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Training With the Punches

Thursday, April 23, 2009 - by ASTD Staff

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The following story was described by George Piskurich, a Texas-based consultant.

Client: A service, manufacturing, and transportation provider in the foods industry.

Problem: The company's training contingent was preparing to implement a four-and-a-half day supervisory skills classroom training for its frontline supervisors at eight office locations, twice monthly, when the training staff was abruptly cut in half.

Cause: After months spent developing the supervisory skills training initiative, the eight training employees were reduced to four due to the economic recession's impact on the organization.

Method/Tools: The remaining training staff no longer had the manpower or resource capacity to deliver ongoing, week-long classroom training in multiple locations. However, the learning organization needed to finish developing the supervisory skills training and begin implementation within a specified timeframe. Their rationale for initially choosing a classroom approach included the fact that the company had always used classroom training, and so the employees were familiar with the method. Also, most of the training staff were experienced classroom teachers.

After the reduction in force, the department was forced to think outside of the box and consider new training methods. They chose to transform the original classroom design into a blended approach. The staff developed a synchronous e-learning component that trained participants on technical skills. They also incorporated asynchronous learning components that taught supervisory soft skills—such as time management, coaching, and counseling—via printed manuals created for participants to complete at a self-directed pace. However, many of the training staff were not familiar with synchronous e-learning or the company's LMS. To remedy this, Piskurich, with years of e-learning experience, assumed the instructor role for the synchronous component, and the trainers created their own instructor guides from his training.

Solution: Several months after the supervisory skills training was implemented, the participants completed Levels One and Two evaluations of the synchronous component. The overall feedback was satisfactory.