Toojays Blog

Yes it's here...!!!

As most people are recovering from the New Year Celebrations we let the party continue as we celebrate our 10th Anniversay!!!

In January 2003 owner and MD Lee Martin established TOOJAYS....from our humble beginings we have established ourselves as an award winning, reliable and regular supplier of innovative L&D solutions.

Working with Blue chip global organisations, public sector, SME's and Micro-businesses alike we continue to add value to all our customers.

Our latest video celebrates our 10 years  10th Anniversary

As Toojays steams towards its next  10 years in business, we ask Lee Martin, Managing Director of Toojays to reflect on the key business lessons that every business owner should consider.

"I've often wondered how to summarise the time I've spent establishing Toojays" comments Lee. "Without sounding to cliched it's about finding your passion. If you're passionate about it...you'll make it happen. In doing so its also about who you partner with, work with and how you engage with them. The beauty of my particular business is that I have additional awareness and insight from some of the models and theores we use! It's simply a case of applying the knowledge!"

As we celebrate our 10 successful years, we plan to share the success with a number of special offers, prizes and giveaways over the next 12 months. Watch out for details on our Facebook, Twitter @TTHRC and Linkedin pages.

HR as a revenue generating stream?

Reading the above I can imaging the Finance Directors and Business owner's sitting up and paying attention, where as the HR personnel would be cringing at the thought of meeting sales targets and losing the focus on nuturing and developing people.

Historically HR, Personnel and L&D have always been viewed as a 'cost' on any organisations balance sheet. A worthwhile and necessary cost....but none the less a cost. They don't practically 'produce' anything that can be re-sold or passed on to customers to generate an income.

As more and more businesses look at reducing costs as the global economy struggles to recover...HR & L&D become an even bigger target on the shooting range. 

But does it have to be this way?

Change the way you think

Some organisations charge 'internally'. So if Marketing Department want to send three staff on a course they are 'billed' by HR. Or if a meeting room or organisational venue wants to be used then there is a cost to be paid by the relevant meeting holder. 

All these processes do is to internalise the costs and in our experience don't win any friends or favours.

What we're talking about with HR becoming a revenue stream is actually aquiring new wealth,new money into the business - or at the very least reducing costs incurred by offsetting.

How does this work?

Well if you are an organisation that is running for example generic management development courses....why not seek to invite key suppliers, associates, even select customers to attend. Charging them a fee - a special offer that reflects your relationship, which may be considerably reduced to what they may pay externally....but still a fee for attendance.

If the courses are provided by external training organisations, you can reduce or offest your own outlay. If they are courses you run internal yourself you are potentially making 'pure' profit - hence becoming a revenue generating stream.

Training course are an obvious example. However there maybe other areas of your HR department that can attract value from associates, suppliers etc.. HR consultative services, generic templates and forms, access to legal services, room hire...the list goes on.

This is really about preventing HR becoming a cost cutting target...and proactivley looking at ways to retain the services cost effectively.

A very common situation encountered in business is people who don't have the skill or confidence to generate more business though use of the phone. It's quick, cost effective and allows the salesperson to gain far more information on a prospect than a conversation over email. 

Email makes life easy, who could argue with that? However it's worrying that so many sales teams have become comfortable with emailing and not recognising the value of a courteous, good old-fashioned telephone call. Believe it or not, this trend is soaring and companies who get the telephone sales right will no doubt have a competitive edge over the competition.

What is actually more interesting is that when clients are shown the solution through training and consultancy, they struggle to justify the training. This is because they fail to do a simple calculation, which is "How many sales orders do I need to make in a month to break even on the training spend?" More often than not, the answer is less than one, before they see the value and return on their spend. Most of the time people think of the spend/activity rather than the outcome. 
 

Here are some points to consider...

ROI:
Work out your average order value and then how many sales orders you would need to break even on the training spend.

Trainer's credibility: 
Does the trainer have a track record in the subject they are training? Ask for a biography of the trainer's background as this provides you with an opportunity to see if your instructor is a good fit for your business.

References:
Do they have genuine testimonials? Ask if you can contact one or two for feedback. It's a good idea to contact other companies who have used the training provider's services. Ask what the company liked and what they didn't like about the service they received. Doing this will help you make a well informed decision.

Training companies credibility:
Are they doing what they train? For instance, if they are training your staff on telephone techniques, are they using the phone correctly in their business? Call them and find out before you engage in their services.

Training style:
Some companies are happy to sit your team in front of a PowerPoint presentation and bore them to tears. In our experience, participents get more out of the training when it is interactive, fun and can be used in their job roles. Decide what style will best suit your company.

Continuous Development:
One-off training sessions are fine for refreshing knowledge and to motivate your staff. However if you really want to get the full benefit of your investment, consider a monthly or quarterly training programme so that your clients get real value as they can see the continuous improvement their staff are making.

