TRAINING
ACHIEVING POTENTIAL
The right sort of training The importance of accreditation
environment. Jan-Hein Hemke, Managing Director of Facilicom – one of the UK’s leading suppliers of soft support services and specialists in contract cleaning – explains how with training as a crucial part of the mix, a supportive and encouraging employer will create a happy and loyal workforce, which is much more likely to deliver the high standards that customers demand.
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Training should be about more than being sent on a course every so often to suffer ‘death by PowerPoint’ and then returning to work to continue with old habits. It should be an important component of workplace well-being helping to make people feel valued, increasing job satisfaction and ultimately assisting people to achieve their potential.
When it comes down to it, money will always be a strong motivating factor in why and where people work. However, for many people wages alone are not enough; they want a career that actually means something to them and allows them the opportunity to grow and develop personally as well as professionally.
People now base their job searches on many different things, including corporate social responsibility (CSR). Companies that can demonstrate their commitment to the well-being of not just their workforce, but also the wider community will provide an edge that may help to attract the brightest and best new recruits. Treating your colleagues – whether new or existing – with dignity and respect, putting social sustainability at the heart of all your operations, will help to retain and reward them, boosting their personal well-being and improving morale across the entire organisation.
ompanies that want to survive and thrive need to help their employees to advance by developing their talent and ability in a favourable
Although external courses don’t offer a complete solution to training needs, it is essential to offer the right industry recognised training. This ensures your workforce has the correct skills and gives everyone confidence to do the job for which they are employed.
Ensuring your team members are fully up to date on the correct use of specialist equipment and materials relevant to your organisation is also essential and the training must be delivered by accredited bodies that are respected in your industry. For example, for us that includes giving our employees training on the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
In-house offers competitive advantage
Although it is often overlooked or undervalued, in-house training – bespoke to your own organisation – can create a significant competitive advantage. Training courses, specifically created to reflect your company’s values and aims can add that crucial ‘x factor’ that sets you apart from competitors and also ensure you address any issues specific to you location or environment.
We offer every colleague the chance to take part in our ‘Hostmanship’ training. Hostmanship, or ‘the art of making people feel welcome’, helps us to show that customer service is not a department hidden away at head office, but is part of everyone’s job. The training helps to instil people skills in our operatives, giving them the confidence to communicate with colleagues and clients, and another way to develop their potential.
Sharing knowledge
www.facilicom.co.uk
A less formal approach to training is to encourage the use of mentoring. This usually pairs an experienced person already at the organisation with a new employee.
A mentoring relationship is usually long-term, and often takes place over a defined period of time. It may begin in an introductory situation, ensuring that a new employee has someone to help them with the challenges that come with a new role, including unfamiliar names, procedures, policies and buildings. However, this can then develop into something much more personal, helping them to identify specific skills and interests, providing them with clear direction when it comes to their future development.
Mentoring can also be brought in to help with succession planning, helping to prepare an individual for that next ‘step up’ the career ladder. Companies that include mentoring as a fundamental part of their training strategies will reap the benefits of increased length of service and low absenteeism rates. People will feel that they are being treated as individuals rather than commodities. Mentoring demonstrates that people are respected and being treated with the greatest integrity – a part of the team for, hopefully, the long run.
Well-being
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) definition of workplace well-being is, to my mind, particularly relevant to this topic: ‘Creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation’.
I believe that is why it is so important to provide the right sort of training and the right environment to implement the results of that training. It is good for the individual, good for the employer and good for the customer!
PSS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
35
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