HR Corner Playing to win by Mayse Lam Innovative staff training programme produces encouraging results With the strong economy creating jobs in all areas, companies are promoting training as an added benefit in their employment packages. One company is even making it available to the public. "As industries become more sales-oriented and increasingly competitive, providing quality training is becoming more important," says Ivan Ip, senior manager of the training and development department at Midland Group. Mr Ip believes training has two main benefits: it enhances staff knowledge and development, and thus in turn improves services for customers. "We greatly value our employees and aim to provide them with all the knowledge and skills they could possibly need in their profession," he says. "At the same time, we anticipate that our staff will better serve our customers as a result." Multiple benefits According to Mr Ip, Midland's comprehensive training programmes act as strong incentives for staff to remain with the company. "I perceive these educational programmes as something we owe to our employees. Since they make the decision to invest their time and effort in our organisation, we have a responsibility to assist the development and enhancement of our employees' careers with us," he says. "In the end it's a win-win situation." As such, a series of training programmes have been tailor-made to suit the needs of both frontline staff and the support team. These naturally include an orientation programme for all newcomers. "It helps them get a feel for our corporate culture, but all of our other programmes have been specially designed to accommodate the various job natures in our organisation," Mr Ip says. "We have a responsibility to assist the development and enhancement of our employees' careers with us" For example, a licensing preparatory programme was exclusively formulated for frontline sales trainees to transfer fundamental knowledge and create compliance awareness. The objective is to provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to pass the examination that all practitioners must pass in order to gain authorisation to work in the field. As these employees advance and move into managerial positions, the programmes shift to focus on teaching the skills required to take on supervisory roles. Innovative approach Training takes place in both conventional lectures and online. "Last year we launched a brand new online training programme for our staff. Using this format we aim to arouse their interest in learning through the use of innovative animated storylines and games. At the same time we want to create a more comfortable learning environment for them. Through our online programme they can access the materials at their own convenience," Mr Ip notes. Midland has also developed another novel approach to staff development. "To improve our employees' soft skills, we have invented an interactive game called 'Tower of Babel'. It tests and builds their leadership, teamwork, communication and management skills through various challenges," Mr Ip explains. Midland realises the importance of training in all industries and decided to publish this and other training tools publicly, allowing others to access and make use of them. Mr Ip says that creating values for others is the genuine essence of developing such tools. He adds that he feels a great sense of satisfaction when other corporations train their staff via these specific tools. Looking ahead, Mr Ip and his team will continue to create innovative training programmes as well as improve current curricula, aiming to enhance the capabilities of Midland's staff. "Our training and development teams regularly visit our branches to discuss our employees' progress and the effectiveness of our programmes with various management levels. In addition, with the unique design of our online programmes we can generate useful information, such as actual programme participation rates for each employee. All these are evaluation tools we use to gauge the effectiveness of our training programmes and to design better ones in the future." Salient points Tailor-made programmes suit job responsibilities Additional value to employment package Innovative approach arouses interest Taken from Career Times 14 December 2007, p. A20 Your comments are welcome at [email protected]