TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: AN ESSENTIAL BUSINESS SUPPORT SYSTEM

In today’s ever-changing environment, training and development plays a crucial role in supporting the effectiveness and sustainability of organisations. Changes in the environment, technology and in the organisation itself, require employees and organisations to constantly learn and adapt. Training and development not only provides a means to prepare employees and organisations to function effectively in the new environment but also supports them in coping with the constant changes in today’s workplace.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

In the introductory paragraph I eluded to the fact that training and development holds many benefits for both the organisation as well as each individual employee.  Training and development is a tool used to enable employees, individually and collectively, to enhance their capability and competence for the benefit of the organisation's customers, for members of the organisation and for themselves. 

For the organisation, empowered employees may be more motivated and more able to provide work of a higher standard.  An organisation that learns and develops is more capable of adapting and responding to a changing and demanding work environment.  For each individual employee, life long learning provides continuous personal growth and satisfaction.

WHAT KIND OF TRAINING PROGRAMMES DOES BIT OFFER?

Generic Training Programmes

Baobab Inspired Talent provides a range of generic training programmes focussing on the development of generic management skills as well as the development of sales personnel.

The programmes currently offered include:

- Coaching skills
- Presentation skills
- Needs-based selling skills
- Outbound sales
- Facilitation skills
- Change management
- Leadership in management
- Management skills training: Management Process
- Self-study toolkits

Client Specific Training Programmes
These programmes are specifically developed according to client requirements and specifications.  Exercises, discussions and case studies are customised and specific to the client's environment. 

Steps in creating a customised programme:

- A detailed situational analysis is conducted to identify the specific competencies to be developed
- The information required for customisation purposes is collected
- The programme design and assessment strategies are developed and signed off by the client
- A draft of the programme is developed and signed off by the client
- Final development of the programme and materials

Intended programmes

The following new management programmes are in development and will be available soon:

- Relationship management
- Implementing strategy
- Managing team performance
- Making the best decisions
- Human Resource processes for managers

Visit our blog regularly for updates and new developments.

COMPETENCY PROFILING: AN IMPORTANT HUMAN RESOURCES TOOL

For any organisation to be successful and differentiate itself from competitors, it is important to have the right people in the right positions. Thus, to effectively function within its environment and achieve its business strategy, the organisation needs to leverage its core capabilities. This is only possible if the organisations’ human resources have been correctly deployed in value adding jobs or positions and are equipped with the relevant competencies. The complementary processes of job and competency profiling are important tools for assisting the organisation in getting the right skills to the right places.

Job and competency profiling enable the identification of performance standards and success criteria for particular jobs or roles within an organisation. These performance standards and success criteria form an important basis for decision-making within a number of HR Development and general HR processes.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPETENCY PROFILING

Competency profiling is the process by which an organisation identifies the set of behaviour patterns an incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform his/her tasks and functions competently. Otherwise put, the Competency Profile for a particular job is the description of the most important competencies required by individuals that would assist them in performing the main duties and responsibilities listed in the Job Description for that position. Competencies may refer to the skills, knowledge, attitudes, underlying characteristics of a person and the elements that ensure a best fit to the organisation.

Identifying competencies for specific positions ensures that employees know what behaviours they must exhibit for effective performance in that position and it assists the organisation in aligning the behaviours and skills of employees to the organisational strategy and business environment.

Competency profiles for jobs or roles drive a variety of other HR activities such as:

• The identification of training needs
• The development of personal development plans
• Job design
• The identification of required competencies
• Recruitment and selection – assessment of competence
• Assessment and development centres
• Performance evaluation
• Career planning and development
• Job evaluation and compensation

If competency profile information is not available or inaccurate, HR processes may be performed in isolation, which could negatively influence the impact and contribution to organisational success.

