Move over to mentoring when training budgets come under pressure

Citation

(2003), "Move over to mentoring when training budgets come under pressure", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.2003.00327eab.002

Move over to mentoring when training budgets come under pressure

Move over to mentoring when training budgets come under pressure

Economic downturns often see a reduction in training budgets. In some cases, they are axed altogether. But Richard Newton, managing director of TeckChek Europe, believes that mentoring can help organizations and, in particular, information-technology (IT) departments, to protect the investment they have made in technical personnel, and continue to develop the skills of their employees.

In the current economic downturn, telecommunications, IT and manufacturing have reported job losses, recruitment freezes and budget reductions in many internal departments. While some people claim that marketing takes the hit first when it comes to identifying budget cuts or reductions, training and its associated activities are also among the first victims as companies struggle to identify ways to save money immediately, not in the long term.

But training plays an essential role within companies, says Richard Newton. Not only does it increase the overall skill sets held by employees, it also plays a vital role once an economy picks up. After all, even now there are skill deficits in many sectors, not least IT, where finding relevant and highly qualified people remains a problem. Training remains a valuable insurance policy for the future.

How can companies look to the future by developing their existing personnel and enhancing skills when training budgets have become the first victim of an economic downturn? The solution, says Richard Newton, is to use existing resources by defining and implementing a mentoring programme. This trickle-down learning process means that those with skill can transfer that knowledge to those without. In this way, internal resources are used effectively and the learning process remains fluid, despite economic conditions.

Mentoring, he believes, is an HR tool whose time has come. It offers, uniquely, on-the-job training at little or no cost. For IT departments, it builds on the existing skill base, investing for the future when the time will come for those skills to be put to the test. There is always a need for mentoring, whether in a boom or a downturn. However, given today's economic climate, it is more important than ever that companies manage human resources as effectively as possible.

Richard Newton believes that mentoring has many advantages. For example, companies might choose to arrange after-hours workshops to pass knowledge on and to make individuals with identified strengths responsible for handling queries from those with weaknesses. Apart from saving the cost of training courses, the salary and project cost normally associated with offsite training are also saved.

However, says Richard Newton, once again HR specialists face a conundrum. They excel at managing human capital but often do not have enough technical knowledge to determine a person's IT proficiency. Conversely, while IT employees may have sufficient technical competence to be able to judge a colleague's performance and ability, they are not equipped with personnel skills needed to make objective decisions on human capital. So how do HR departments identify existing skill sets for the people currently within their organization and determine strengths and weaknesses?

One answer is to adopt skills-assessment software tools to provide an objective analysis of IT skills in an organization. This, in turn, can act as a benchmark against any future mentoring programme. By then moving on to identify skill deficits, HR specialists can build a mentoring programme around skill requirements and skill development, thereby protecting the company's existing investment in personnel without placing demands on reduced or non-existent training budgets.

Richard Newton continues: "Skills-assessment software tools with an adaptive and intuitive nature are an effective way to discern the IT skills of an employee and provide a true reflection of strengths and weaknesses. In other words, the more knowledgeable a participant is, the harder the questions become. For the HR specialist this means that no one test will produce the same result, thereby ensuring that an accurate picture of the individual's skill level is produced. As well as serving as a basis to define the mentoring programme, this is also a good way to measure what is, in effect a 'before and after' scenario, enabling HR specialists to gauge the success of the scheme over a number of months.

"The constituent parts of any mentoring programme will vary according to the company's needs and interpretation. No organization offers a full mentoring solution and it will mean different things to different organizations, but at a time when IT training budgets are tight it pays for HR to use those resources already at its disposal. Assessing the IT skill sets of programmers or developers can help to ensure that companies retain and recruit the IT personnel best suited to their business requirements and provide both relevant and effective training. Mentoring programmes can then be developed in an intelligent way and companies can ensure that any programmes are not way above or below their pre-training level and ability."