The A-Z of Training: X is for Xenos
X has been the hardest letter in our A-Z. We've had the dictionary out and picked Xenos the Greek word for stranger.
How many people in your organisation are strangers to the training department? We have been working with a national retail chain recently that estimated that some of their middle management have not undertaken any training in over 12 months.
I thought that this was interesting, especially considering how well structured the training programme was for in-store employees. The Learning and Development manager explained that with so many sites around the UK, having a clear programme was essential to ensure that new starters recieved all of the required training when they started.
Staff at Head Office were also well catered for, with a variety of both general and role specific training available to them. I'd say that this organisation were particularly on the ball, however the elephant in the room were the mobile staff, those who weren't based in a store or at Head Office.
Their unwillingness to attend training sessions stemmed from two factors; a perceived lack of time and also distance from the training locations. In addition regional management had for the most part been store managers before being promoted so had a good handle on procedures for a Store Managers and knew who to contact in Head Office where exceptional circumstances arrived.
The main issue was that there was a lack of a development plan for regional managers. We decided that a blended programme of management training would be a good development pathway and could provide excellent opportunities for building relationships with between the training department and mobile workers. Part of the programme included a two day residential stay at a central venue, which we hoped would give time for networking between regional managers.
Does your organisation have trainees who are strangers to the training department? How are you planning on getting them engaged?
