[daguchan]

I just read a very interesting blog (THE CADSMART BLOG) that discusses the benefits of training your workforce in a depressed economy. The author takes a perspective from the CAD industry but the discussion is 100% applicable to Java skills. The salient points from the author’s discussion are:

- Train intensively in tough times... and less so in good times:
Learning and Skills Council cites that, “Organizations that make the right investment in training and development will be in a much better place when we come out of the recession…The last thing you should do is cut your training; now is not the time to lose employees to competition." See this article by Leon Noone for further discussion.

- Growing internal skill is far more cost effective than recruiting talent externally:
In a recent survey conducted by Dr Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management, more than three quarters (78%) of respondents felt that it was more beneficial to their organization to develop employees internally rather than to recruit externally.

The author concludes that organizations generally fall into either of two camps when managing the skills of its workforce in a down economy:

Ones that understand these principles and have a rolling, continuous improvement environment for their teams, including regular assessment, targeted training, buddying and mentoring schemes - and a clear path from basic skills through to advanced for projects, and;

those that take a knee-jerk approach and cut skills assessment from their priority list, along with training and development programs. These same firms, when it comes to the unfortunate position of letting people go, have no real clue who their best - most productive - people are! They slice 5%, 10%, 20% from their payrolls - losing super-achievers alongside inefficient ones - without thought for the medium-term consequences!

Certainly these are challenging economic times that arguably demand a more prudent approach to planning than is required in good times. In which camp does your organization fall? Or maybe you have another approach?
One thing that is emerging from this economy is a sense that we all need to work together and share our ideas…your thoughts and comment please!

If you are interested in similar topics regarding Java skills you can:

• Subscribe to the Global Force DIRECT - Java Skills Blog
• Join the Java Skills Management: Developers, Managers, HR on LinkedIn

Douglas

[jwenting]

Nice marketing blurb "In a recent survey conducted by Dr Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management, more than three quarters (78%) of respondents felt that it was more beneficial to their organization to develop employees internally rather than to recruit externally."...

Reality however is that 95% of those companies don't actually expend the resources to perform that internal employee development.
They tell their people how important training and "personal development" is to them but there's never budget or time for people to actually attend training courses, conferences, and other events.

This has been pretty much a constant (at least here, maybe it's different in other countries) ever since I started in IT well over a decade ago.
In many companies requests for training are ignored or rejected outright, and where not they create a stranglehold on the employee by requiring him to pay back the entire sum (or by ratio) if he leaves within 5 (usually) years (sometimes irrespective of whether the training was requested by the employee or ordered by the employer or a customer).
As a result training is not done, people don't gain skills except those they attain by reading books or other material in their spare time (or by sneaking in some dead hours at work) or occasionally from experimenting with new things on projects (increasing risk of project failure).

People (at all levels in organisations) often look weird at me when I bring in (part of) my personal library which at several hundred volumes exceeds that of any company I've worked for.
They just can't understand why someone would put in the time and investment to develop their skills beyond what's needed for the immediate job at hand.

[daguchan]

Originally Posted by jwenting

Nice marketing blurb "In a recent survey conducted by Dr Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management, more than three quarters (78%) of respondents felt that it was more beneficial to their organization to develop employees internally rather than to recruit externally."...

Reality however is that 95% of those companies don't actually expend the resources to perform that internal employee development.
They tell their people how important training and "personal development" is to them but there's never budget or time for people to actually attend training courses, conferences, and other events.

This has been pretty much a constant (at least here, maybe it's different in other countries) ever since I started in IT well over a decade ago.
In many companies requests for training are ignored or rejected outright, and where not they create a stranglehold on the employee by requiring him to pay back the entire sum (or by ratio) if he leaves within 5 (usually) years (sometimes irrespective of whether the training was requested by the employee or ordered by the employer or a customer).
As a result training is not done, people don't gain skills except those they attain by reading books or other material in their spare time (or by sneaking in some dead hours at work) or occasionally from experimenting with new things on projects (increasing risk of project failure).

