Once required only for high-end professional and administrative staff, IT training is now at the center stage of HR management strategy. As everyone from executives to utility meter readers now interact with computer systems in their daily work lives, the need for IT training has expanded at an exponential pace.
This pressure to ramp up IT training also comes from three other factors. First, corporate restructuring often alters the work roles of staff, forcing them to learn new applications or systems once handled by other staff. Secondly, application life cycles are becoming shorter, and application roll-outs are usually accompanied by a new round of training. Lastly, the increasing pace of corporate mergers and acquisitions brings together equally efficient but incompatible computer systems, creating a need to retrain surviving staff.
To meet this rising demand for IT training, HR managers often delegate this task to training directors or outsource it to professional training firms. Indeed, the fact that many HR departments now have a full-time IT training manager demonstrates how it has firmly established itself as an important part of overall HR strategy. In addition to requiring less time and money, according to KC Low, CEO of Avantus Training, the advantages of outsourcing include, "Well prepared and knowledgeable trainers specialising in specific IT trainings, good learning facilities and infrastructure that enable trainees to concentrate and practice hands-on."
To provide companies with a comprehensive overview of this rapidly changing field, we have put together 10 IT training guidelines. Whether your organisation serves food, provides transportation services or educates, IT training is now an established part of a company's HR management operations.
1 Take an active role in evaluating your organisation's IT training needs
An HR director should take an active role and never give IT training ownership to MIS or departments that are familiar with IT operations but not training. KC Low, CEO of IT training provider Avantus Training states that Human Resources' unique position in the organisation means that only it can play a central coordinating role in the IT training process. Hence, he concludes that effective IT training is, "only possible with trust and communication and a lot of planning and discussions with HR personnel."
All other parties include MIS and outsourcers have too great a stake in the resources connected to IT training to be objective in their decision making. Only HR management can conduct an arm's length relationship with management, staff, potential outsourcers and internal trainers. Larissa Allan, Executive Director of Human Resources at Canada's Ryerson Polytechnic University states that, "everyone connected to or affected by IT training will try to push decisions that aid their own interests. While coordination and delegation are inevitable, an HR executive must remain as the training program's calm eye of the storm."
2 Rapidly identify and act on emerging IT training needs
With the lifecycle of applications becoming increasingly shorter, it is imperative for HR directors to quickly identify and create training needs while the applications are still relevant. In Singapore, IT literacy is widespread but more specialised skills are often lacking.
TNT's HR training manager James Lee states, "IT training needs arise when the managers identify them during performance appraisals, or when new job assignments or job roles are created." Lee adds that, "The most important step in designing an IT training program which some providers have is a pre-training assessment so that the training can be provided at the skill level it requires.
The ‘office application plus' model of IT training applies to most organisations -and it is usually training in applications that underpins a company's core competencies which is the greater challenge.
Curiously, Ryerson's Allan notes that one cannot rely on management evaluations alone to evaluate staff, as the latter often overstate qualifications to impress their superiors.
3 Have you recently undergone restructuring or merger?
Both the amalgamation of separate company departments and the acquisition of one firm by another can create profound issues of IT training and, more often, retraining. Low of Avantus comments that, "In the case of a merger, common tools will be consolidated for one company. Hence there will also be a need to conduct training or re-training on some new improvements made during the merger."
Usually, only one system is retained and a large proportion of the other organisation's former employees require re-training in order to continue doing their work in the new environment.
4 Conduct IT training in-house or outsource?
Although an increasing proportion of corporations outsource their IT training, with Singapore companies such as Avantus, ET Learning and NTUC Learning Hub leading the vanguard of local IT training professionals. However, the answer to this question still depends on the nature of the corporation.
TNT's Lee reports that, "In the past, we tried conducting IT training in-house, but we faced all sorts of issues. For example, we had to rent and set up enough terminals for everyone to use. Also, the IT guys would be hard pressed for time to conduct the training."
