Retention can be a difficult task for employees at any level, but retention at leadership levels can be more difficult. As employees develop their leadership styles and abilities, new doors may begin to open for them. Through networks and industry knowledge, high professional and high potential leaders have knowledge of positions that the generally public may not have. For these reasons, it is necessary for us to take a closer look at the training role in retaining leaders.

One of the first points in leadership retention is similar to our first point in general retention: ensure that new managers and supervisors have all of the tools they need to be successful. Your best subject matter expert, aside from managers and supervisors themselves, may be human resources. For example, many organizations create a course package that includes HR law and policies, the hiring process, the corrective action process, and the HR documentation process. After supervisors move through this package, they can move on to deeper management and leadership instruction.

Leadership and management are the next two components of the training role in retention. Both poor management and poor leadership can lead to a loss of employees, especially if those employees are fairly new with the organization. In terms of management, training should be ongoing and cover operations, financial, personnel, and project management, as well as motivation and influence. Leadership, on the other hand, is an opportunity to explore what characteristics successful leaders have within your organization and establish programs that create those characteristics. This is where HR and training can collaborate to create not only the leadership program competencies but also the plans for building an effective leadership bench.

Keep in mind that retaining leaders through training does not necessarily have to be confined to managers and supervisors, especially in this economic environment. Some organizations have come to rely on their lateral leaders because of a lack of promotional opportunities. In other words, you should definitely keep an eye on the people who lead as colleagues and would be great additions to the leadership bench. To do this, consider adding training interventions that target this high potential audience. Topics can include leading laterally, teamwork, taking the lead in ambiguous situations, and even industry or organizational knowledge pieces. This vital population should not only be retained but should be prepared to step into management roles when they become available. In fact, some organizations choose lateral leaders to go into the management course package or the leadership pool both to retain them and to get them ready to move up.

Another way to retain leaders is to ensure that managers are involved in the training department’s efforts, from the bottom to the top. Pay special attention to career paths and job-based curricula that highlight the path for mobility. By doing this, the leaders will understand that they can be succeeded if necessary and that they can use the career path as a motivational tool. When leaders get involved in the advertising of training, you are creating another way to retain them, as well.

In this series, we have examined the role training plays in HR functions, namely recruiting, employee selection, development, and retention. The training role in these functions can be direct or indirect, depending on your organization and its structure. It’s also important to remember that no assistance with HR functions should be unwanted or forced. One of the ways to ensure this is to understand how training can help and offer assistance as it’s necessary. Alternatively, consider meeting with HR on a regular basis to determine where they are and what they need. But also keep in mind that your assistance will come at a cost to your own projects and initiatives, so this is a space where your ability to balance will come in handy. Finally, remember that the current environment is calling on all of us to do more with less – and this is a great marketing perspective for involving training in some human resources functions.

In terms of retention, HR and training can work both together and separately to ensure that the talent acquisition cycle does not have to run repeatedly for the same groups or positions. In general, retention from the training perspective involves fine-tuning and monitoring all programs, as well as using those training programs as a potential source of advertising for retention. Let’s take a look at how the training department can assist HR with employee retention.

One of the first items to look at in regard to general retention is new hire training. Obviously evaluation of new hire training should be a continuous operation for the training department, but don’t forget to evaluate the managers who supervise new hires. You should certainly evaluate new hire performance via their supervisors, but be sure to examine the program itself from the managers’ perspectives. In other words, ensure that new hire training is what the managers need. If you are teaching the wrong skills or the wrong procedures that lead to the skills, new hires and managers are likely to mis-connect. And unhappy new hires tend to be in great danger of leaving. Of course, a new hire who just wasn’t the right fit will eventually self-select anyway, but you definitely don’t want those perfect fits leaving because they did not get the training they needed. New hires’ managers can give you quite a bit of insight on how well prepared they are.

Next, consider cross training as a retention tool. This is another area where you’ll want to get buy in from both HR and managers, but in today’s environment this may be fairly easy. Cross training does not necessarily mean that training or line managers are attempting to prove an excess of staff. It simply means that employees can learn to do more with less staff – and to be prepared to take over wherever needed. But how is cross training a retention tool? Employees with more knowledge about the organization and its operations are more likely to stick around.

