It never used to be like this in the days before Investors in People (IIP). I remember when training in my company was mostly on the job, of the sink or swim variety. We didnt have much of a course programme. We had a course a one-day affair on financial literacy in which a strident woman who reminded me of the dog-trainer, Barbara Woodhouse, took great delight in exposing our shortcomings in reading corporate accounts. That was about it.
Then someone at the top became convinced that IIP status would be good for the company. The first I knew of it was when I arrived at work to find a large ring binder on my desk. On the front it said: Welcome to the Financial Times. Id only been there eight years.
Inside the book there were policies on sickness and numerous pages with interlinked boxes explaining the corporate hierarchy. It was clear that the company had been seriously infected by IIP. About this time, it introduced staff appraisals. Every time something new appeared, the company was one step nearer to its goal. It was like the Duke of Edinburghs Award where you help out at an old folks home, not because you like helping old people, but because you want to get a tick in the box marked community work.
The training virus is a similar phenomenon, closely related to IIP. Like most of the FTSE big boys, the company wanted a workforce to compete with the best and if that meant an impressive assortment of work-related courses, it was going to have them. So the appraisal has changed. Along with the chat, we now get to pick from a menu of courses all on the departmental budget, nothing too fancy mind.
So I picked the management course and a course on presentation skills. That was two appraisals ago and I have not yet done either of them. No one has said anything but I get the impression that the effects of the training are wearing off and not before time.
Up to a few months ago, courses and requests to attend them seemed to be flying around the office almost every other day. People were playing a numbers game, drafting in colleagues to fill the quota. Most of the courses had a technology bent. The internet boom was a godsend for the training industry. It created a sudden demand for technical know-how. Anyone who had half an idea how to create a website could find themselves in front of a class of know-nothings imparting the magical formulae.
I went to one of these courses and created my own page using HTML code. Afterwards I went back to my desk and forgot every bit of the lesson. It wasnt a great session. All the same, in the tick box for the course I marked every box excellent. I always do. Its someones livelihood and it makes me happy.
The advanced Windows course I did next didnt help much either. It wasnt at all advanced although there were one or two things that seemed novel. But we sped through the programme so quickly I didnt learn a thing.
People are buying courses off the shelf like ill-fitting suits regardless of whether they are relevant or not, a training provider admitted. The same mentality seemed to affect managements when they bought into new technology. They had to have it. Everyone could worry about its relevance later. Now we are worrying because the costs have run away, losing touch with the benefits.
Training is vital in business but ill-fitting courses devoid of context in the workplace are of no use to anyone and a drain on the bottom line. I dont want a return to the old ways, but I think we need to restore some balance.
IIP has some fine processes that have benefited thousands of companies but they must be viewed as a source of advantage, not a form of compliance. Equally, training must meet a corporate need, not a quota system. Its an important lesson. They should design a course around it.
richard.donkin@haynet.com
Richard Donkin is editor of FTCareerPoint.com
