Feature

Where are the trainers?

Sudipta Dev finds out what discourages IT professionals from entering the training field

All organisations take great pride in their training department, but finding good trainers is a problem for most. It is indeed ironical that while most professionals want to be trained by the best talent in the industry, there are very few among their ranks who want to enter the training sector. Lack of exciting opportunities in the field and monetary drawbacks are the main reasons preventing the best of breed from training others. Companies understand the problem and try to cope with it according to their individual organisational policies.

Importance of  in-house training

Outsourcing of training is common among organisations that find it difficult to find in-house trainers and specialists in a particular field. But it is not the solution to compensate the dearth of good trainers. An in-house training department is necessary for every organisation as certain training needs are specific to a company. Furthermore, an in-house trainer is well-aware of the peculiarities of the organisation, including its cultural nuances, and is best suited to skill people and develop talent in that particular environment. Adding to it is the fact that in-house trainers bring down training costs and time constraints can also be suitably tackled.

“An in-house department understands an organisation’s business perspective and the operating environment in which participants work. This understanding is critical in order to bring training to life and to ensure that participants in the classroom have the support they need to apply the concepts presented,” states Vinda Chitnis, Vice-president, Human Resources, Geometric Software Solutions.

Chitnis points out that an in-house team can tailor materials to the business operating issues participants face everyday on-the-job, and increase the likelihood of giving training that is relevant to a participant’s/function’s unique needs. “In the context of management development it is important to custom-design programme content to the unique business problems and management issues facing managers in the organisation. This is something that the in-house training team can do more cost-effectively than consultants,” he adds.

An organisation like Geometric which operates in a very niche industry providing PLM/CAD/CAM and engineering services requires its employees to be trained in specific skills. Chitnis informs that to ensure resource availability, the company has made significant investments in training facilities, including establishment of a PLM institute in Pune.

It’s difficult finding training staff

The root question is: In an industry teeming with great talent, why is it so difficult to find good trainers? The answer is very basic—less pay and lack of opportunities. At any given time an expert can earn much more in the industry than in the training department of an organisation. Whether money or opportunities, a developer is much better placed than a trainer.

Shebu Raphael, Head, Human Capital Worldwide, Marlabs, states, “Career prospects is poorer compared to developers. There are fewer opportunities to travel abroad, limited job opportunities, poor visibility and appreciation within the organisation, lack of social recognition, etc.”

Skills of a good trainer

There are very few who have the combination of skills that are needed to be a good trainer, like great communication skills, a passion for learning and sharing knowledge, patience, an open mind, the ability to connect with people, etc. While it is not an easy task to find IT professionals with all these skill sets a trainer incentive scheme is very useful. Geometric conducts train-the-trainer workshops for the purpose. According to Chitnis, an IT professional (assuming he has the basic interest in imparting knowledge) can do justice to the training by:

• Cost-effectively tailoring training materials to the unique business needs of the target population.
• Assist participants to understand the concepts presented in the classroom in the context of their own job responsibilities thereby increasing perceived relevance of the material.
• Provide participants both classroom support and follow-on support they need in order to prepare improvement plans and then to carrying them out on-the-job.

Attracting training staff

Organisations mostly induct training staff from outside (teaching professionals or the market) or from their own ranks of IT experts. It is a difficult task attracting IT talent into training and tougher still is retaining them when they have multiple lucrative options to choose from.

Marlabs has adopted the strategy of blending training with research to attract and retain the best talent. “There is a need for strong associations with technology vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc, and get the training team to engage with R&D teams of these organisations. The training team should also be used to do proof of concepts, prototyping, etc, making their job more challenging,” says Shebu Raphael. Reiterating on the need for combining R&D and training in a single function, Raphael points out that trainers should be positioned as the best project managers/ leads/solution architects, etc. There should also be job rotation, that is moving project managers/leaders for a minimum duration into training, thereby sensitising them to the training function.

Geometric has taken a mixed approach to deal with the problem. Explains Chitnis, “First is extending the database of trainers. Secondly, acquiring good quality trainers available in the market and get into negotiable contracts with them. We also have a tie-up with various software developers so as to add the practical dimension to a theoretical session.” The company has introduced a technical “Guru” concept, which extends to all technical experts in various domain specific fields, who are assigned the responsibility of passing on the knowledge to the “Generation Next”.

Top management initiative

The main problem in most organisations is lack of initiative by the top management to be proactively engaged in developing training programmes and be more free with the budget. The fact that training is not considered an integral part of the business growth is the obvious reason.

There is a need for a clearly stated training policy with a committed budget. “Trainers desire that these minimum guarantees are given to them upfront to perform. It is a matter of expressing the total commitment from the top management to the training portfolio, which many organisations do not have even today for obvious reasons,” adds Srinivasan S, Chief Human Resource Officer, Amtex Infotech. Srinivasan asserts the need to empower trainers with “authority” and “information” to perform. They should be given the freedom to try their creative ideas. Amtex involves them even before a new program kicks off, which relives them from unwanted stress. The company has in place an internal job posting policy for discerning associates from within the company to apply for trainer posts.

Vasudha Mangalam, Director, HR, Razorsight, believes that while today most companies are realising the importance of training and are spending lot of their resources and time on the same, simultaneously the industry requires good quality trainers who are a rare breed. “Companies will need to budget considerable amount for such requirements, more so when it adds value for the growth of the company as well as the personality development of the individual. While employees spend more than 8-10 valuable hours of the day at work, as an organisation we not only have to look at leveraging from what they bring to the table but also in developing, moulding and shaping them.”

Outsourcing of training is not yet a matured model. “Companies should work towards identifying the training potential in their employees and provide them with interesting challenges to retain them as trainers,” says M V Subramanian, COO, Co-Founder and Director of Focus Infotech. He observes that only unit managers, HR managers and project owners are open to outsourcing. It is not being initiated by the next level, that is the actual decision makers, for the following reasons:

• Link between learning and organisation performance is not established.
• Metrics of measuring the return on training investment is not in practice.
• Organisations should start looking at value effecting training rather than cost effective training.

To inculcate a culture of training, grooming initiatives like train-the-trainer programme should be made mandatory for all managers. Furthermore, minimum hours of training must be allocated for every expert in the organisation.

ec@expresscomputeronline.com