NOVEMBER 2008

Employee Development
Where to focus training during tough times

As the waves of change continually impact your business during these difficult times, there are specific areas that should be focused upon. One of these should be on how to train your employees to be flexible in adapting to and managing the uncontrollable forces that are continually facing them.

“Critical thinking skills must be taught at all levels within an organization so that everyone understands how to make effective decisions when solving problems and crafting solutions.”

It is important to keep in mind that these are unprecedented times. Events and unexpected situations are occurring on an ongoing basis, which have not been previously experienced in the history of our lifetime. What has typically worked in the past probably won’t work now. Companies and their employees are sailing on uncharted waters, and this makes people uncomfortable. It takes them outside of their comfort zones. Change and the stress it generates tend to produce a sense of fear and panic in the workplace environment that must be dealt with and overcome.

Some areas that need to be considered in preparing your workforce to deal with an uncertain future include:

Leadership

Employees at all levels need to have effective leaders guiding and directing them. While many companies have established leadership in place, two questions need to be addressed: “How effective have existing programs been in developing effective leadership skills when they are really needed?” and, “Are our leaders being trained effectively to act like leaders, placing the interests of others above their own?” Many of the recent well-documented business failures have demonstrated that numerous top leaders of today have placed their own interests above the well being of their companies, and equally so, the employees under their care. Now may be the time to rethink the concept of leadership training.

Managing Change

Change management skills and techniques must be stressed and taught at all levels of the organization. Employees must learn to anticipate, handle and adapt to change as a part of their lives. They must learn how to use the forces of change to their advantage, as well as learn how to best cope within an uncertain environment.

Handling Stress and Burnout

Employees must learn to deal with the stress and symptoms of burnout that are associated with change and uncertainty. Coping is a necessary skill to possess if they are to remain productive.

Critical Thinking

A post-mortem evaluation of recent well-publicized business failures and mistakes that have created the dire financial crisis being faced at the current time, tends to clearly demonstrate an absence of critical thinking skills in what is considered to be the “best and brightest” of people who were (and some who are no doubt still are) in charge of leading Corporate America. Effective risk assessment, understanding of consequences and/or ramifications of decisions appear to be either absent or ignored.

Critical thinking skills must be taught at all levels within an organization so that everyone understands how to make effective decisions when solving problems and crafting solutions. Checks and balances must be created to build in individual accountability and to establish and maintain overall stability and corporate sustainability.

Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking skills must be developed since these are essential to assist companies to focus on their strategic direction and on the things they need to do to sustain themselves and succeed in the future.

Strategic thinking allows employees to effectively evaluate their companies’ current position. The process also includes analyzing various mistakes and learning from them in order to advance future initiatives, opportunities and other corporate endeavors.

Improving Results and Productivity

Training programs and initiatives should be created to improve results and productivity in “mission-critical” areas of the company. These are specific areas that tend to have the deepest impact on company profitability.

Team Building

Many companies tend to mislabel working groups as “teams.” Most typical working groups have not been trained in formal team building skills. These skills are designed to include training in specific methods, processes, roles, functions, and boundaries. All of these are specifically intended to increase group effectiveness, as well as to reduce counter-productive actions and/or activities that are typically encountered during projects and assignments. Team training also focuses on how to diffuse situations that tend to generate high levels of conflict. Now is the time to focus on performance and productivity by instituting formal team training programs.

Empowerment

Empowered employees are more motivated employees. This is because they know that they are able to contribute in a positive way when it comes to generating important solutions. They are considered to be an essential, valuable resource within their company. Their input creates ownership and dramatically reduces the fear and panic associated with the forces of change.

Empowering employees to generate workable, innovative and unique solutions injects new and often innovative thinking and the creation of new perceptions and viewpoints. The process unites employees to craft meaningful and critical solutions that tend to benefit a company in numerous, substantial ways.

Innovation

Tough times often spark waves of innovation as companies begin to look for meaningful solutions to the critical problems they are facing. Times of turmoil are also periods of tremendous opportunity in the marketplace.

Training employees in developing, fostering and sustaining innovation at all levels of the organization can garner dividends that can extend far into the future.

Other Mission-Critical Skills

In times of turmoil and economy downturns, companies should focus on the development of mission-critical skills, such as ones that are found in the realms of sales and customer service. These are areas that are essential for generating new sales and revenues, as well as for maintaining a focus on customer retention and building higher levels of customer loyalty. Building and polishing proficiency and mastery of these skills can add stability and foster growth during difficult times.

Learning and development managers should explore other areas that can positively impact their company. They should do an evaluation as to which areas employees should hone their skills, or have them polished and enhanced in order to become or remain the best and most proficient at what they do.