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Greetings!
Welcome
to TrainingTips, Point of Action's quarterly online newsletter for
accounting and financial consulting professionals. In this issue, we
explore ways to use training to enhance firm-wide communication and to
reinforce firm goals and expectations.
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When NOT to Train
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While training has many benefits, there are times when it
should be avoided and replaced with other communication and reinforcement
mechanisms that link to an overall learning and development initiative.
For
example, a firm decides it wants all of its professionals to participate
in a Business Development training program to help the firm reach its
sales targets. It hires a trainer to teach sales basics and invites all
staff to participate. This type of one-off training approach rarely works
because it is often not linked to a firm's overall learning and
development strategy and, therefore, does not offer a clear
accountability system for ensuring that learning concepts are applied.
In the
best case scenario, an isolated training program such as the one
described above has little noticeable impact and participants revert to
their typical work-day routine. In the worst case scenario, this type of
training approach may foster resentment among the participating group who
feels that the firm leaders now expect staff members to assume additional
responsibilities or approach their work in a new way, without setting
clear performance expectations up- front and holding employees
accountable through a structured performance evaluation process and
compensation/incentive structure.
Rather
than relying on a quick training session to close competency gaps,
consider integrating training into your firm's overall learning and staff
development strategy. Establish a year-long training calendar, featuring
internal and external CPE programs, and have employees select training
programs based on their individual performance gaps identified and
discussed during annual and/or semi-annual performance review meetings
with their supervisors. Six to 12 months later, review employee
performance to see if skill gaps have narrowed. If you discover the same
weaknesses and recurring comments, then re-evaluate the quality of your
training offerings and ensure that your firm's accountability system is
truly aligned with your performance evaluation process.
By ensuring that your firm's training offerings are linked to an overall
learning and development strategy, performance evaluation process, and
accountability mechanism, you will greatly improve the impact of training
on job performance and productivity.
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Building High-Performing Engagement Teams
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 The objective of
this program is to help supervisors build management and leadership
competencies by identifying and applying the characteristics that lead to
highly successful teams. Specifically, the workshop explores techniques
for getting staff motivated during the planning phase and keeping team
members energized and productive throughout long and sometimes difficult
engagements.
Contact
Point of Action for more information on this workshop and others
customized specifically for your firm.
Contact Us... »
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Retain and Align Around Development
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In today's highly competitive marketplace for accounting staff, retaining
and developing junior accounting professionals is increasingly important
for local and regional CPA firms. In growing numbers, these firms are
investing in enhanced learning and development initiatives that
simultaneously provide a more defined career path for employees fresh
from college and outline key, career-long training programs linked to the
firm's core competency expectations and strategic goals.
Please
click on the link below to read this Point of Action article featured in
the October issue of the Boston Herald's "Women's Business"
section.
Article Link... »
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Join Us at the N.E. Practice Management Conference!
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 ***
Join
Point of Action at this year's Annual New England Practice Management
Conference scheduled for November 14th and 15th at Foxwoods Resort &
Casino in Connecticut. We will be presenting a break-out session on
"Linking Learning & Development to Performance Improvement"
and hope to see you there!
For
more information or to register for this conference, sponsored by the
Massachusetts Society of CPAs, please visit the link below:
Conference Information... »
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Fostering Firm-Wide Communication
through Training
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Often with training, you get more than you expect.
Frequently a simple and straightforward training program can provide a
venue for employees to express their ideas, concerns, frustrations and
innovations. This can be especially helpful as CPA firms strive to retain
their talented employees by giving them a voice in firm operations and
encouraging them to share their insights and devise solutions to
workplace complaints.
For
example, if you find that there is disagreement and uncertainty about how
supervisors should complete your firm's performance evaluation forms,
consider offering a brief training program on delivering effective
feedback. Devote half of the training time to sharing tips and strategies
for drafting and communicating performance feedback, and reserve the
remaining time for discussion about common evaluation complaints, such as
how to ensure consistency in ratings, what does "meets
expectations" really mean, and when should evaluation forms be
completed. Allow training groups-ideally separated by staff level-to
devise their own, firm-specific solutions to these difficult issues and
then use these solutions as the basis for defining firm policies and
processes.
Similarly,
if you are finding that your Senior Associates and other mid-level staff
are over-worked and are struggling to develop junior staff while
effectively managing their managers, consider offering a training program
on engagement management "best practices." This session could
cover topics such as planning, delegating, managing time and
prioritizing, GAAS requirements for supervision, and engagement wrap- up.
In addition to offering techniques for improving engagement efficiency
and assuming increasing supervisory responsibility, be sure to leave time
for Seniors to express their concerns and ideas about engagement
administration. As the ones frequently "in the trenches," these
mid-level staff often have excellent ideas about ways to improve
efficiency and increase communication throughout the engagement team.
In
addition to using training to impart new skills and knowledge, it can be
an effective mechanism for enhancing firm-wide communication and
reinforcing firm goals and expectations. You may be pleasantly surprised
by the new ideas, solutions, and cultural buy- in generated from a simple
training session.
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