Historically, during times of economic pressure, I have seen our company make sweeping cuts to the training and development of our people. Compliance training such as safety and compliance always continues, but leadership and other soft skill training would be practically wiped out. I have noticed that the pendulum tends to swing in industry; we’re up one year and down the next and the training budget follows the same swing. Recently, however, I have noticed a different and surprising trend at our company. Despite the fact that we are going through a very stressful business environment that includes headcount reductions, there is a new and strong emphasis on the need to develop the skills of our employees. Growing and retaining top talent is the new mantra and I see a fierce commitment to people development as I have not experienced before. One of the outcomes of this is the development of training academies. Until recently, I had never heard this term in our industry. Several “academies” are now being developed in various divisions of the company. Training academies or universities seem to be a fairly new trend in industry. So, what is a training academy and what does it mean for us as AHRD students? I am still trying to figure that out myself. You might want to check out this blog. http://learning-development.hr.toolbox.com/groups/strategy-administration/learning-leadership/setting-up-corporate-university-3289914
In another blog, I found on the ASTD site, one blogger writes “. . . the corporate university MUST be clearly articulated and the stakeholders (not more than one) must be outside of HR. The best corporate universities are owned by the operations side of the house—not the learning side . . . Too many consultants want to jump right into the content and skip the governance structure. This is a fatal mistake, but reflects the tendency of learning organizations to believe they know more about the front-line business than they do.” http://community.astd.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4401041/m/352107811/p/1
One point I also want to stress – practically every single day, I hear in HR the importance of knowing the business. If you don’t understand the business of your company, you will not be an effective HR professional. Things to think about!
Helen, like you I had not yet heard a lot about training academies or universities. I am curious to find out which companies and corporations have spearheaded the implementation of these academies and use them widely.
ReplyDeleteI think the creation of training academies is going to create many opportunities for us as AHRD students. There is not only the possibility that some of us might someday attend a training academy, but there will likely also be opportunities for us in both the designing and research. Evaluating and changing the practices of these academies will be crucial aspects to companies. A comment in the first link you mentioned discussed the different methods these academies are using, one of which was e-learning, which directly ties to things we are studying in our LTLE class.
I like how you reminded us that the key to HR is understanding the business of your company--I think this is something we all should remember as we work our way through this program.
I found your post and the links you sent really interesting. I have not heard much of training academies or universities either. It seems like a healthy and necessary approach to take. Like you said, many businesses are downsizing and keeping the top talent. I feel like the training academies will help the growth of the talent pool, strengthening the workforce. Furthermore, I think the use of them further emphasizes the idea that the corporate setting, and HR, are constantly changing. By having these universities led by HR professionals, the workforce is consistently being improved, so they can keep up with the changes going on. And, as you said at the end, the only way for the workforce to be improved through training and development programs, the HR professionals need to be invested in the work of the company. Without them possessing a vast knowledge of what the company does, and how they do it, they cannot develop training programs to better the company for the future.
ReplyDeleteHelen-
ReplyDeleteAlthough I cannot personally relate to your post, I have heard about companies cutting back on their HR departments since the downfall of the economy. My dad is my prime example. He works for a company back in Norfolk, VA. The company's headquarters are in TX but for each office around the country they drastically cut back if not completely cut out the HR departments in each of those offices, including the one my dad works in. He immediately was affected by this because he was one of the ones that became a trainer for new and current employees. This means that he now does basically twice the work for the same pay and is expected to do that work without getting much overtime. Although I can understand why companies think that they can save money by getting rid of the HR department, I think in the long run it hurts the company, including each of its employees. It's nice (and surprising!) to hear your company is going in the opposite direction and instead putting an emphasis on training. I think if all companies around the country did this they would realize how much of a benefit it ultimately is for the company and its employees.
What a fascinating concept of a “corporate university!” As I was looking at the links you shared, Helen, I searched further to see if I could find some already well-established corporate training universities. Perhaps you all already know about McDonald’s “Hamburger University,” but I just discovered its existence, and before you laugh, realize that it has been a main contributor to the company’s global success. (I can’t believe I didn’t know about this!) It was designed in 1961 to foster the restaurant’s mission to, “be the best talent developer of people with the most committed individuals to Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value (QSC&V) in the world.”