Also, be sure to “listen” to training evaluations. In any discussion of training evaluation, we know that an evaluation, at whatever level, is useless unless you do something with it. For the most part, trends in training evaluation are telling you something and you should act upon that knowledge. As your programs are constantly aligned with employees and jobs, you’ll find that this alignment may impact retention.

Another way to look at general retention through training is to truly examine the bottom line. In today’s economic environment, it’s likely that training managers are forced to do this anyway. But look at the competencies your programs teach and figure out how those have impacted the organization. For example, is customer service better? Is turnover in certain positions lower or higher than this time a year ago or two years ago? Have operational errors become lower? If you can link training to these items, you may also impact retention.

Finally, try to make training as accessible as possible. If certain programs lend themselves to online delivery, take the plunge and make the change. Employees need access to information and training at all times, but, as we’ve discussed, many of them are being asked to take on more responsibility in the same amount of work time. If you can cut out travel to and from a training location, not to mention time away for the duration of training, this is also a positive impact on retention. Consider alternative methods to training, as well. For example, we’ve discussed social media roles in training, as well as coaching and mentoring. The combination of these methods can push knowledge out and ensure that the workforce stays focused – and happy on the job.

In regard to HR, be sure to get the department involved in advertising training – and using it as a retention tool. As part of recruitment and selection, the training program can be a big draw, especially if a potential employee understands that he or she will have a career path and the training interventions to support it.

Next, we will finish our series on training roles in HR functions with a discussion of retention at the leadership level.

As we’ve discussed, development is a primary role for training, but there are ways that HR and training can cross in this important function. We’ve looked at more traditional forms of development, so now let’s examine other development avenues for training and HR.

One of the first avenues for employee development is through career paths and curriculum development. In terms of curriculum, training is usually going to work with managers, supervisors, and the people who do the jobs in order to determine what competencies or skills are included in training programs. This in itself is a form of development, but consider taking it a step further to career paths. The career path is essentially a collection of curricula that make up the most logical steps in an employee’s development. This could mean moving from one position to another within one area of expertise, or taking a logical step into another area. For example, call center employees can logically move into supervisory roles from lower positions, but in some situations they can also move into roles such as analysis or quality assurance. With career paths, HR is the training department’s definite partner. HR can tell you which positions people are moving to and from, as well as how department and division managers envision those career steps. In addition, just as you can give feedback on success in new hire training, HR can provide a profile of who works best when promoted into certain roles. For example, the call center supervisors may be more people oriented, whereas the quality assurance position may require more analytical skill. Career paths that are developed as a partnership with HR will be accurate and will also help increase the credibility of the training program as a whole.

Next, coaching and mentoring are also “crossroads” for HR and training. Keep in mind that coaching and mentoring are two separate components of both formal and informal development. Coaches typically focus on a particular piece of performance, such as a certain set of skills or functions, whereas a mentor takes a general focus in helping a person with his or her career path and general career skills. When you look at a coaching program, much of your information may come from the people on the jobs and their supervisors. These groups typically know what skills are missing from an associate’s “toolbox” and in many cases can take over as coaches. Coaching can be formal or informal, but a formal program can lead back to career paths, as an associate’s performance and improvement is documented. In the case of a formal coaching program, HR and training can work together to track, change course, and reward both associates and their coaches.

In a mentoring arrangement, whether formal or informal, the focus becomes a person’s overall progression and preparedness for career moves. With an effective set of career paths, HR and training can work together to monitor the mentor program, as well as to educate and train mentors on their roles. In fact, the mentor component is probably more of a crossover for HR than the coaching component. Because the mentor is focused on the overall career, HR can certainly lend a hand in preparing the program and helping it move forward.

Other informal routes for development may exist as joint ventures between HR and training. For example, the mentor program may include a social networking component such as a discussion board, blog, or chat feature. If this is the case, HR and training together can monitor the social network and ensure that information is accurate and appropriate for that medium. HR and training features such as career paths can also be part of an informal or formal social network. The key with such interventions is to make sure exchanges are monitored. With a joint venture between HR and training, you can assure that information is monitored and that moderators present the perspectives of both departments.

