On the trail of soft skills training
Recently, Bruce Brown, network systems engineer for the SAS Institute, wrote:
"I'm looking for a firm that offers Web-based telecommuting soft-skills training. We already have the technical training piece of our flexible work arrangement program in place, but can't find anyone offering training that covers general work-at-home issues such as how to stay in communication with your co-workers, avoid distractions, etc. We already have people working from home all over the country, so we want a Web-based product they can visit and return to as time permits. We've worked with a telework consultant for most of our design, but don't want to spend a lot of time and money developing a training course that should already be available. Surely, small to large companies aren't all doing this themselves?"
Guess again. To date, there is no stand-alone, individualized training in which a teleworker sits at a PC and goes through a telework skills course without an instructor. Instead, an enterprise will typically hire a telework consultant to help develop a program that includes an onsite training component for managers, HR professionals and/or future teleworkers - the way it's been done for years.
The good news is the industry is fast playing catch-up. Web-based soft skills training products are in the works from three sources; each offers a manager and employee piece, punctuated by some type of optional exam or certification.
Work/family consultant and trainer Susan Seitel and telework consultant Gil Gordon have teamed to develop two such "online training modules." The first will focus on remote managers and be available in January, with a second focused on teleworkers to follow in the spring. The product will be available to small outfits as a hosted service from Seitel's company Family & Work Connection, or licensed to enterprise firms. Pricing has not been set.
While Seitel and Gordon see the need for training targeted to teleworkers and their managers, they argue managers need it most.
"Remote employees are much more motivated than their managers to figure this stuff out," Gordon says. "Managers are more complacent. But remote management training like this can be viewed as a really interesting back-door way to beef up managers' overall skills and the organization as a whole. Even if they need it, most managers won't sit down and take a management 101 class. But cloaked in remote stuff, they'll take it."
Similarly, Legato Consulting, which specializes in helping companies develop distributed work environments, is working on Web-based training software targeted to enterprise companies. Principal Lilly Platt says the software, available in January, will allow managers who've completed the course to join a community of practice, and join discussion groups and chat rooms. Though product details are still sketchy, like Gordon and Seitel, Platt is focusing more on virtual leadership and management than end-user basics.
Interestingly, the end-user soft skills training that may best suit Bruce Brown's needs is coming soon from the federal government. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is building a Web-based training program for teleworkers and remote managers that it will make available free to the public on its telework.gov Web site.
Though still in the design phase, the training will focus on ways to overcome barriers to telework - for employees, dealing with fear of isolation and being passed over for promotions, and for managers, how to overcome the fear of not knowing what your employees are doing, and how to manage by task. The training will include an extensive informational unit for telework coordinators focusing on how to set policy and eligibility requirements, as well as case studies and testimonials.
According to Jennifer Hirschman, work/life program specialist for the Office of Workforce Relations for OPM and lead on the project, the content is being developed by a consortium of government agency representatives - ranging from the Departments of Energy and Education, to Commerce and Defense. Hirschman expects to unveil the training site by April.
"It'll be open to everybody because we wanted it accessible to anyone, anywhere, any time," she says. "We're all big believers in this. If the non-federal sector can benefit from what we learn and from what we put out there, they're more than welcome to use it, and we're more than welcome to help out any way we can."
Toni Kistner is managing editor of Net.Worker. Contact her at tkistner@nww.com.
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