Telephone companies are downsizing because of the economy. That means fewer people do more work and often do jobs they haven’t been doing. That means training. Training is a big investment in time and money, whether you do it in-house or through a third party. Here are my thoughts on knowing when to train and how you can maximize your training dollars.

Shared Responsibility
Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies* once stated that the American blue-collar workforce is sorely undertrained. He feels that training must be a lifelong endeavor for the employee, not just a band-aid, hit-or-miss process. Effective training is the responsibility of the employer, the Union, and the employees as well.

Unfortunately, in most cases, it appears that the amount of training provided to technicians decreases each year while the complexity of the work (and even the amount of work) has dramatically increased. Today’s field technicians are often given little more than safety training and the rest is on-the-job.

Many technicians and managers did not grow up in a construction maintenance environment. They transferred to maintenance from marketing, operator services, and other areas that do not have a plant background. Although their management skills are excellent, often their skill level in plant operations can be low or even non-existent. The depth of this problem must be addressed.

It is up to the field manager to evaluate his training needs and it’s up to the employee to research his options for more training. There are often unused training dollars every year simply because the technician is not aware of what is available. This could include in-house training or even attending junior college and working toward a degree on the company’s dime.

Guidelines for Developing a Training Program
The American Society for Training and Development, under the Department of Labor, has published several guidelines for the employee training process.** Similarly, large telcos also have a training process in place.

We have paraphrased those guidelines and fine tuned them for smaller telco maintenance training. Together they pave the road to a complete training program rather than just a series of disjointed classes.

Using the following steps, a complete training plan can be developed which will benefit both the employee and the company.

Step 1. Identify Job Changes or Problems Related to Basic Workplace Skills
• Assess the extent of the problem. The first hint of basic skills problems may appear, for example, in a supervisor’s complaint of longer than average clearing times or excessive transferring circuits to clear faults. Morale will be low.
• Form a company-wide representative advisory committee. Training problems in your area more than likely are occurring company-wide. Their recommendations can be passed on to management in a company newsletter.
• Analyze selected jobs. Analysis may be limited to those jobs identified by managers or reported by employees. Be careful. These reports may be indicative of a larger problem. Long clearing times in cable failures may be due to transferring bad circuits by installation or repair until there is nothing left to transfer to. Installation and repair training on one pair fault locating may be in order.
• Document employee performance deficiencies. After job analysis is completed, information about the performance of individual employees or groups of employees in the selected jobs must be documented. (Union folks, be careful here. Demanding equal training for all employees even though some do not need it may overburden the company to where those who do need it do not get adequate training.) Training that is critical to employer need, however is frequently required as a condition of employment or promotion.
• Identify a population to be targeted for training. The term “required training” often raises employee fears that the training is a management scheme for weeding out the less effective members of the work force. Employees and their representatives should be involved throughout the development of the training curriculum. This will put employees at ease.
• Build cooperation with unions. The chances of establishing a successful training program increase when management and unions provide support. Unions can work as partners with management in setting goals, providing funding, selecting course content, or in locating volunteers who can be follow up skill trainers in the field.

Step 2. Build Management and Union Support for Skills Training Programs.
• Make the case for skills training programs. The case for establishing a good maintenance training program rests on a foundation of the data collected in step one. It must be a case that illustrates the impact of skills deficiencies on the employer’s ability to operate effectively. Left unchecked these deficiencies will affect the bottom line. As an example, a technician who cannot perform section analysis may cause the unnecessary replacement of a cable section.
• Build support for skills training programs. Support from influential managers, union officials, and key employees are critical to successful training. Involvement with top management gives the best training support.

Step 3. Present Strategy and Action Plan to Management and Unions for Approval
• Present the Strategy/Action Plan for training.
• Select a Training Program Architect: in-house training supported by external providers.
• Design the curriculum.
• Design a performance-based/functional context instructional program.
• Design an evaluation system.
• Design a documentation and record keeping system.
• Obtain final budget approval to implement program.

Step 4. Develop the Curriculum
• Prepare the course outline.
• Select delivery method and instructional materials.
• Select facilities site and designate equipment requirements.
• Develop evaluation and monitoring instruments.

Step 5. Select and Train the Instructional Staff, and Consider Creating a Learning Contract

Step 6. Evaluate and Monitor the Training Program
• Carry out initial evaluation.
• Begin on-going program monitoring.
• Connect back to management.

Training dollars must be justified. And we believe the benefits of a program such as outlined here will quickly show shorter trouble-clearing times with fewer circuits transferred. The plant can be then systematically maintained with more hours spent on routine and preventive maintenance. When performing section analysis, cost-plus-expenses will decrease with fewer curiosity holes dug, and only total section failures replaced.

Signing off
What about you? Have you had a good or bad training experience? Let me know and we can post it on the website for others to learn from. Contact me at dmccarty@mccartyinc.com or call 831.818.3930. And let me know what you really think - check out my “Talk Back” monthly column, a web exclusive on www.ospmag.com.

*In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, by Thomas J. Peters, Collins Business Essentials, 1st edition hardcover, 1982; with co-author Robert H. Waterman, paperback, 2004. (Source: www.amazon.com)

**American Society for Training and Development. www.astd.org.