DEVELOPING A COMPETENCY MODEL

Through the process of competency profiling, each position in an organisation can be described in terms of the key competencies required to perform the work, which forms the competency model for the specific position. A competency model serves as the conceptual framework for a number of people management practices. The purpose of such a model includes:

• Creating a common focus and approach to people management practices.
• Enabling a holistic approach to people management, as there is a focus on core competencies throughout all processes.
• Linking all the people management functions back to the development of competence within the organisation and allowing for the prioritisation of development activities.
• Making provision for the execution of people management functions at both a strategic and tactical (transactional) level.

BIT’S APPROACH TO COMPETENCY PROFILING

During competency profiling projects BIT works with management and job incumbents to identify the core competencies for jobs or job families. Job content and competency data is collected during work sessions attended by incumbents and their managers. During these sessions a combination of techniques are applied depending on the nature and level of the jobs. These techniques could include reviewing existing job profiles, interviews with incumbents and managers and observation to verify job content. All data is verified with relevant supervisors, managers and/or other relevant stakeholders and adapted if required. The verified data is utilised in the compilation of the competency profiles.

Once the competency profiles have been developed, sessions are conducted with relevant staff to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the competencies and the development of in-house expertise for the day-to-day maintenance of the competency profiles.

BIT takes the competency profiling process a step further by developing assessment batteries aimed at the evaluation of the identified core competencies. The types of assessment techniques incorporated in BIT assessment batteries include, among others, work simulations and role-plays, in-basket exercises, structured competency-based interviews and psychometric tests and questionnaires.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Change is the process of altering, reshaping or transforming a business to improve the way it works or interacts with its environment.  Businesses that want to grow, diversify or simply survive in today's fast moving business environments have to change more quickly than ever before.  Change has become a constant; it's no longer a once-off or an exception.  The ability to manage change effectively, to bring real benefit to the business is essential.

In spite of the apparent importance of change, change initiatives often fail in organisations because of a failure to implement a thorough change management process.

WHAT IS BIT's APPROACH TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT

BIT's approach to change management is that of a continuous process aimed at moving the organisation and the people within it from a current state to a desired future state.  During this process people are prepared for and supported through the organisational change.  BIT's change management methodology incorporates processes and practical tools for managing change at an individual and organisational level and enabling effective transitioning through the change.

For more information about BIT's Change Management Workshops and a detailed brochure e-mail your details to karien@inspiredtalent.co.za and insert "Change Management Brochure" into the subject box.

WHAT IS COMPETENCY-BASED ASSESSMENT?

Competency assessment refers to a behaviourally based evaluation procedure which incorporates multiple assessment techniques and ratings of various competency related behaviours relevant to a particular job.

During a typical BIT competency assessment, participants complete a series of simulation exercises as well as a collection of psychometric assessments. These exercises and assessments are used to gather information regarding a participant’s job related competencies. The information is then incorporated into a detailed report for each participant and feedback is provided to the relevant manager and the participant. During the feedback session the participant’s strengths and development areas are highlighted in line with the competencies required for successful job execution.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?

Baobab Inspired Talent (BIT) assesses competencies for the purpose of:

 

1. Assisting HR professionals and managers in the recruitment and selection process by providing additional candidate information to aid in their decision making,

2. Identifying employees' job related development areas and creating personal development plans, and

3. Enhancing teamwork and cooperation between individual team members by creating an awareness and understanding of each individual team memner's strenghts and preferences.

 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

The following benefits can be achieved through competency based assessment:

 

1. An assessment of past behaviour can assist you in predicting future behaviour

2. Multiple assessment techniques are used to verify the results obtained

3. The competencies measured are related to successful job execution

4. Objectivity of evaluation is ensured through the utilisation of trained assessors

 

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

BIT services include:

1. Identification of essential work related competencies for assessment focus (pre-assessment)

2. Administration of competency-based assessments by trained assessors and psychometrists

3. Development of detailed reports and feedback to relevant individuals (post-assessment)

 

For detailed information visit http://www.inspiredtalent.co.za/ or

follow the link Competency-based assessment packages 

HOW DO YOU ENHANCE THE CAPABILITIES OF YOUR SALES FORCE?

