Why Senior Management Hates Training

Does senior management in professional service firms really hate training? The executives I have been talking to lately seem to reflect this attitude. This response comes during conversations about the marketing, business development, client loyalty and communications training I offer to these firms. However, the attitude extends to all types of training.

When you consider that companies worldwide spend in excess of $100 billion to train employees with skills needed to improve their job performance, you would think that management loves training.

Right? Wrong!
It appears that while they spend a lot of money, they also believe it doesn’t work. Can you imagine one of their clients having the same attitude? Would a client ever spend a significant amount of money with a vendor while believing the money is going down a dark hole? Business doesn’t really operate this way. You meet client expectations in the same way training is supposed to meet your education expectations.

Why is there a disconnect?

First, when I begin the conversation about the importance of providing marketing and business development staffs with the tools to improve their effectiveness and job performance, these leaders are always in agreement. The problem starts to surface when these senior managers acknowledge that they are not directly involved in the training. Training only works when senior management is focused on the process and personally involved. Therefore, the mindset of senior management and their employees is the reason for negative attitudes as opposed to the content of the training.

I have discovered a five step process to help senior management love training.
It begins prior to the actual training. Employees have to want to learn. This sounds like a no-brainer, but the reality of the workplace is much different. Without delving into the entire psychological spectrum of how adults learn, I will simply state the adult learning is predictable. However, management’s announcement of a training program immediately puts two questions in an employee’s mind: How will this improve the firm’s performance and why does management think I am weak in this area? In other words, management must convince employees how the training impacts the firm’s performance and how individuals will benefit. Management can never under estimate the “what’s in it for me” aspect of training.
When employees realize the need for change or improvement, they will gain a desire to participate in training. A good way to accomplish this is to have employees involved in the process. Members of the marketing and business development team should be at the table with senior management when training is on the agenda.

If the decision is sourced to the marketing and business development team, management will never buy-in to the decision. The same is true if management excludes the marketing and business development team from the discussion. Senior management needs ambassadors to carry the torch for training. They also need to be the ones who light the torch.

The next step in the process is changing negative attitudes and behaviors among employees. The pessimistic project manager attending a sales skills seminar might start with the attitude, “here we go again”, “another management training du jour”, “I have been there and done that before”, or “why is management wasting their money on this crap.” This baggage is just like a blood clot in an artery. The flow of knowledge and information will not reach the brain until the attitude is altered.

Another reasons management hates training is the fact that even when employees learn the objectives of the training, they don’t apply it to their workspace. Discovering negative mindsets is as important as diagnosing skill gaps. For example, if a firm focuses on the client experience in a training program, but the business development staff maintains an attitude that clients today buy on low fee, the training will be ineffective. The primary reason our training programs always include homework prior to a seminar or workshop is to impact negative attitudes in advance.

Leaders must be included in the training process. Although the day-to-day marketing and business development activities of any firm does not involve senior management, these leaders must participate in training. This is easier when the training is performed in-house, but can be accomplished when people are sent off-site for training. Management must be interested enough in the training to ask that employee to conduct a lunch time presentation of what was learned and how it will impact the firm.

When people leave any training program they are not entirely prepared to put new skills into practice. Old habits die hard. Remember we are talking about changing attitudes and behaviors that have developed over years. So how does a firm ensure that new skills are put into practice? Companies typically expect employees to work this out for themselves. After all, didn’t they invest the money to have the person trained? Evaluation and measurement 30, 60 and 90 days after the training is one way to ensure that new skills are being put to use. The leader who was also trained can help reinforce the training outcomes with the primary staff who were trained as well.

Measurement is not as simple as asking staff whether they liked the training. Research indicates that only 50% of companies keep track of employee’s feedback about training programs. Even worse is the fact that less than 30% use any reliable metrics. If your firm is looking to provide “edutainment”, then asking employees whether they liked the training is measurement enough.

However, this approach penalizes training like our business development and marketing programs that push people outside of their comfort zones.

It also leaves your human resources departments flying blind as to training’s impact on operations. When you analyze training programs against the business results you are looking to improve and track the results accordingly, you begin to discover solutions to training effectiveness. In addition, changes in behavior can also give insight into the effectiveness of the training.

Although there are many hazards on the training battlefield,the real landmines are located outside of the classroom. Creating a receptive mindset for the students before training begins and delivering a supportive environment afterward will dramatically change senior management’s opinion of training. It will also dramatically improve the business impact of training programs. Senior managers looking for a return on their training investment will be glad to see this.