On the other hand, Ryerson's Allan reports that in large universities, finding surplus equipment, space and even trainers is not a challenge. However, as the next section explains, for many corporations, the decision to train in-house or outsource is a question with more than one answer.
5 Delegate training between outsourcer's and in-house staff
The division between outsourced and in-house IT training at TNT is typical of many organisations. TNT's Lee says that, "Virtually all the general staff IT programs (for MS Office etc.) are outsourced." However, "We do have certain highly technical IT programs, but these are mainly for the IT personnel themselves, and are usually rolled out by our regional or corporate office
Generally, the more technology-driven your company is, the more likely it is to keep any IT training related to its core competency in-house. Except for some institutions who have a surplus of the equipment and human resources used in IT training, most organisations find that the risks associated with IT training are mitigated when they outsource as much of their training as possible.
6 Compare an outsourcer's qualifications with staff needs
The types and breadth of IT training provided by outsourcing partners vary considerably. Certifications for standard MS windows and office applications can be taken for granted. Large, established professional such as Avantus, ET Learning or NTUC Learning Hub often carry a far larger array of training certifications. For example, Avantus is a certified training partner for Crystal Decisions, Netg, Novell, MS CRM, Business Objects, Prometric and Vue Testing, among others.
However, even when professional IT trainers hold a wide array of certifications, they may focus considerably more on some systems than others. Indeed, since certifications in a wide variety of applications can be increasingly taken for granted, past experience or word-of-mouth are often the best way of evaluating a potential outsourcer's strengths.
When training is done in-house, Ryerson's Allan cautions that the person who best understands a certain application is not always the best at sharing his or her knowledge with others."
7 Getting the buy-in of department executives
Like many other investments, expenditures on IT training can be wrongly perceived as a cost - both in terms of cash outlay and time lost due to training. To prevent this from happening, Ryerson's Allan opines that, "in IT training as in other areas, HR executives must maintain arm's length relationships, playing a coordinating role between employees who need training and the managers they report to."
Consequently, HR directors usually serve as the coordinators between at least three IT training stakeholders: department managers of the employees to be trained, the MIS department and human resources itself. When training is outsourced, human resource managers are usually the main liaison between all these parties and the professional trainers.
8 Do not judge on cost alone
During this era of non-stop cost cutting, many HR directors might be tempted to take a bottom-line approach to IT training. However, going for the lowest outsourcing provider or the most inexpensive or fastest in-house solution can be self-defeating.
"When I first started in the mid 1990s, our ability to conduct effective IT training was seriously affected by cost-driven technical considerations", says Ryerson's Allan. "At the time, we were anxious to get administrative staff up to speed on Windows 95 and Office 97 but the previous director opted to use PCs too slow for the new applications rather than increase departmental expenses. While we are given many incentives to minimise costs, a narrow focus cost-effectiveness does not always achieve optimal results."
Unlike Ryerson, TNT outsources its basic IT training but still holds a similar view. "We compare the cost-list of providers but we do not always go for the ones with the lowest fees. We balance the cost with the benefits we get from the training. The lower cost is not necessarily better," he concludes.
According to Avantus's Low, annual IT training costs usually amount to "1 percent to 2 percent of a company's payroll." Within this flexible yardstick, the most important criterion is the long-run effect on your company's productivity, not the absolute amount spent.
9 Create feedback mechanisms
Despite the best planning and coordination between HR, affected departments and outsourcers, an IT training program's effectiveness can be objectively evaluated only after it has been completed. Ryerson's Allan says the institute usually gives both employees and managers questionnaires a few weeks after training is completed, as their answers often differ.
However, in the case of IT department employees, Allan claims it can be difficult to evaluate post-training feedback. "Suppose you train up your IT guys but productivity does not improve. Is this because of employee performance, bad IT training or did we make a bad decision by bringing in a new software or systems that disappointed our expectations?" she questions. As answers can vary by staff levels and have ambiguous interpretation, feedback must be carefully designed and evaluated.