Any organisation’s sales force represents a key element in business success. As Tom Watson, Founder of IBM, said: “Nothing happens until a sale is made”. Even the most innovative products can fail if these offerings are not presented to the right audience in the most compelling manner. If no sales are made, no revenue is generated. Therefore, it is critical to appoint the right people with the right skills and competencies to your sales force.

WHAT IS THE COST OF A BAD APPOINTMENT?

Appointing the wrong person in a job can be expensive for a company to rectify and especially so when this appointment is made in the sales force. If a salesperson is appointed, but that person does not possess the core competencies required for successful job execution, valuable time and money would have been spent on the development of that individual, with no guarantees that the person would be successful in a sales role. The greater risk lies in the possible damage to vitally important customer relationships.

For example, if a sales person does not have good verbal communication skills, he or she will be disadvantaged when applying selling skills. Over and above the cost of training and developing this salesperson, there are a number of other costs involved in making the wrong appointment, such as the cost of poor performance and missed sales targets, the cost of recruiting a replacement and even a potentially negative impact on the morale and productivity of colleagues.

HOW DOES ASSESSMENT HELP TO MITIGATE THE RISK?

Assessment assists HR professionals and managers in the recruitment and selection process by providing additional candidate information to aid in the identification of genuine sales talent and in determining “best fit” candidates. When assessments are conducted with existing incumbents, self-awareness of development areas is created and development interventions can be directed towards addressing these areas. Personal development plans can be generated from these assessments and can be incorporated in the organisation’s performance management as well as coaching processes. It also provides a valuable measure of competence prior to training and assists in determining the impact of training interventions on the competency levels of individuals.

The following benefits can be achieved through competency-based assessment:

1. Assessment of an individual's past behaviour can provide valuable information for the prediction of future behaviour

2. The core competencies measured during assessment are related to successful job execution
3. Objectivity of evaluation is ensured through the utilisation of trained assessors and the incorporation of psychological assessment

SO, HOW WELL DOES ASSESSMENT PREDICT JOB SUCCESS?

There are various selection methods and procedures available, each of which increases the level of accuracy of employment decisions and the prediction of job success. To understand how well assessments predict job success, we must consider the term called predictive validity. Predictive validity refers to the extent to which an assessment measure can predict job performance relating to the key success criteria identified for a specific role.

Relationships between assessment outcomes and future performance are expressed as correlation coefficients (r), where r = 1 represents a perfect relationship, thus the assessment is a perfect predictor of job success and r = 0 signifies that no relationship whatsoever exists. The graph below provides an indication of how well some of the various selection methods correlate with job success.

Predictive validity can be increased through the combination of various selection techniques, for example: Let’s take General Mental Ability tests, which show the highest predictive validity rating. When used in combination with structured competency-based interviews the predictive validity can be increased by up to 27% and when combined with work-sample tests by around 24%.

Based on this realisation, BIT always combines techniques when conducting assessments in an attempt to increase predictive validity and allow for improved decision-making.

WHY IS BIT ASSESSMENT DIFFERENT?

BIT provides sales focused assessments at four different levels of sales, namely Transactional, Consultative, Strategic and Managerial. Each level requires that the salesperson possesses specific core competencies to enhance effectiveness in that role. BIT assessments focus on the core competencies identified for success in each level and feedback on results is given not in general, but is reported specifically in terms of the identified core competencies.

BIT follows an assessment battery approach where a number of assessment techniques are incorporated to provide a clearer picture of the participant and a more reliable result than with for instance a single assessment. The types of assessment techniques incorporated in BIT assessment batteries include, among others, sales call simulations and role-plays, in-basket exercises, structured competency-based interviews and psychometric tests and questionnaires.

BAOBAB INSPIRED TALENT
"Inspired talent...evolving business"

http://www.inspiredtalent.co.za/
info@inspiredtalent.co.za