The final area where training and HR can work together is retention, so we will look at the general and leadership levels for ideas in this component of employee development.

The development of human capital is a primary role for training. Development can come in many forms, which we will review. However, we will take a different view on development by determining how we can best leverage HR in this all-important facet of day-to-day business.

First, let’s examine formal training programs, such as classroom, online, and social-media based learning. Depending on your organization and its scope, you may have formal training in place for just about every position. Or, you may have a formal training program that serves as a “funnel” for the rest of the organization. Your formal training program may be a blended approach, where participants attend class and then go to online learning interventions, but it may also use one approach or the other. However your formal training is structured, you can rely on HR to help you evaluate and improve each component. You are probably already evaluating training from the participant and supervisor perspective, but have you ever considered going in tandem with HR to evaluate training?

The HR department is usually privy to descriptive numbers, such as position turnover, promotions, voluntary termination, and involuntary termination. In cases of involuntary turnover, HR will usually know the reason. If this is the case at your organization, you can obtain a profile of what’s happening after training. For example, if you find that involuntary terminations occur often because of certain procedural issues, perhaps training needs to be improved in those areas. On the other hand, if terminations are involuntary because of issues with managers or supervisors, the problem could lie with management or leadership training. Obviously the data HR can give you will not spell out the problem letter for letter, but it will more than likely help you narrow down some improvements to the overall training program.

There are other ways to get involved with HR in employee development. For example, does your organization have an on-the-job training program? If not, on-the-job (OTJ) programs are an effective joint venture for HR and training. Because OTJ combines a learning intervention with job progression, both HR and training can take what they learn from OTJ results and improve programs. If the people that are hired can’t seem to make it past certain points in the OTJ program, HR may need to look back at the overall profile of the best candidates. Alternatively, training may need to improve the components of the OTJ program.

The key with formal development programs is to have HR on board with what you are trying to do. When you begin looking at designing and implementing a new program, get HR personnel involved. For example, if new hire training is under development or redevelopment, involve the recruiters in the process. Just as your area can give them feedback on the potential candidate profile, they can give you feedback on what skills managers are really looking for. If you are looking to implement training at other levels, such as employee selection, which we’ve already discussed, involve HR from the very beginning. This way, you are creating a team environment where HR is closely aligned with training – and vice versa.

With this in mind, let’s move on to the “other side” of employee development, which involves career paths, coaching, mentoring, and other informal training interventions.

If your department has been able to assist in recruiting, you may have been able to help bring in a pool of talented job candidates. But when it comes to selection, the major responsibility passes to the hiring manager and HR. How can training participate in this process, even from a less direct perspective?

First, your overall training program should include management training, which, in turn, should include training on the entire hiring process. In some organizations, you’ll find that managers and those wanting to be promoted must take a “core” of courses that teach the hiring process, the management process, such as coaching, corrective action, and performance evaluation, and then leadership. If your organization already does this, take a look at how the hiring training is set up. If not, now might be the time to create a program.

To start with, both experienced and inexperienced managers can use a hand on resume evaluation, especially in an environment where the pool of candidates could still be rather large. You may be able to create your own program in tandem with HR. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy and may even lend itself to an online piece. Or, you may want to outsource this type of training once or twice a year. But more importantly, you will want to train managers on interviewing. Believe it or not, interviewees are reporting all kinds of horrors, ranging from hiring managers asking inappropriate questions to those same managers taking phone calls or checking emails during the interview. As the educational institution within your organization, you want to make sure this is not happening. What if you narrow the candidates down to one or two and a manager makes interview mistakes? Those bright candidates may just have another job waiting for them.

In addition to the obvious, interviewing training should focus on teaching managers how to create job-based behavioral interviewing questions that will explain how a candidate makes decisions and works within a team. Also, interviewing courses should touch on how to create an effective interview template, especially if the manager is interviewing numerous people over a few weeks. It’s easy to forget “who’s who” after a series of interviews, so the template a manager creates should jump-start his or her memory. Finally, add communication skills and panel interview techniques to the training. When managers emerge, they will be able to conduct professional interviews, which speak volumes about them and their organizations, as well as have memorable “portraits” of each candidate.

