Embrace Training!

By Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept

Last weekend we showed that one of the best ways to keep good employees and to encourage them to invest their lives into your dream, was through training. We quoted the great Ben Horowitz, (in his book here) who found out that one reason employees left was “The company wasn’t investing resources in helping employees develop new skills.”

But we hear you say - “I just want Angela to come in each day and move a part on a conveyor belt to the product and then place these on a different conveyor belt which will take it to John, who will…”. Yes, that is what you need on your production line, but how soul destroying is that!?!

If your future from the age of 18 to 58 is to just sit on the side of the conveyor belt - would you too not jump at the chance to do something different? Let us not be too hasty, for some, the Factory Floor with the friendships, the camaraderie, just enough responsibility but not too much, and the 9-5 life suits perfectly. But maybe within your team of factory workers there are some employees who have far more to offer if you just give them a chance.

Such as:

Howard Putnam started as a baggage handler at Capital Airlines, age 17, he finished his working life as CEO of Southwest Airlines and then CEO of Braniff International Airways.

Or…

Tracey Armstrong who started as a Clerk at Copyright Clearance Center, age 21 and has been CEO since 2007.

Or…

Mary Barra, who started at General Motors, USA in 1980 on the factory floor, rose through the ranks to play several important roles at GM, including vice president of global manufacturing engineering, head of the Hamtramck Assembly plant, executive director of competitive operations engineering, and its first chief of global product development. Now? Oh, she’s GM’s first ever female CEO, controlling a cool 122 billion U.S. dollars in revenue (bet there’s a large star on the floor of the factory where she used to stand each day!).

There are many other examples of people who started out life on the bottom rung and rose to the top. That kind of drive and dedication has to be attractive to the companies they work for.

The point being is that none of us know or understand other people’s journeys, we just have to shine a light and assist them to find their own way.

How do we do this?

This is best done through training, the reason being is that through a decent and well thought-out training program, employees can go at their own speed. There is no forcing of a square peg into a round hole, no demand for urgency, no threat of leaving anyone behind or that the stragglers are pulling others back. It goes without saying that in certain training areas there is more pressure than in others. Health and Safety is one such area that has to be taken very seriously and that comes under the ‘Functional’ Training group. No company would expect a ‘newbie’ to operate massive machinery without such training. Such product and role specific training is essential.

However, it gets far more interesting as we move into Management Training and what the HoF likes to call ‘Life of Company’ Training.

It is our belief that no company training course should be off limits to employees who want to put in the time. Obviously it is no good if they spend their entire working day in a classroom and don’t do their day job, or if all your classes are in the evenings so become unavailable to many who have childcare requirements or second jobs, so time on these courses do have to be both limited and flexible. But once you have your program in place, such issues will quickly show themselves and you can solve any such timing issues. 

Finally, before you embark on such an essential program, you have to recognize the following: Many employees who sign up to work training courses (according to McKinsey - one of the world’s top Management Consulting firms, here) are part of these three groups - 

1. Prisoners (“I’m here because I have to be”).

2. Vacationers (“I don’t mind being here—it’s a nice break from doing real work”).

3. Professors (“Everybody else is here to learn; I can just share my wisdom”).

They continue, “…before employees can master a new skill [they] must be convinced it will help improve their organization’s performance, recognize that their own performance is weak in that area, and then actually choose to learn.”

We would add to that a slight change: Before employees can master a new skill they must be convinced it will help improve their own performance or their own future, and recognize that their own performance is weak in that area, believe that this is something that will help them move to the next base (i.e. they will either get noticed or will make them more employable elsewhere), and then actually choose to learn.

The first is how the employers see things, but the second is what will truly drive your employees and therefore interests us.

Sadly most training programs misunderstand the second of the two drivers and assume that all will just sign up, learn and move on with an automatic increase in productivity and smiles. Obviously if HR just want a load of ticks in a box to say that 30 employees appeared at their training… then 30 ticks is what they will get and precious little else - what a waste of time and money that is! 

If a program is to be truly successful, it must have the ‘buy-in’ from the employees. This is why the HoF likes to start with ‘Life of the Company’ Training before Management Training. The ‘why’ behind the company. Starting with how the business is run and (again) why. The economics, the finance, the e-commerce, covering all areas that many within your organisation never come across (as they are hidden away in product development or accounts, or the warehouse or the factory). Why are some customers blocked until they pay their ancient invoices; why did the decision by Thomas Wall II who owned a Sausage manufacturing firm, to then also make Ice Cream during the summer months and save so many jobs; how did a ship being stuck in the Suez Canal affect our supply of widgets and why did we have to raise our pricing recently in plastics? These questions are especially important for your sales team who are also often quite happy to block your cash for 12 months on the back of a Purchase Order, while their ‘massive’ customer uses your bank balance to finance their operation  by picking up their goods on a relaxed and ad hoc basis (no kidding - that is a real issue with so many companies and creates major issues especially with Cash Flow). This type of training is the start of engaging your workforce. 

An engaged workforce is a powerful tool. 

They will truly appreciate the time and effort you are putting into them, this is no longer a monetary transaction - “I turn up from 9-5, you pay me…” changes into “I work for her because she understands and she is interested in me.”  

If your employees understand the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’, they will become far more engaged and far more likely to become more interested in other training and then get the most out those they sign up for. 

They will also become personally invested in your dream.

Think of that for a moment - an engaged workforce that is also personally invested in your dream? Can one be that lucky?

Such a mindset will help solve one of the other great problems of training. Once trained, some employees simply return to what they previously knew, “…they often don’t apply it” according to McKinsey. Pre-existing mindsets or ‘profiling’ being one of the major problems of sales people - e.g. assuming the well dressed will spend well - not always the case as Julia Roberts showed in ‘Pretty Woman’!

Those who believe in the 80:20 rule will state that 20% of customers account for 80% of total profits, but what if you have only ever sold to a certain group, yet your research showed a different demographic was making new waves? It’s too easy for your sales staff to go back to their desks following your new sales training course and call the same old customers where they feel the most at ease.

This is why we are so excited by the fabulous leadership of Kevine & Ysolde of UZURI K&Y (here), as we said: “[They] not only train all their employees in the manufacture of their fabulous sandals, but also recognizing they couldn’t employ everyone who applied for jobs with them, set up a training program to teach the soft skills needed to help them navigate the job market and also (a brilliant addition) business skills to guide any who wanted to set up a business. Through this vision, since 2013, Kevine & Ysolde have impacted the careers of over 1,060 people — 70% of which are women — and have even helped 10 former employees launch their own businesses.” Their aim is to jump-start 100 business owners by the end of 2025 (many of whom will be ex-employees) and train 10,000 people both inside their organisation and out.

What does that gain them if employees leave to start a business, or an employee uses their new found skills to find a better job outside of their company? Given that many of their previous employees have taken the new-found knowledge and gone onto open their own business employing many others - this shows to their current employees that this works and they then choose to learn. Either they will employ their new found skills within the company, or will indeed leave and form their own companies - but then Kevine & Ysolde (purely by accident because they only set out to train so many having recognised how horrific it was to be without a job), will start to build a huge ecosystem of ex-employees who will always watch each other’s back and where possible trade with and assist one another. A massive community of love, trust…and family. 

That is why Training, along with being engaged and interested in your employees is so powerful - what have you got to lose?

Stay safe.