The Rest of the Story
Our interviews of the nonusers (nonsuccess cases) quickly cleared up the
mystery. The explanation was simple although quite unreasonable. Technicians ho did not use their skills reported that they had no customers whohad purchased the DUCK box peripherals, thus there was no need or opportunity for them to apply the course skills. The next question was,“Why did you attend the training?”
The interviews revealed the answers as the
following.
Sales projections were viewed as unreliable. Even though no customer
was scheduled for a DUCK box sale and installation, district managers
wanted someone on their staff to be ready with the skills, just in case. Further, district managers knew there was a waiting list for the course, so they
placed a technician on the list to assure a placement. Again, this was just i
n case they had a need because of a customer purchase. The waiting list was
long, partly because so many technicians who did not need the course were
taking it anyway. This was made worse by some technicians re-enrolling for
the course, because when they first took it, they had no customer with the
product, but then when they did have a customer, so much time had passed
that they needed the training again.
In sum, the course was highly effective. It taught the skills well. When the
skills were needed, virtually every technician was able to fulfill customer
expectations. We uncovered and documented success cases where a trained
technician “saved the dayby quickly solving a problem that would have led
to a disastrous customer outage. In one success case, a technician was confronted by 30 inoperable DUCK boxes. The customer was the NASDAQ
stock exchange. Had the outage gone even minutes longer than scheduled
(service was temporarily transferred to an airline’s server), the entire stock
exchange would have crashed causing millions of dollars in losses. But the
technician recalled exactly how to look up the trouble codes, discovered a
coding error in the delivered equipment, made quick diagnoses and repairs,
and got the server working before a crash could occur.
It is clear that the training was contributing to a very positive ROI when
the worth of outcomes achieved was compared to the costs. But the 40%
non use rate was seriously undermining the cost-effectiveness of the course.
Worse, the strange practice of enrolling people who could not use the training caused a severe backlog, risking that a person who needed it would not
get it, thus leading to a potential customer outage and/or complaints.
Although it took several months of discussions between divisions and
functions, we were finally able to convene a phone conference among the
senior players in the divisions affected to discuss the findings and conclusions. They reached a decision to redesign and tighten up enrollment procedures to reduce enrollments such that only those technicians who had a true
need could get access to the training. There was certainly some business
value for some degree of over training, as this would assure that the
“just in case”
scenario would not lead to an unversed customer. To address this
issue, they agreed that, in the event a service area had a customer with the
DUCK boxes but no trained technician, a trained technician could be on loan
from another district with no loss of incentive or bonus pay or any other such
financial penalty to either district involved.
The result of this SCM project was that the client gained a large increase
in the ROI of a training investment, which in turn led to a greater assurance
of effective customer service, all without changing any aspect of a training
program itself. When viewed from the perspective of the larger learning-
performance system, the training program had some serious flaws. But it
took a more systemic inquiry to uncover these and get the right information
to the right people.
Concluding Remarks
The SCM assesses the effect of training by looking intentionally for the
very best that training is producing. When these instances are found, they
are carefully and objectively analyzed, seeking hard and corroborated evidence to irrefutably document the application and result of the training.
Further, there must be adequate evidence that it was the application of the training that led to a valued outcome. If this cannot be verified, it does not qualify
as a success case.
Almost always, an SCM study turns up at least some very worthwhile
applications of training that lead to valuable results worth well more than
the cost of the training. Equally often, however, there are large numbers of
participants who did not experience such positive results. These stories
become rich ground for digging into underlying reasons. When the impediments to effect are compared to the factors that facilitated effect, a coherent
pattern typically emerges, leading directly to obvious changes in the training and performance environment that, if they were changed, could lead to
greater effect. That is, because we know from the success cases what the
training effect is worth when it happens, we can make an economic argument for what it would be worth to get more effect and thus compare this to
the costs of what it would take in terms of changes to related systems and
factors to get that enhanced effect. In this way, an SCM study opens the
door to performance consulting, giving the HRD practitioner greater strategic access and leverage to make a difference while at the same time helping
clients build their capability to get more effect and return on their training
investments
The Rest of the Story
Our interviews of the nonusers (nonsuccess cases) quickly cleared up the
mystery. The explanation was simple although quite unreasonable. Technicians ho did not use their skills reported that they had no customers whohad purchased the DUCK box peripherals, thus there was no need or opportunity for them to apply the course skills. The next question was,“Why did you attend the training?”