Moving from the actual training role, your department can also offer support. Again, HR may be overworked trying to recruit and set up interviews, so your help internally may take some of the burden. For example, newer managers may need to discuss their interview questions, their templates, or even their interviews. In the absence of an HR presence, or even in tandem with a recruiter, your assistance can be invaluable for a manager who is trying to make a difficult hiring decision.

To augment this assistance, either during the hiring process or during the training, have your staff use their benchmarking to help managers. For example, your new-hire trainers may be able to coach managers in the initial stages of creating their interview questions and templates using the successful competencies they’ve uncovered over time. If you translate those successful traits into interview questions, the hiring manager will be more able to judge whether the candidates have those traits or not.

The one caveat to training involvement in selection is to remember that it really is an indirect, passive role. Try to avoid having training personnel in on interviews. Too many people in an interview may lead the candidate to believe that no one makes decisions at the organization. Plus, the interviews should be confined to those who will be making the actual decision, such as hiring managers, colleagues, stakeholders, or human resources representatives.

Next, we will move into the more obvious roles that training has in the hiring process: development and retention.

An organization’s recruiters perform a vitally important job, especially in this environment. Consider this: with a national unemployment rate near 10 percent, with some states and metro areas even higher, recruiters are most likely fielding hundreds of resumes for one or two positions. Although recruiters’ stock and trade is determining who is the potential “right fit,” it may be easier with so many resumes if they have a highly concrete view of the best job candidates. That’s why it may be just as important for training to get involved in the recruiting process.

First, remember that training has an in-depth view of how people do after they are hired. In some organizations, new hire training may last for weeks, with trainers and facilitators becoming very involved in bringing the new employees up to speed. In this way, training has great knowledge of who succeeds, why they succeed, and how they do it. In some organizations, training departments may already be sharing this information with HR. But let’s face it: in less difficult times, training was concerned with its bottom line and getting people through the new hire process as efficiently as possible. If your training department was doing this, can you honestly say that they shared any kind of benchmarks with HR? If not, consider creating a “roadmap” or “profile” of the best candidates in each job. Sit down with your staff and simply brainstorm this topic – chances are that instructors will be able to construct an accurate profile rather quickly. Have them examine the backgrounds, attributes, and attitudes of their best performers. Alternatively, have them examine the same aspects of people who either left before training ended or shortly thereafter. Once you have created these profiles, share them with your recruiting contacts. You may find that recruiters did not know some of the things you found out, or maybe they did. But either way, your continued contribution in this area will be valuable.

Many organizations are attending job fairs or other recruiting events. As we discussed in the overview, training people are generally enthusiastic players, that is, the ones who can really help in attracting talent. If you can, offer HR the services of your star trainers or facilitators, even if it’s for one afternoon recruiting event. The group may find that the combination of HR and training creates a great balance of enthusiasm, coupled with the knowledge of which event participants will be the best candidates for the open positions.

In a related area, training personnel can set themselves up as “coaches” even before the hiring begins. For example, if an instructor or facilitator attends a job fair with a recruiter, he or she can allude to the fact that the “coach” is here now and will be there when you need them during the on-boarding process. This is not only encouraging to a potential recruit, it’s also a form of advertising. No one wants to feel like they are going to be alone after they get hired.

In the way of marketing and advertising, your efficient and well-constructed training program can serve as a walking advertisement on its own. For example, as candidates finish their chats with recruiters at hiring events, consider having the instructors or facilitators take just a few moments to discuss the training program, potential career paths, and the support they may receive as they go through their careers with your organization. This may be a novel or even unusual approach for a recruiting event, but even in the current environment the best candidates may have a few choices of employers. The fact that the “next step” after hiring is represented on the front end may go along way in attracting the best and brightest candidates. And with those candidates poised to come into the organization, the process of developing and retaining them may seem a little easier.

Recruiting tends to create a pool of candidates, many of them with the same knowledge, skills, and abilities. Once they are in the process, HR and hiring managers have to make their selections. And this is another area where training can lend a hand.

