lack of effective circulation of information in the company;
· rush jobs at the workplace (insufficiently effective organization of labor).
That is, something that did not depend on the training, the provider company and the personality of the trainer. This means that the expectations of the management that training, like a “magic wand”, will remove all the fatigue and stress of employees, was not destined to come true.
In writing report on the results of the training the management of the organization was given a list of recommendations that may need to be done:
1. hire an additional worker for a specific area;
2. establish a more efficient circulation of information within the company;
3. Carefully introduce new standards, taking into account the opinion of the team, with the intention to “sell” any innovations to the team;
4. “finish” the Rules for using the fund for visitors, describe in more detail what kind of damage to the fund is meant in the Rules, which would help to avoid discrepancies, remove some of the conflict situations and, thus, reduce stress.
The information presented in the report was necessary for management to familiarize and decision making changing situations and solving problems.
It must be admitted that the information is not always used and the recommended decisions are made. Often decisions are made only when the company is critical "necessary". As a rule, such managerial decisions are made in a "fire" situation and are reactive in nature.
"Pushing through" decision-making largely depends on the degree of motivation of the customer, the head of the personnel department of the enterprise. But is it always enough to want to "move". The customer can move different kinds motivation: professional(desire to take responsibility, interestingness, meaningfulness of the work), patriotic(“root” for the cause, for the department), master's(putting the employee in the position of the owner) and instrumental(monetary forms of remuneration). If the customer does not have enough motives, then he does not become an advocate for changes, after training there are no changes, which means that investments in training turn into only a costly part, they become money “thrown away”.
Let's go back to the Stress Management seminar. Conduct analysis role play in the block "Working with an irritated client" confirmed correctness, i.e. maximum accuracy in the development of the proposed training program. Communication with the clients of the organization, visitors to the fund was a continuous source of negative emotions and tension. The reason for this was the staff's lack of the necessary knowledge and skills to use psychological techniques for communicating with a client, as well as knowledge of the basics of the "philosophy" of business, which was not realized by either the company's managers or the students.
It was difficult for the learners to accept some ideas and values, for example:
1. the easiest way to lose a client (to set him against himself, to cause emotional resistance - resentment, irritation, protest, dispute) is defend and attack;
2 the official duties of employees do not include “educating” the client and “putting him in his place”;
3. employees do not have the right to evaluate visitors personally, and it is in this sense that “the client is always right!”, no matter how wrong he is
4. Common sense is to accept visitors as they are, and stop with them "fight" on an emotional level.
The participants of the seminar, working in small groups, failed to cope with the task of "quenching" the client's irritation. In some cases, a sharp, "attacking" intonation did not allow them to do this, in others - the use in the vocabulary of the word-conflictogen "no", did not contribute to the elimination of the conflict situation and the establishment of contact with the visitor and closed posture- crossed arms on the chest (communication barrier), - and the absence of friendly eye contact (a look of "frowning" - a communication barrier), such a psychological technique of communication with the client as sympathy. All this did not allow simply and conflict-free take a fine from the client.
Another example. At a car dealership that has several "sites" in Moscow, the head of personnel department insisted that SPIN equipment be included in the training program for car dealership salesmen, although it was obvious that this category of employees did not need to be trained in such company equipment. The very nature of the work did not allow its application.
In another company, a bank, management allocated considerable funds to train several groups of facilitators on the topic "The Art of Negotiation" with a business game. The business game was designed for managers, loan officers, whose responsibility was to make financial decisions. In the process of studying the need for training, when analyzing the information provided by the bank on the job responsibilities of the bank curators, the trainer-consultant revealed that the job descriptions of the curators did not empower the curators negotiate with the right to make financial decisions.
The very term "negotiating", widely used in the vocabulary of middle managers, often meant simple informing existing and potential customers of the bank about the services provided, clarification of the procedure for conducting banking operations, the content of instructive documents or sales.
Bank managers, on the one hand, were dissatisfied with the fact that curators were not working efficiently enough, were not able to accept independent solutions, on the other hand, they demonstrated a lack of understanding that the framework in which the curators are placed does not allow them to take the initiative and take any responsibility.
Therefore, the trainer-consultant recommended either to give the curators authority, which means to change their job descriptions, and for this to make a managerial decision, which is both risky and troublesome, or to exclude this topic- "Negotiating" - from the training program. Learn bank curators "for future use"- was not rational use bank money.
Of course, it would be possible to conduct negotiation training for bank handlers, but it would not be expected that learning outcomes affect performance companies. The training would only help personal growth curators and, perhaps, could be useful to some curator at a new workplace, somewhere in another bank, in a new position. Then one could talk about professional growth , but an employee of another bank.
A "field" study of the quality of customer service by the bank's supervisors by phone revealed that not all bank supervisors fully share the values ​​of a client-oriented approach in sales. It was found that the curators had no basic knowledge of the "philosophy" of business:
1. the client is the most important person in company. He is a key figure in any business;
2. the client is the basis of the well-being and prosperity of everyone, it is on the money from his pocket that the company exists and develops, jobs are created, everyone eats, dresses and organizes their leisure time;
3. The customer comes to the company not only to buy. In the process of rendering services to him, he has the right to count on the satisfaction of his most diverse needs. He wants "the whole Maslow pyramid" to buy in addition;
4. Responsibility for maintaining the balance of the needs of the client lies with the employee;
5. criterion quality service delivery and goal service is a satisfied customer.