The interviews revealed the answers as the
following.
Sales projections were viewed as unreliable. Even though no customer
was scheduled for a DUCK box sale and installation, district managers
wanted someone on their staff to be ready with the skills, just in case. Further, district managers knew there was a waiting list for the course, so they
placed a technician on the list to assure a placement. Again, this was just i
n case they had a need because of a customer purchase. The waiting list was
long, partly because so many technicians who did not need the course were
taking it anyway. This was made worse by some technicians re-enrolling for
the course, because when they first took it, they had no customer with the
product, but then when they did have a customer, so much time had passed
that they needed the training again.
In sum, the course was highly effective. It taught the skills well. When the
skills were needed, virtually every technician was able to fulfill customer
expectations. We uncovered and documented success cases where a trained
technician “saved the dayby quickly solving a problem that would have led
to a disastrous customer outage. In one success case, a technician was confronted by 30 inoperable DUCK boxes. The customer was the NASDAQ
stock exchange. Had the outage gone even minutes longer than scheduled
(service was temporarily transferred to an airline’s server), the entire stock
exchange would have crashed causing millions of dollars in losses. But the
technician recalled exactly how to look up the trouble codes, discovered a
coding error in the delivered equipment, made quick diagnoses and repairs,
and got the server working before a crash could occur.
It is clear that the training was contributing to a very positive ROI when
the worth of outcomes achieved was compared to the costs. But the 40%
non use rate was seriously undermining the cost-effectiveness of the course.
Worse, the strange practice of enrolling people who could not use the training caused a severe backlog, risking that a person who needed it would not
get it, thus leading to a potential customer outage and/or complaints.
Although it took several months of discussions between divisions and
functions, we were finally able to convene a phone conference among the
senior players in the divisions affected to discuss the findings and conclusions. They reached a decision to redesign and tighten up enrollment procedures to reduce enrollments such that only those technicians who had a true
need could get access to the training. There was certainly some business
value for some degree of over training, as this would assure that the
“just in case”
scenario would not lead to an unversed customer. To address this
issue, they agreed that, in the event a service area had a customer with the
DUCK boxes but no trained technician, a trained technician could be on loan
from another district with no loss of incentive or bonus pay or any other such
financial penalty to either district involved.
The result of this SCM project was that the client gained a large increase
in the ROI of a training investment, which in turn led to a greater assurance
of effective customer service, all without changing any aspect of a training
program itself. When viewed from the perspective of the larger learning-
performance system, the training program had some serious flaws. But it
took a more systemic inquiry to uncover these and get the right information
to the right people.
Concluding Remarks
The SCM assesses the effect of training by looking intentionally for the
very best that training is producing. When these instances are found, they
are carefully and objectively analyzed, seeking hard and corroborated evidence to irrefutably document the application and result of the training.
Further, there must be adequate evidence that it was the application of the training that led to a valued outcome. If this cannot be verified, it does not qualify
as a success case.
Almost always, an SCM study turns up at least some very worthwhile
applications of training that lead to valuable results worth well more than
the cost of the training. Equally often, however, there are large numbers of
participants who did not experience such positive results. These stories
become rich ground for digging into underlying reasons. When the impediments to effect are compared to the factors that facilitated effect, a coherent
pattern typically emerges, leading directly to obvious changes in the training and performance environment that, if they were changed, could lead to
greater effect. That is, because we know from the success cases what the
training effect is worth when it happens, we can make an economic argument for what it would be worth to get more effect and thus compare this to
the costs of what it would take in terms of changes to related systems and
factors to get that enhanced effect. In this way, an SCM study opens the
door to performance consulting, giving the HRD practitioner greater strategic access and leverage to make a difference while at the same time helping
clients build their capability to get more effect and return on their training
investments
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