ReplyDeleteThe University offers curriculums that cater development training to specific careers (crew, managers, mid-managers, executives) within the company. This, to me, seems to be an efficient/effective way to train employees to be the best in whatever specific career path they choose, rather than training them too broadly and wasting resources.
Hamburger University also offers training in 28 different languages, which allows for profound diversity and globalization within the company. It seems like H.U., throughout the years, has refined its training university to be quite successful!
Check ‘em out! http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/careers/hamburger_university.html
I think this topic is so interesting. Recently when people began a new career before getting the job they desire the most, they work really hard to learn the required skills to be efficient in that particular position and they plan to stay at the same position and retire from it without learning new skills. Things have changed definitely because of the economy so a lot of people are being laid off. Training academies or Universities are great for the company it cuts down on the hiring of new employees and tries to get the best out of the top talent like you mentioned...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea because it allows employees the opportunity to continue to learn as they work day to day and it's great to know as much about the purpose of your company and programs and the training academies allows you to do that. I can see that this may make it harder for those people looking to start a career because those companies with the training academies are looking to retain their employees.
I love the statement about HRD, it is important to know your business, like you mentioned if you don’t know your business how can you contribute to the matters of its success. SOOOOO TRUE!!!
It is really encouraging to me that companies are still training their employees in areas besides the required ones, such as safety, because the “extra” trainings like leadership are what ensure companies a strong, prepared workforce and only helps the company save money in the long run by preparing their employees better for the future. I really liked Helen’s last point about knowing your business to be an effective HR professional. It goes back to what Amanda was saying in Research Methods about employees not trusting their trainers because they did not believe their trainers understood their jobs. Even if an HR professional is a great trainer and knows a lot about leadership styles, if they cannot connect to the people they have to train it is a waste of everyone’s time.
ReplyDeleteI found your post very interesting especially at this time when a lot of my friends are getting new jobs and going through a variety of different training programs for them. I have never heard the term, "training academy" but I think this could be something useful for new employees. I have noticed that many training programs nowadays are all down through the computer rather than an actual person training and advising the new employee. Friends of mine have told me about video they have watched, tutorials they have completed, and tests that have taken that are all a part of their training for their new jobs. Especially since these employees are straight out of college, I think more personal training would be much more effective for them. I enjoyed reading your post and the links you provided with it!
ReplyDeleteI have also heard from other HR professionals, (as I am not yet one myself) that the industry wipes out training and development in an attempt to cut costs. The fact that so many did this during the economic downturn, may now have proven to be problematic for companies as they are realizing their current employees require continued training and education to keep up within an industry.
ReplyDeleteI believe we are coming out of the period of "cut that department to save costs" and coming into a time where companies can see the value in a department whose sole purpose is to contribute to the training and development of employees as assets to a company.
I'm hoping that companies continue to see the value in what we do, and how investing in the employees they already have can be beneficial in the grand scheme of things, rather than doing away with training and development in hard times. ESPECIALLY because the work that AHRD professionals are doing can serve to make a company more efficient with employees who have received appropriate and relevant training.
I have also not heard of these training universities/academies. I find the whole idea rather interesting. I fully believe that if there is more emphasis on education, the employees at a business will not only have higher levels of success, but will also reach those levels more often. After being in the program for a semester, I am starting to realize the important of human resources development in today's current economy. Business employers want to further educate their current workers rather than hire new ones. The business has already invested into the current employees and it would be a waste of resources to start fresh with a new employee. This is where we come in, and this is why our field is still growing and we can still get jobs. The education aspect of HRD is the spotlight feature that we all grabbing onto. The side effect of this new focus that people did not necessarily predict was the betterment of the employees beyond the walls of the business. Education feeds the mind and the spirit, and therefore, business are not just creating better employees, but they are also molding better people.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what education can do!