The bank's management was presented in writing with a short list of mistakes made by the bank's curators in the process of servicing customers by phone:
- revealed the phenomenon of lack of joy to the client on the phone.
There is no smile, no enthusiasm in the voice. The service is sometimes rather tired than enthusiastic. Such a sales technique as creating a pleasant first impression is underestimated;
- inactive use positive words, words with a positive emotional connotation: “Thank you”, “Please”, “With pleasure”, “Of course!”, “We will be glad”, “There is good news (message) for you”;
- inactive application of knowledge on elucidation techniques, needs research client.
The trend is to talk about the service, and not ask, listen, showing true interest in the client, his problems and requests;
- inactive use of open questions.
Curators either do not ask any questions, or ask them inconsistently, without setting themselves the goal of identifying, investigating the client's problems, the solution of which can be undertaken by the bank;
- misunderstanding of that identifying customer needs is a key step in selling.
In a situation where the client himself has a vague idea of ​​what he wants, does not know how to “communicate” his thoughts to the curator, does not know how to formulate them, the curator must be able to do this using the technique of asking questions and the technique of effective listening. In the understanding of curators, the goal of interaction with a client is to tell, inform, and an “active” seller of services is telling. In fact, "active" means interested, ready to help, actively entering into a relationship with a client, able to inspire trust and talk to the client;
- poor knowledge of construction techniques a story about the product / service in the language of the client.
Curators focus more on properties And benefits product / service than on a specific benefit and benefit for a specific client.
Based on the results of "field" research, the bank's management was offered a program on sales techniques ( selling skills), which also included customer focus, sections on awareness of the importance customer-centric approach in sales and psychological techniques impact on the client.
Participation in a training that combines the two most important topics - sales techniques and customer orientation (customer focus), is an opportunity for sellers of any company to rethink their attitude to the client, understand how attitude can influence the image, create loyal customers, adherents of the company's products and services, increase sales.
The vagueness of the text of job descriptions for bank curators created uncertainty and a certain threat for them, which affected the relationship between curators and bank managers, caused mutual dissatisfaction and tension. This also affected during the training, the curators were afraid of the video camera.
Indicative and unusual in the practice of the author of the article was the fact that the evaluation questionnaires at the end of the training were returned to the trainer and stacked face down, so that it was impossible to identify who wrote what. And the fact that, according to the group, the business game was difficult, but no one noted this in the assessment questionnaires, could be interpreted as a fear of openly expressing one's opinion, and a passionate desire to learn how to negotiate.
It is possible that among some bank managers there is an aggressive-pressing style of work, forcing curators to refrain from initiative, hence the “inability” of curators to bear responsibility, which means that a new need for training in the program “Human Resource Management for Line Managers”, “Psychology of Management” is revealed. or Leadership.
It should also be noted that the bank was not efficient enough to circulate information, which gave rise to anxiety and rumors among curators. Thus, the bank's management did not consider it necessary, after the completion of the "field" research, to openly inform the curators about what goals persecuted "field studies. After all, the goal was not to “grab the hand”, to punish, but identify the need(problem) and solve it by compiling the training program as accurately as possible.
Materials based on the results of the "field" research were reproduced for curators so that the part of the text of the report, which contained the evaluation of the curators and reported on the "compliance in general" of the bank's curators with the qualification requirements of their position, was omitted. And the curators could get the impression that the leadership was starting a campaign of persecution, tightening management in the form of certification, “field” research, control exercises, video and audio tape recording.
That is why the trainer decided not to conduct control exercises for the group with video recording, as it was supposed earlier, in order not to cause resistance, which would make it even more difficult to achieve the goals of the seminar.
The ideas and values ​​proclaimed at the seminar would have been perceived much easier if, even before the training, some resistance had not arisen in the group, caused by reasons of an emotional nature, prejudice. The group perceived the coach as a person carrying some kind of threat. Only after an open conversation (an open model of behavior - Assertiveness Work) and the regret expressed by the trainer that the curators voluntarily or involuntarily ended up in the position of testees, was it possible to restore trust in the trainer.
Why was it important to restore trust? The coaching practice of the author of the article shows that most people are not capable of learning, positive, adequate perception of information, creativity and initiative in the face of unfriendly criticism or threats.
For this reason, it is important for customers of training programs to decide not only on the choice of a provider of training services, it is important to decide on the choice of a trainer. To do this, before the start of training, you need to get to know the trainer, make sure that he himself has the skills of effective communication: in no case does he pose a threat, he is fully able to satisfy basic human need for emotional security(according to A. Maslow).
The above examples have also been given here to illustrate how closely intertwined training and advisory services are. We are convinced that the diagnosis of training needs and a written report on the results of the training can act as full-fledged elements of management consulting. It is no coincidence that in the last decade, consulting theorists have singled out training consulting as a separate type of management consulting.
So, if at expert counseling the consultant offers the client ready-made solutions to existing problems, with process consulting-solutions are sought and developed by the consultant together with the head and staff of the client organization, then educational counseling trainer-consultant prepares the basis for making managerial decisions, providing the client with relevant theoretical and practical information in the form of trainings, seminars, seminars, meetings, teaching aids and reports on the results of the training.