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MANY COMPANIES in Jamaica do not spend enough on training their employees and the training that they offer is too spotty to be effective. A few big companies that are well run train their people extremely well and consistently. I have found it quite amazing how much money and time are spent in planning the launch of a new product, a new distribution system or investing in new machinery and how easy it is for the heads of these divisions to secure money - but how difficult it is for line managers and the head of the human resources division to get adequate sums for training people.
Sometimes after spending large sums to create and launch these products, companies skimp on the cost to train their staff to sell these products. Senior executives in these companies will easily parrot platitudes that their people are the company's best assets, but while machinery is maintained and upgraded, the 'best assets' of these companies, their people, get very little renewal investment in terms of being upgraded through consistently high training and re-training.
RECRUIT FOR FUTURE COMPLEXITY
I have established a management training programme in every institution I have led that seeks to recruit the brightest and best from the graduating classes of the university or universities located in the country in which the company was domiciled. Invariably, these management training programmes were accepted as a good initiative. However, there have been times when some colleagues would question why skip over bright high school students and go for more expensive university graduates. These questioners and objectors would point out that (certainly at the beginning) the good high school graduates and fine university ones would be able to do the basic work at the starting clerical levels.
I was often obliged to point out to them that while this comment is fairly true, very quickly the brightest university graduates will leave the bright high school student behind and as basic raw material the university graduates, well chosen, are a better prepared stock of future managers. The winning argument was usually that both the high school and university graduates will expect to be in the institution for a number of years and if they stay 15 to 20 years they will both want to be in the upper echelons of middle or senior management. When that happens, when the job requirement is more than just meeting technical objectives but also involves dealing with managerial complexity, the better trained university graduate (and some were taken with master's degrees) is in a much better position to handle complexity than the ordinary bright high school student will be in the decades ahead.
The brighter of my colleagues usually understand the argument - the not-so-bright ones miss the point and often they themselves cannot handle complexity. Managerial complexity evolves from technical problems but also includes internal personal and political issues, the financial affairs of the company, the absence or adoption of proper managerial structures, dealing with competition, government regulations and politics, as well as the broader issues that come with a dynamic globalised economy.
TRAINING NEVER STOPS
In the best institutions, management trainees will be in the training programme for about a year. During this period they will encounter a combination of classroom training to enhance the company-specific technical skills plus being rotated to various positions and sections within the company. The rotation allows the management trainee to get to understand the company on a hands-on basis while the company gets to assess the skills, preferences and character of each candidate.
Short-sighted companies tend to let the training of these graduates peter out after the initial management training programme is completed. They also tend to give their other employees very little continuing training to help them to handle better the sale of the company's products and services. World competitive companies that aim to be best in class ensure that their employees get continuous training. A number of activities are always happening in successful companies.
A new computer system may have to be installed - practically all staff members will have to be trained to handle the new system. A new operating process may have to be established - again various employees will have to be trained to handle these new procedures. The company may be seeking to launch a number of new products during the next year and sales and marketing training will have to be given to those employees who will deal with the customers.
Others may have to be given quite intensive technical training to create the product or service that the marketing and sales people will have to launch. A particularly gifted group of junior and senior management executives may be elected to go on a longer term training and development exercise to prepare them to handle more responsibilities. Market leading companies are always training their people and they count it as an investment - not just a cost figure on the income statement.
Source: Jamaica
Gleaner
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