The “new” economic environment is calling for all of us to do more with less in the form of resources, both human and financial. As we examine training’s role in HR functions, let’s first take a look at why we would need or want to get involved when we have our own departments to manage. Keep in mind that our discussion is based on the potential for training’s involvement in HR functions, and that we are taking a “voluntary” look at getting involved in those functions. In other words, some organizations may not be the right fit for a training-HR joint venture, so be sure to examine the situation closely before offering your services.

First, as we’ve mentioned, the new economic environment requires everyone to do more with fewer resources. In some industries and organizations, hiring may be moving again, but it may not be a priority in others. On the other hand, some industries with high turnover may have been hiring during the recession and are continuing to hire even during the slow and shaky recovery. Wherever you are, consider the fact that selecting and retaining the right employees is going to be vitally important going forward. We don’t’ want to spend too much of our organizations’ hard-earned cash on a repeat cycle of hiring and re-hiring. So it seems that it may be an economic necessity to involve training with HR functions.

Next, remember that many training personnel, especially the instructors and facilitators, are people-oriented, just like HR’s front line. In an environment where potential employees can see right through a false positive attitude, it may be necessary to use HR and training together to ensure that the “people process” is real – and not just “lip service.”

But beyond all of this, how exactly does training fit in with the overall HR picture? For starters, training departments know who succeeds – and how they do it. For example, your training department may handle new-hire training at various levels. In that role, your instructors see how the most qualified candidates survive training, react to the company’s policies and procedures, and move on to have successful careers. On the other side of that, your training staff can probably pinpoint a few good reasons why candidates fail either in training or within the first 90 days. These are built-in benchmarks, which we will discuss in detail.

Training can also take people through their career path, even before they embark upon it. If you’ve taken the time to build an effective training program, even if it has been on hold during economic uncertainty, you can use the program to help people figure out what their next move can be. And you can do this at any time during their careers. In this sense, training serves as a career counselor, especially if HR is too busy in other areas.

As we discussed, no move into assisting HR should be undertaken in a way that would offend or indicate that HR personnel are not performing. So the question here is, “How do I offer the assistance of the training department without ‘muscling in’?” First, use what you’ll learn in this series as a marketing campaign. For the most part, much of the information you can share with HR is built in to your training programs, or into the evaluation of participants after training. It may take a little work to build composite pictures of successful job candidates, but after that HR may be able to move forward with what you’ve provided. But if you can, you may want to offer a slightly more active role, in which you and your department participate in major HR functions, like recruitment and selection. Naturally the training role grows when it comes to development and retention, but why not offer help on the front end as well?

Overall, your approach can be one that focuses on the fact that economics dictates your assistance, both now and in the long run. Now that we’ve taken a broad overview of the training role in HR functions, let’s move to recruitment.

Learning and Development departments, as well as corporate universities, can sometimes fall victim to the “ivory tower” syndrome, that is, losing touch with the “real world”. Typically the ivory tower is no one’s fault; it simply happens because all of your resources are so focused on the task at hand. The tower can even develop when you are still in the process of rolling out your corporate university, so some of the ideas here can be used during the initial build as well as in the future. How can you avoid getting caught up in the ivory tower?

The first way to avoid the ivory tower is to keep analysis and assessment consistent. Even if there is no major development going on at a given time, you should be evaluating courses, instructors, technology, delivery methods, and even the Learning Management System at all times. Continuous assessment of how you’re performing will help you determine where to put your resources, even if the corporate university is still in the setup phase. Plus, assessment will help you discover the university’s efficiency, costs, and benefits. And this will come in handy when it’s time to prove ROI.

Another way to keep in touch with the “real world” is to maintain contact with your sponsors and stakeholders, throughout the entire rollout process and beyond. This group is made up of people who are doing the work, supervising the work, and even planning the goals behind the work. If you alienate this group or simply lose contact with them, you run the risk of losing contact with the world outside of the corporate university office.