Quality of materials:
Ask for a sample of materials they will use in the training so that you can see what your staff will see and learn from.  

The knives are out....for Team Building.

Recently came across this vodaphone billboard advertisement frowning on outdoor team development activites. 

Is this a reflection of peoples perception of such events? 

There seems to be an increasing trend of putting down 'Team building'. Is this because its an easy target? Or is it the reality that people in the teams don't value or see the value in outdoor experiential activities?

Well maybe it's both.

As a provider of outdoor activities and team development we often come across clients historic experiences where people have been forced to endur all kinds of 'extreme' activities in the name of 'fun' or 'development'.

These frequently do nothing more than polorize teams rather than bring them together - unless you class hatred toward the event organisor as a common denominator!

Whilst stretching people, taking them comfortably outside of their comfort-zone and involving them in outdoor activities are often used, there has to be consideration and a proven tangible benefit.

When we design our interventions we're careful to highlight the 'challenge by choice' principle.

We never force people to do anything they don't want to do.

The level of engagement they are asked to participate with is entirely down to them.

The other aspect of these activities are that they have to address relevant issues within the team. Otherwise what's the point?

Discussing and debriefing the activity is key. Reviewing the learning and how that can be applied back in to the work environment is crucial for the success of the activitiy and event. Without this it does become a worthless task.

Perhaps that's the problem historically and what's driving this perception of Team Building.

There hasn't been the 'link' back to business issues and behaviours. Maybe the focus has been on mis-guided perception of fun and motivational events, without substance.

Anyone for paintball? bowling...? drumming?...no?!...oh well.

What? I hear you cry...surely the learning we do at the moment, be it 70:20:10 based or otherwise is always collaborative.

We collaborate with the tutor, the author, the fellow delegates, our coach, our work place colleagues. 

I grant you this may well be the case, but I'm specifically talking about how are we learning from other businesses, other organisations and industries.

I know from my experience the more enlightened professional may look to complete a bench marking exercise to rank their current status or situation against a comparible team or unit. 

But how often do we take the oppotunity to actually engage with that other organisation to discuss, debate, learn from and seek inspiration and creativity?

Not that often I'd wager.

In working with a variety of senior teams across organisations and continents it strikes me that I'm in a very unique position of seeing the familiar process of 'team development' work. One thing I note is that there are common issues and problems within these teams.

I understand the sensativity of corporate IP, and trading information so I'm not necessarily suggesting the collaboration is with your industry rival. However, there are a vast amount of companies and senior teams that are set up and deal with similiar operational, logisitical and strategic issues to perhaps your own.

So why not learn from others experience? Learn from their successes and mistakes..speed up your own teams development as a result.

One thing to consider though before you rush to the nearest comparible organisation asking for them to divulge their key to success....is what's in it for them?! The WIFFM factor.

Consider what can you trade with. What could they benefit from. What would they value in exchange for sharing their learning.

Worth a thought...to speed up the learning process at the very least!

How do you ensure the learning lasts?

You may have attended the best training course ever....or have your staff come back enthused and energised full of new knowledge or skills but how long does it last? 

A day, a week, a month later how much do you recall? How much are you able to put in to practice? Does the old behaviour continue...? Is there a need to go on a course or a refresher a few months later?!! 

Studies show that the lack of knowledge retention increases over time.

So what's needed to ensure the longevity of the training course...and of the investment made?

Well Lee Martin MD of Toojays, identifies a number of key things to consider.

1. Pre & Post Training agreement

The trainee and their manager should identify what expectations each have from the training, prior to the event.. What's going to be gained? A new skill? Knowledge? Process? Awareness? Most managers ensure this happens. However not enough managers have the conversation AFTER the training event to identify HOW the new skill/knowledge/behaviour is to be applied, by when and how improvement will be measured.This conversation should be a two way process with the individual identifying what help, support or rescources they need to enable them to implement the learning.

2. Facilitator Follow up

How will the trainer or facilitator follow up with delegates after the training? Again there are a number of options availalbe.

a. Quiz or Assessment - This can be issued via email or hardcopy or increasingly popular these days by mobile phone or on line learning

b. Forum discussions - Continuing the group learning with discussions or debates with the training group as they explore implementation. 

c. Issuing notes, handouts, reading and supplementary materials - again all methods post event to bring the learning to the fore again.

d. Running refresher workshop - Often a technique used to address barriers or obsticles individuals have experiences since the initial training session.

Ultimately there should be a plan in place with either the training provider or from the line manager (or both!) to ensure maximum retention of learning is utilised. 

Failure to have this plan in place will increase the liklihood of training being needed again in the near future!