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3. How do I make sure employees take the training seriously?
Do it yourself. Nothing conveys the importance a company places on training more than the CEO's participation does. That's why Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover Book Store, conducts the first day of all training sessions for new employees. She's also the best person to cover that first day, which deals with the company's history and philosophy. These days companies talk a lot about the importance of their mission statements and values; there's no better way to communicate those to new employees than to have the founder do it.
Celebrate accomplishments. At Tabra Inc., a $3.7-million Inc. 500 company that makes jewelry in Novato, Calif., employees who completed the company's English-as-a-second-language training received a certificate, a rose, and lots of applause at a staff meeting. Cooperative Home Care holds catered graduation ceremonies at the end of its preemployment training. And when managers at the Plumley Cos. asked their employees who were taking high-school-equivalency classes what they wanted besides a ceremony to celebrate passing the test, it turned out to be the little graduation-cap tassels that many of their high-school-graduate friends had hanging from their rearview mirrors. While not every course warrants a cap-and-gown graduation, everyone wants some form of recognition for hard work. Ray Tom gives copy-machine operators pins for their uniforms that list their grade level, so employees are visibly recognized for their achievements and skills.
Treat training as an integral part of the job. You can make training essential in any number of ways. At the Delstar Group, employees in the company's stores know that as soon as they're promoted to supervisory positions, they must take a class to learn about their new jobs. At Unitech, which relies on more experienced employees to provide some on-the-job training, the company has a gain-sharing program that shares profits with employees as a group after productivity, quality, and safety goals are met. Thus, its workers have a strong incentive to train their new colleagues well -- so their own bonuses won't be hurt. And at Cooperative Home Care, the company views its preemployment training as a preview of its new hires' work ethics and a good chance to weed out employees who don't measure up. Reasons Surpin: if people are late to training, miss class, or have a hard time working with others, they're going to have the same problems in the workplace.
Use rehearsals. When Plough Electric was preparing its quality course, Ken Plough created a steering committee of managers. Each manager presented an outline of his or her section of the course to the committee for suggestions. Then, before teaching the class, each manager did a dress rehearsal for the committee. That, Plough thinks, improved the experience for both the teachers and the taught.
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4. Where can I find course material -- or someone to design a course?
Big companies you work with. If your company is a supplier to large companies, they can be an excellent source of training material -- and it's usually in their interest to provide it to you at a reasonable cost or even for free. Unitech, for instance, borrowed an old blueprint-reading curriculum from customer Boeing, then added, deleted, and modified material to fit its own needs. (One example: Unitech, as a supplier that produces only parts for airplanes, found it could do without the sections of the course that discussed blueprints for the entire airplane.) Similarly, Unitech has found that manufacturers such as Du Pont, which makes one of the materials Unitech uses extensively, are happy to send in technical staff to teach the relevant sections of the company's training program.
For that matter, any company you work with. Steve Braccini of Pro Fasteners has followed that approach. In addition to hiring consultants he knew to teach classes, he turned to business associates for their expertise in particular areas. Pro Fasteners' lawyer, for instance, taught a class explaining such things as Occupational Safety and Health Act regulations to the company's employees. And when Braccini wanted his employees to learn more about the company's financial statements, his banker taught that class for free.
Trade associations. In addition to industry courses and seminars, trade associations sometimes offer publications that are good resources for industry-specific in-house training. In a few cases, they may even have a detailed training curriculum customized for your industry. For example, the National Association of Printers and Lithographers (NAPL), in Teaneck, N.J., has developed a basic-skills program specifically for the printing industry. The employee workbooks (in small quantities, $25 for members; $35 for nonmembers) teach employees to solve problems that crop up in printing operations, like converting the measurements on a job ticket from inches when using a European-made metric machine. Unfortunately, programs like NAPL's are still rare in this country.
In-house expertise. Is there anyone in the company who has received formal training in a particular area? When Paul Silvis of Restek and his vice-president decided to offer a management-training course in the young, fast-growing company, they both culled material from their own reading as well as the notes from courses they had taken. With both of their notes and ideas, they were able to develop a curriculum they liked.
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5. Is there any outside assistance available for in-house training?
Community colleges and other local institutions. Often community colleges are the educational institutions best suited to provide affordable and practical training to small companies. In addition to their regularly scheduled vocational classes, community colleges may be hired to provide instructors and help develop a customized curriculum, if you have a large enough group for a class of your own. In fact, Bill Reinhard, director of news services for the American Association of Community Colleges, claims he doesn't know of any community colleges that do not have training relationships with area businesses. "Community colleges work a lot on partnerships with industry and business," agrees Curtis Plott, president of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), in Alexandria, Va. "They clearly see that as their mission."
