In Search of a Genie

A HR Manager of a prominent organisation calls his assistant into his cabin and announces, "We would like to orchestrate a few soft skills trainings for development of our employees. I would like you to research on a few topics, get quotation from three vendors, review the trainers and finalise the dates. I want the program to be really effective. Make your choices effectively"

The obedient assistant leaves the cabin and is ready for execution. After "extensive" research, she zeroes down on a few key topics like Communication Skills, Interpersonal Skills and Motivating Others She calls a few training vendor companies, asks for contents, quotations and profiles.

Within an hour, the assistant's Outlook Inbox starts alarming incessantly with the arrival of mails containing quotations, trainer profiles, testimonials, vendor profiles and program outlines.

The managers decide to go ahead with vendor having the least quote, the best trainer profile and the most effective content delivery. All in one! It's a rare combination! It's better than HP!

The trainer is called for the interview… and the magic begins!

The three member team of the managers are ready with some key questions.

Hurrah! Nothing to worry! The trainer is ready with the answers of the commonly asked questions. The questions are nothing but the expectations of the manager from the trainer.

The HR Manager goes on…

"We are looking out for an Interpersonal Skills Program for our engineers. Where have delivered such kind of module earlier? What is your style of delivery? What are the activities in this program? Can you give me a complete run-through of the program? Our engineers are really busy; we would like to cut down the duration from two days to one day.

"And finally… how will you measure the effectiveness of the training program?"

Let's see what there in the trainers mind: "Oh! That's cool! This guy wants measure the effectiveness of an Interpersonal skills program? How can I measure the improvement in Interpersonal skills? I need to answer this or I'll loose the deal"

The Trainer says "Uhh! Well! Its definitely possible… I guess!...." He answers this question with some management 'fundas' to make the HR Manager confident!

The meeting is over. The trainer and the date are finalised. He walks out of the training room and guess what he says! He says to his colleague, "Ha! We cracked the deal! You know what, they want us to accomplish certain things in a day what they couldn't do in years! I think they are looking for a Genie!"

What are you looking for? A trainer or a Genie?

Many mangers fail to understand that training is a process of creating change. And change is a slow process!

Trainings should be treated as a process of organisational change. Organisational changes do not happen overnight. Definitely, measuring the effectiveness of a training event is essential. This also known as measuring the ROI (Return On Investment) of a training program. Measuring the ROI is one of the most tedious processes. It's difficult and time consuming, but it is worth it!

Getting a good ROI in soft skills and behavioural programs is more challenging than technical programs. Here are some tips for getting a reasonable ROI for your soft skills and behavioural trainings

1. Don't negotiate on the prices initially. Don't create any benchmark budget for a particular training. When you approach a vendor saying that we can offer only X rupees for this program, he only approaches the trainers who fit into the price bracket. The excellent trainers in the market are automatically filtered out from the profiles you receive. Because these are trainers in demand.

All good things come for a price. Excellent trainers never come cheap! Try it! See the kind of profiles that you receive from your vendor when you tell him that you can afford a good price. Surprisingly the price difference between good trainers and very good trainers is usually not more than 20 percent.

2. Don't hire a trainer who can guarantee you results immediately after the training is over. But hire a trainer who can talk about the action and follow up plan post training. It makes no sense in involving the trainer in the post training action plan. This action plan usually needs a close monitoring which can be done by participant's immediate managers.

Change is a slow process. Don't expect results immediately. Rather ask the trainer to co-evolve the action and behavioural plan with the participants which they can stick on their soft board as a reminder.

3. Involve the participant's managers in the program. Request them to attend at least one program in the series. Later on the trainer can handover a sheet of attributes which needs to be closely monitored and rated periodically.

4. It has been observed and proven that outbound programs generate better ROI than inbound programs.

5. Though it seems practically impossible, try to isolate the participant from all work related issues during the training. The team members and managers should not disturb the participant during the training. This steals away the focus from the topic. There are some organisations have made it a practice to inform the team members of the participants to treat them as if they are on leave. This works the best.

6. Insist the trainer to adopt an experiential learning (discovery learning) methodology rather than PPT based trainings. Experiential learning programs which involve many activities generate a better ROI.

7. Use the right ROI and self evaluation tools. Train your HR about the tools and techniques in measuring the ROI of the training.

The industry needs trainers who can create long lasting change not Genies. By the way Genies don't give trainings! If they would, they would be really poor trainers!

It's better to search for excellence rather than searching for a Genie!

About the trainer: Adi is a management research expert and coach with over 7 years of experience. He has designed and delivered many flagships programs which include niche topics on branding, leadership, management, employee engagement and train the trainers. He has conducted more than 1200 programs for more than 30000 people across the nation. All his programs are backed by strong practical research and experiential learning methodology.