Training helps to solve a retention problem

Citation

(2003), "Training helps to solve a retention problem", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.2003.00327eab.003

Training helps to solve a retention problem

Training helps to solve a retention problem

A high proportion of the 50 or 60 graduates recruited each year by a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm were leaving the company within three or four years.

To combat the problem, PA Consulting Group researched a number of training options. It found that the British Computer Society's (BCS) professional-development scheme, and its recent software-based replacement, career-development framework (CDF), met its specific needs.

Established almost 60 years ago, and operating from over 40 offices in more than 20 countries, PA Consulting employs over 4,000 people globally. The company works with clients to improve performance, mobilize human resources and deliver change effectively. It manages major projects and designs and implements enterprise-wide systems and full e-business solutions. The company also works to develop leading-edge technology both for its clients and within its own portfolio of venture companies in areas ranging from software to wireless technology and life sciences.

With a workforce spread across the globe, spanning numerous disciplines, the implementation of any cohesive IT training and development programme would always present challenges. The company wanted a flexible training system that provided tangible value to its IT employees.

The CDF is a management system for applying structured and objective control to the training and development of individuals. The programme accommodates full formal off-site courses to cover technical needs, learning through deputizing, shadowing and mentoring, on-site training and specific project responsibilities.

Ron Forster, PA Consulting managing consultant, said: "The CDF provides us with an industry-recognized, formalized career-development path aimed mainly at graduate to consultant levels in IT practices."

Having adopted the scheme, PA Consulting began to implement it in an innovative way in order to overcome the specific challenges of an international business. Administration of the scheme is facilitated by the provision of electronic information, which can be loaded on to the company intranet. This accommodates the fact that PA Consulting employees are spread across the world and are extremely mobile, limiting their availability to meet supervisors on a regular basis. The company has also linked CDF with its own system of appraisals at the end of every job and briefings at the start of each new project.

According to Ron Forster, the advantages of the online implementation scheme are that it is independent of location, portable and increases communication between employees.

PA Consulting's implementation of the CDF has made it among the first organizations in the UK to receive the BCS Information Systems Quality at Work (ISQW) award. This recognizes the vital role training and development have in maintaining and updating employees' skills. It is designed to encourage, support and recognize best practice within employers' career-development processes and procedures and is awarded only to organizations that have achieved accreditation against a set of critical success factors and key performance indicators.

In order to gain the ISQW award, the employer must demonstrate how its current programme satisfies the BCS either through career-development accreditation (CDA) or by purchasing and implementing the BCS's off-the-shelf solution, the CDF.

CDA is for companies with existing training and development programmes and is designed to provide organizations with the knowledge that their existing schemes meet the IS industry's best-practice standards as recognized by the BCS. CDA also demonstrates the organization's commitment to its business, the individuals it employs and the wider IS industry.

On both schemes, organizations taking part are inspected annually to see if their programme is in keeping with the BCS's success criteria and whether the company has paid attention to the scheme. There has to be full support for the programme from the management down, with commitment also being provided in resources and forward planning between mentors and students.