Along those lines, it may be a good idea to transform your sponsors, stakeholders, and LMS review committee into a corporate university advisory team or committee. This group can report back regularly and formally on what’s going on, what initiatives are planned, and on how the corporate university can help. An advisory group like this can help you make decisions both during the rollout and going forward. The advisory group, in other words, may be invaluable in keeping you in touch with the rest of the organization.

Another consideration is the positioning of the corporate university staff. Think about sending them out to the field in order to assess and observe. For example, instructors should spend regular time in the field they teach. As they go out to observe the people who are doing the work, they may find that things are not being carried out as instructed, and sometimes this may be for a legitimate reason. Or, a field observation may turn up evidence that managers and supervisors are not helping learners transition from the classroom to the work environment. But no one who has direct contact with learning materials should be exempt from field observation. Even instructional designers or developers should spend some time in the environments they are attempting to recreate in the learning arena.

As a corporate university leader, you should take the time to make contact with people inside the L&D industry through networks like Linked In, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), or the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). Benchmark your connections’ organizations with your own. Find out what they are doing, what technologies they are employing, and what issues they are uncovering. Then decide if you can incorporate any of their strategies into your corporate university structure and operation.

Finally, consider holding regular contact with your audience via the corporate university. Conduct surveys about the university itself, its offerings, and even its ease of navigation and understanding. Think about having focus groups or “town hall” meetings to find out how the university is perceived. This part of keeping touch with the audience takes you away from the work environment and helps you focus on the learning environment and the learners’ views.

Avoiding the ivory tower may be one of the “best” best practices because the ideas discussed here are useful from the very beginning. And if you continue employing these strategies, you’ll find that the corporate university has become a trusted business partner.

Copyright 2010 Your Training Edge. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Strategic Alliance & Acquisitions Director at Financial Training Solutions a division of CapitalWave Inc – offers 20+ years of training and talent management for executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for many sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering. Subscribe to his personal blog at: http://www.BryantNielson.com

The worst thing you can do when setting up a corporate university is to get it rolled out and then find that you have too much or too little staff. In today’s economic climate, you’re probably leaning toward having too little staff, but regardless of whether you can hire one person or ten you’ll need to plan carefully. Let’s examine best practices related to staffing your corporate university.

First, examine your current staffing model in relation to the current training offerings and organizational needs. Is it working? For example, how much time are instructors spending in the classroom versus the “ideal”? Do you have online courses sitting on a shelf waiting to be developed? Who is developing classroom training, if at all? Is the current staff overworked or pulled in numerous directions to the point that they are not accomplishing much of anything? If you could staff to your ideal in the current department and climate, what would that staff look like? Although it’s fun to create wish list for staffing, you’ll need to maintain your realism, as well.

Now take a look at the corporate university vision you uncovered in your initial assessment and analysis. What kind of staffing would be needed to fulfill that vision? Again, it’s a good idea to remain realistic about your budget and the organization’s current economic condition. Consider what you need and what you think you can get in relation to staff. But take the time to compare the current staffing model to the one that is going to get the job done. You’ve basically created two “ideal” staffing models: the one you developed and the one that will fit with the stakeholders’ vision. Is the workable staffing model something that can be completed and filled quickly, or do you need to prioritize? For example, if certain instructors are good course designers, consider moving them into development instead of asking for more staff in that area. Are you a “working” manager? Can you add to your workload?

Next, discuss your staff needs with your executive sponsor. First of all, he or she will have insight into the reality of the organization’s financial situation. This sponsor will be able to tell you if your staffing model is currently a “pipe dream” or if it can be achieved. Or, he or she may be able to tell you if you’re going to need to prove ROI from the very beginning before new staff is added. You can use this executive sponsor for advice and reality at a time when asking for staffing money may be extremely difficult.

When you have a better idea of the kind of staffing you may be able to get, consider its structure. Are you going to be able to manage a new corporate university and take on additional direct reports? Or is it time to consider departmentalizing? Another way to consider the staffing structure is to compare it with the needs assessment you’ve uncovered. For example, if it’s been determined that customer service training is badly needed across many different departments, you may need to consider creating a customer service training department or “college” within the university. As you learn more about your assessment, you may find that you’ll need individual people or departments for sales, leadership, management, and operations. If so, are these areas going to be large enough to need their own management and leadership?