10 Make IT Training an ongoing part of your organisation
When IT systems had life cycles measured in years or more than a decade, IT training was treated as a one-time exercise. The shortness of today's IT software lifecycles means that training must be a continuous, ongoing system. This is one reason why both TNT's and Ryerson have delegated responsibility for training to one person.
Says Allan, "We created a new position of IT training director in 1996 and has never looked back. By being there permanently, the director has an ongoing interest in maximising the long-term effects of training and not treating it as another note on a ‘to-do' list."
Similarly, Lee who was appointed by TNT as their full-time training manager notes "our training programs are always ongoing." Hence, an HR director must either devote continuous attention to training or, if the organisation is sufficiently large, delegate this task to someone who can do so.
Box-out
IT training case study: Ryerson Polytechnic University
At Canada's Ryerson Polytechnic University's human resources department, the year 2003 was a time of upheaval. During the previous five years, the proportion of 3,000 staff requiring IT training rose substantially, even as the total student and faculty body increased from 35,000 to 45,000. IT training once confined to administrative staff and faculty had to be extended to all rank and file employees down to the level of food court clerks, parking lot attendants and building maintenance crews.
According to Larissa Allan, executive director of human resources at Ryerson, the greatest challenge was creating a centralised approach but first, it had to standardise the application base of its users. "When I took this position in 2001, an entire slew of incompatible software, browsers and applications were being used. For example, the financials would be handled by Oracle in one faculty and SAP in the other."
Needless to say, it was not logical to offer training in a variety of incompatible applications, getting the buy-in of department managers was difficult. "HR takes a neutral, agnostic approach towards the integration of systems but we received resistance from admin and faculty who did not want to throw away their existing systems, much less be retrained and learn everything all over again," Allan recalls.
At her recommendation, the office of the university president formed an 11-person committee consisting of managers from computer services, HR and administrative department heads to arbitrate which applications and systems would be retained and by implication, staff would only be trained in these. Hence, once it was determined that Oracle would be supported rather than NT server, Oracle over SAP, etc, the actual training program's scope was defined. It was also at this time that Allan created the post of a full-time training manager since, "it was obvious that this would be an ongoing concern and needed someone's full-time attention."
According to Allan, "there was a hodge podge of staff training needs since someone could be a wizard at half the applications we choose to support and know nothing about the others." Towards this end, both managers and their staff were given questions about which of the new applications they would require training. Allan notes that, "often times, managers were not fully aware of which applications their staff were proficient in. On the other hand, employees could have been trying to impress their managers by exaggerating their IT skills." Once, she realised this discrepancy between management and staff evaluations of IT skill levels, Allan modified her approach by making the questionnaires confidential.
As the university was on the verge of making redundant a large number of highly qualified IT staff that had formerly worked on mainframe or UNIX systems, they were recruited and made into IT trainers. "We had an unusual opportunity to utilise personnel who had an excellent knowledge of the university's applications and systems. Mind you, there are many outsourcing options and we might have taken that route were it not for this coincidence."
During and after the year of ongoing training, feedback on the training program came from three sources. Employees were given post-training questionnaires both at the course's completion and three month's later. Both department managers and staff were consulted after their semi-annual performance reviews.
However, Allan claims that Ryerson's staff help desk metrics also provided valuable feedback: the total number of help desk calls in the first ten months of 2004 fell by 21 percent compared to the same period of 2003. However, the proportion of calls lasting less than three minutes and dealing with common questions about computer applications fell by 44 percent. According to Allan, "this means that fewer people are calling the help desk for assistance about some software function they should already have known about and more are calling for real technical problems."
Allan concludes that, "if I learned anything at the time it was these two things; firstly, communication, buy-in and cooperation of all stakeholders matters more than the staff or financial resources you throw at IT training." However, she then adds, "but the last thing I learned is that you can never rest. We had not finished this training program's follow up before computer services announced that they would be begin supporting Star Office, migrating some of their boxes from AIX to Linux and so on. It never ends and this will always be an ongoing part of my human resource management."