People (at all levels in organisations) often look weird at me when I bring in (part of) my personal library which at several hundred volumes exceeds that of any company I've worked for.
They just can't understand why someone would put in the time and investment to develop their skills beyond what's needed for the immediate job at hand.

Thanks for your feedback jwenting. It seems that there is a stark contrast between your personal experiences and what the survey is reporting. It would be interesting to hear the view of others toward the benefit of managing and developing the internal skills. Does your management share the same view? And do they support this view with actions?

In my personal experience, my previous employers have understood the benefits professional development and have been supportive.

From the employer’s perspective, as with any business activity, there needs to be a clear understanding of the ROI. After all, a business will always make decisions that bring benefit to the bottom line. To be honest, and fair, I don’t think employers have had the tools to make informed decisions about the ROI from managing the skills of their workforce.

Douglas

[jwenting]

they understand the benefits, they even create elaborate "personal development profiles" for everyone, complete with suggested training the employee is supposed to get over the coming months.
Those profiles however invariably end up filed and forgotten in some dark corner of a HR dungeon, rather than acted upon.
Many companies even boast "educational budgets" for each employee, but trying to get anything funded out of such a budget is always an exercise in futility. In theory the money is there, in practice it's impossible to meet all the requirements to get it released (the nastiest is usually having to be able to indicate how there will be a direct relation between the training and a recognised customer requirement, when people who don't meet customer requirements aren't considered for projects in the first place).

[daguchan]

Originally Posted by jwenting

they understand the benefits, they even create elaborate "personal development profiles" for everyone, complete with suggested training the employee is supposed to get over the coming months.
Those profiles however invariably end up filed and forgotten in some dark corner of a HR dungeon, rather than acted upon.
Many companies even boast "educational budgets" for each employee, but trying to get anything funded out of such a budget is always an exercise in futility. In theory the money is there, in practice it's impossible to meet all the requirements to get it released (the nastiest is usually having to be able to indicate how there will be a direct relation between the training and a recognised customer requirement, when people who don't meet customer requirements aren't considered for projects in the first place).

Meeting customer requirements is valid but a greater benefit is increased productivity and I think any employer is going to respond positively to this. I have reviewed survey data recently that confirms a potential 25% increase in productivity if skills are assessed and managed effectively. (Granted we are working with theory to some extent.) Employers are looking for qualitative data that supports ROI. If an employer can achieve this kind of productivity, questions about budgets pale.

If I could get a 25% return in the current market, I know where I would put my money. A some point the risk of not acting becomes more significant than acting and the companies that fail will be those that don't invest in their most valuable resource, human capital.

Douglas

[jwenting]

That's what you'd think. But as I said, most companies in actuality don't do so.
Training budgets are usually the first to get slashed when company income drops.
While they may state high and low that "our people are our greatest assets", in reality that's hardly ever born out by how those people are treated.

As an example, the company I now work for (and its workings are no different from any other I've encountered) in the second half of last year announced a total ban on all foreign travel to visit conferences and training events. Only those travel plans already approved to that date would be allowed to go ahead, and the only new foreign travel to be approved would be foreign travel immediately covered by customer payments (thus, people going on-site with foreign customers to work there).
Living in a small country, almost all such events will include foreign travel (JavaOne, Oracle OpenWorld, etc. etc.) to some extent.
Strictly even Javapolis is now off-limits to us, even though it's only some 50km across the border (some people do visit that on personal title though, just gassing up before the border so they don't have to pay for gas abroad).

Making such cuts is a quick win for the beancounters. They get to keep the same number of "assets", have them available for more billable hours (each day of training of course is non-billable time), and reduce the Euro amount of cost overhead.
Of course during peak times, when those budgets are available, those same assets won't have the time to go to conferences or training courses because they're already working overtime meeting project deadlines.