Another way to consider staffing is to determine if you’re truly going to go lean. Do you need to hire staff members that will be able to develop training, deploy, facilitate, evaluate, and move on to the next project? If so, you might want to consider hiring “Learning and Development Specialists” who are multi-taskers, as opposed to individuals who specialize in one area or another.

Finally, start small regardless of the budget you’re given. If by some chance the economy changes again, you don’t want to have to contract. See how well you do with a smaller staff as the corporate university rolls out and go from there.

Our next best practice, creating a university structure, is related to staffing but serves a larger purpose.

Copyright 2010 Your Training Edge. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Strategic Alliance & Acquisitions Director at Financial Training Solutions a division of CapitalWave Inc – offers 20+ years of training and talent management for executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for many sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering. Subscribe to his personal blog at: http://www.BryantNielson.com

You’ve planned, analyzed, obtained buy in, and even wrestled with a budget for your global leadership development program. But before you move forward with implementation, you need to determine how the program will be managed effectively. As you have moved through the challenges to global leadership development, you’ve probably realized that with each challenge comes a separate program component. Each component will need to be managed, and managed closely in the first stages of the implementation of the program. Let’s look at this challenge from the process standpoint and discuss some best practices for managing the global leadership development program.

First, take a good look at all of the components for your program. At the high level you’ll probably have separate components for training, coaching, succession planning, and operations. Is there a person or group who will naturally manage each one of these components already? If not, decide how each component will be managed. For example, training and coaching most naturally fall to the training organization. Will you outsource the training function or keep it within your organization? What about succession planning? Do you have a talent manager within the training or organizational development functions, or is the talent manager part of human resources? Or are you the de facto talent manager because of your sponsorship and management of the leadership development program? Operational components, such as scheduling and travel, are also a factor. Do you have an admin staff that can handle the added responsibility?

Second, consider the geography you’ve created with the global leadership development program. For example, did you divide the entire organization into geographic groups for purposes of the program? Does each of these geographical groups have the manpower to manage each component? Does each group already have a training or organizational development staff that will take on the new responsibility of managing the leadership development program?

If there is no structure already in place for managing a global leadership development program, consider the big step of bringing it all under your training or organizational development function. This will give you a great “bird’s eye” view of the program, its implementation, and its progress. Plus, if component managers report to you, you’ll have the ability to be closer to the program. With this structure, you can report succession planning and the positioning of the leadership bench to your human resources department, as well. This way, you’re creating a dual relationship between your group and the human resources group. This relationship will work for the benefit of each group.

One of the other factors to consider is the tracking of the training component. Will the leadership development program be a part of the organization’s learning management system? Will you input groups and career paths into the LMS or will that be tracked by the organization’s HRIS system? Either way, be sure to investigate whether those systems can be adapted to track a leadership program or not. Most likely, if these systems are already in operation, they can be utilized to track a global leadership development program just as easily as any other program.

Regardless of how you decide to manage the program, you should take the time to visit, inspect, and observe the program in action. This may mean taking on some additional travel and time, but it will give you a good idea of how things are going. If travel is not an option, be sure to meet with the managers of the geographic locations on a frequent basis in order to track progress. Along with this, it is very necessary to evaluate the program from various levels. For example, participants should complete a level one evaluation for each component, that is, after each training program, coaching session, or networking event. Participants and managers should also be evaluated down the road to at least give you higher levels of evaluation. If you do not measure behavioral change for a global leadership development program, you won’t have much to report back to your executives and stakeholders. After some time, you should even attempt to look at the return on investment for the program, as well. Even if you’ve moved only one high potential leader into a new position, you should be able to report the costs and benefits of that move.

As you move through each challenge to global leadership development, you should get a clearer picture of how the program will function within your organization.

Copyright 2010 Your Training Edge. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Strategic Alliance & Acquisitions Director at Financial Training Solutions a division of CapitalWave Inc – offers 20+ years of training and talent management for executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for many sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering. Subscribe to his personal blog at: http://www.BryantNielson.com