Welcome
to TrainingTips, Point of Action's
quarterly online newsletter for accounting and business consulting
professionals involved in firm-wide training and development
initiatives. I hope you will find the articles and tips offered in
this newsletter helpful as you create practical business learning
opportunities for your professionals. If you would like more
information about the content presented here, please feel free to
contact me anytime at (617) 429-0083, or by e-mail at
kmcdonald@pointofaction.net. Good luck with your staff development
initiatives!
Top
CPA firms spend approximately $5,000 per person per year on
CPE programs, according to a Yale School of Management study.
To ensure that your firm's investment in training and staff
development pays off, make sure that you have measurements in
place to determine training efficacy and make changes where
appropriate. While post-training evaluation forms help you to
determine a CPE program's initial effectiveness, additional
training measurements may help you to assess the long-term
impact of your CPE programs.
One
way to measure training ROI is to more effectively link
training with your firm's performance appraisal process. Many
firms underestimate the power of aligning training with staff
development processes and therefore don't use their firm's
current tools to the fullest potential.
To
measure training impact, and align training with performance
appraisal and other staff development processes, produce
individual CPE reports for your staff people that are linked
to your firm's evaluation or competency criteria. Your firm
probably already produces individual CPE reports for your
staff people, and by categorizing each CPE program according
to your internal competency benchmarks, you will be able to
spot gaps at the individual level and recommend appropriate
training programs during annual or semi- annual performance
appraisal meetings.
While
this process may help to target CPE programs for each
individual staff person, you may be wondering how these
reports help to measure the impact of your training programs.
Let's assume that an individual CPE report, categorized by
competency category, for one of your staff people indicates
that this person has received 15 hours of training in
Communication Skills, one of your firm's core competencies.
But let's also say that Communication Skills remains an area
of weakness for this staff person, as revealed in post-job
evaluation forms. This may indicate that the quality of the
training is poor and you should consider using a different
vendor or modify the program.
By aligning your
training and staff development processes, you will be better
able to measure the sustained effectiveness and impact of your
CPE offerings.
»
New
ManagerSchool
CPAs
and other professional service providers often rise to
leadership positions within an organization as a result of
technical expertise; yet, it is the non- technical "soft
skills" of managing staff and running efficient engagements
that begin to consume more time as professionals advance to a
supervisory level.
Most
of us are not born knowing how to develop and motivate our
staff people, delegate work effectively, manage client
expectations, or deliver constructive performance feedback.
The good news is that these leadership skills can be taught so
that supervisors are given both the technical and
non-technical resources to perform their jobs well.
Consider
developing a multi-day "NewManagerSchool" for the people
in your firm who are beginning to assume new leadership and
supervisory responsibilities. If you would like assistance in
creating this type of training program, please give us a call
and we would be happy to work with you to construct a
first-rate training experience for your professionals.
»
Client
Spotlight
***
Learn
how Point of Action helped Berry, Dunn, McNeil &
Parker, a Top 100 CPA firm, benchmark
its human capital to ensure wise investment of staff
development dollars.
Click
the link below to access this article, published by INSIGHT
Magazine, which provides a step-by-step approach for
establishing internal staff performance benchmarks and
monitoring training quality.
As
your staff people get ready for the onslaught of busy season,
now might be a good time to plan your 2005 training programs
and re-assess your staff development processes so that you are
prepared when your staff emerge after April 15th. Here are
some suggestions to get you started on your 2005 strategic
training plan:
First, review the CPE programming, both
internal and external, that has been offered over the past
year. Identify programs that participants rated highly and
ones that had a noticeable impact on job performance or
productivity. Use these programs as the foundation for a
recommended CPE brochure for 2005, and avoid sponsoring CPE
programs that were poorly rated or had little on-the-job
impact.
Next,
try to analyze your CPE data quantitatively by categorizing
training programs according to your firm's internal
performance evaluation benchmarks or competency criteria. This
process will enable you to identify potential gaps between the
competencies that you are expecting your staff people to
exhibit and the resources that you have provided to help them
to achieve these competency expectations.
Finally,
use your recommended CPE brochure and quantitative analysis of
CPE gaps to create your strategic training plan for 2005.
Consider breaking down your training programs into several
categories, including: "Block Training," or training by staff
level; industry-specific training for members of certain
client specialty groups; and targeted competency trainings to
help close some of the training gaps you may have uncovered
during your CPE analysis.
After
following these steps, you should be well- positioned to
implement your strategic training plan by recommending and
designing appropriate CPE programs. If you would like
assistance with creating your 2005 strategic training plan,
please give us a call and we can work with you to develop a
plan that suits your firm's specific needs.
