BTSR guidebook ~ Training & skills self-evaluation

What provision at this level looks like and feels like

For the organisation

In 2008, no broadcasters evaluated at this level.

Strand 5 is training in its narrowest definition: structured time away from the workplace to develop knowledge and skills. Level A means that the organisation doesn’t do training… or doesn’t appear to. (In fact it is possible to conduct effective training and development entirely on-job, but it’s passing rare.)

Organisations untroubled by the effort of off-job training are often equally untroubled by the problems of success. The stance tends to go with a hire/fire, sink/swim culture. Which attracts a certain kind of employee… generally not the kind needed to build the competence, cooperation and predictability that so often underlie long-term success.

To be fair, some groups take responsibility for their own development without involving the organisations that buy their skills. One such group is skilled, specialist freelancers. There might be others.

For the training function

In the unlikely event of such an organisation having a trainer at all, the role is likely to be chaotic and ineffective.

Benefits & risks of provision at this level

Benefits

There are no detectable benefits of provision at this level, other than a short-term saving of effort and expense.

Risks

When an organisation provides no off-job training, it opens itself to several risks. The most substantial are:

• That employees will perceive that management:
  • is not interested in them
  • doesn’t value their skills
  • doesn’t value quality
  • has nothing to communicate to employees
  • does nothing of importance
• …which will tend to lower their diligence and productivity
• That some of those perceptions are in fact accurate, increasing the risk of lost opportunities, missed warning signs and costly mistakes
• That some of those mistakes are very costly indeed, for example:
  • violations of broadcasting standards
  • loss or destruction of recordings
  • security breaches
  • damage to equipment
• That good employees will be hard to recruit and very hard to retain
• That employees adjust their work-life balance to the detriment of work.

Processes & benchmarks for evaluating provision at this level

Assessing whether there is no off-job training provision – in-house or external – is reasonably free of subjectivity and nuance.

Reference material relevant to this strand and level

Suggestion? Please leave a comment below

Examples of provision at this level

We can’t offer any helpful examples of provision at this level.

What it takes to get to the next level

This is a straightforward level to escape: provide a programme of off-job training.

That doesn’t mean that sending one person on one day’s training once gets you out of Level A. To be a programme, it must be real training – not a knees-up – and it must be undertaken, over time, by all or most of a clearly defined group of employees.