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VIP Innovations
Contact: Eva A. Jenkins
(571)248-8041
Website: www.vipinnovations.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Training Failure Translates Into Squandered
Capital
That No Company Can Afford to Lose in Next Decade -- People
Leading expert calls for investment in human
capital management and
soft skills training for a better ROI
Washington-based training and consulting company VIP
Innovations announced today, the imminent release of Conversations
in Success (ISBN1-932863-85-0), a new book that features
in-depth interviews with accomplished entrepreneurs and business
professionals. The book is co-authored by Eva Jenkins, a leading
authority on human capital management and the driving force at VIP
Staffing and VIP Innovations.
In the next decade, 22 million new wage and salary jobs will be
created in the U.S., but only 17 million people will be entering
the workforce. (Source: The Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) 2004-2005 Workforce Forecast). Attracting workers will become
a more competitive game, and retaining workers will be essential
to corporate stability and growth.
The key to success in both areas, says Jenkins is soft skills training
and human capital management. She cautions "Companies may acknowledge
that soft skills training is important, even critical, but they
fail to prioritize that training as it applies to hiring and keeping
their actual workforce"
Defining Terms
"Hard skills," by definition, are those skills that produce
immediate and tangible results. "If I teach you to operate
a tractor, then I can see, very quickly, if you've acquired the
skill," explains Jenkins. "The result is well-defined,
visible, and instantly obvious and usually involves a human being
gaining mastery over an inanimate object."
"Soft skills" is the term applied to the basic knowledge,
values, and life skills that are necessary to obtain a job and keep
it. Specific "soft" skills range from effective interview
techniques and communication (eye contact, posture and body language,
a firm handshake, and the do's and don'ts of a successful job interview)
to dressing for success, appropriate behavior in the workplace,
smart money management, conflict resolution, understanding the importance
of punctuality, and demonstrating a strong work ethic in the eyes
of an employer.
According to Jenkins, "Even in an economy with entry-level
workers in great demand, job candidates need to have the requisite
soft skills to get hired…and managers need to be able to analyze
and evaluate those skills in order to make the best possible selection."
Candidates who demonstrate poor soft skills or have none at all
will have trouble finding and keeping a job. On the company side,
managers who have no training in understanding soft skills will
"lack the ability to analyze essential indicators that can
reveal a candidate's motivation for wanting a job," says Jenkins.
"They'll also be deficient in knowing the qualities that that
a candidate should possess in order to do the best possible job
for the company."
"Soft skills go to the heart of effective interaction with
other human beings," says Jenkins, "which in turn goes
to the heart of both succeeding in business as an individual and
succeeding in business as a company."
Fixing What's Broken
"In a way, hard skills training are much easier: you teach
someone a task and then assess his or her ability," says Jenkins.
To fix a hard skills problem, a manager can send a staff member
to a take a training course. When they return, the problem is solved.
Management input, aside from the cost of the course and making the
time available to attend it, is zero.
But teaching and evaluating someone's soft skills is a much more
complicated process. To transform an employee, constant feedback,
continuous involvement, encouragement and attention will be required.
"The acquisition of a soft skill involves behavior modification
and that puts an additional burden on company management,"
explains Jenkins "Unfortunately, in a world where time is at
a premium and management wants effortless and immediate solutions
to any problem, soft skills seems like an easy 'line item' to delete.
And although it may be easy, it is most certainly short-sighted."
A Longer Measuring Stick
During her rich history in staffing, Jenkins says she's had many
a discussion with prospective clients about the usefulness of training,
specifically training in the change management skills area. She
notes that many professionals challenge the value of this type of
training, "The claim is that soft skills are superficial almost
like window dressing and therefore not critical to success."
"You cannot easily measure the impact of a soft skills training
program," acknowledges Jenkins. "Since it's difficult
to measure, many human resource managers mislabel the training as
a bad investment of time, effort, and money because they can't immediately
see the 'pay-off' that the training provides." She observes
that even more forward-thinking companies with managers who think
soft skills training is a good idea are likely to decide to "put
it off until next year…or the year after…or the very
distant future."
In Jenkins opinion, the notion that you cannot measure the value
of soft skills training is "a bit of a red herring." She
knows from experience that the tremendous benefits of successful
soft skills training will manifest themselves very clearly over
time. She also knows from experience that this waiting period is
the stumbling block for many companies.
Jenkins believes that one of the most valuable services she provides
as a human capital management specialist is follow-up. "After
training is complete, I continue to work with my clients for many
months. I generally come back once each quarter for a year to conduct
surveys so that the success of the soft skills training can be analyzed
and evaluated regularly and consistently."
Consistency, she says, is the key, "but the problem is that
management and human resources are reluctant to accept that fact.
Measuring success is often done haphazardly, sending out the message
throughout the corporate structure that soft skills don't matter."
Jenkins, herself a mother, sees a parallel between good parenting
and good business. "When children exhibit bad behavior, Moms
and Dads need to provide constant and consistent discipline until
that behavior is changed. It doesn't happen overnight, but positive
changes will occur with regular monitoring and input." The
same paradigm, she says, applies in the workplace.
"The sad truth is that in today's business 'culture,' we no
longer seem to have the time, or at least the patience, to wait
for our efforts to 'bear fruit'…to let training take effect,"
acknowledges Jenkins. "So, soft skills' training is brushed
aside by human resources departments, hiring directors, and everyone
up and down the corporate hierarchy." As a result, she says,
"no one is teaching or learning the critical interpersonal
relationship skills that enable employees to work at their fullest
potential to benefit themselves and their company."
VIP Innovations, a division of VIP Staffing, LLC, offers a variety
of "high performance" management consulting, training
and assessment programs.
For more information on VIP Staffing or VIP Innovations, call (571)248-8041 or
Contact Us.
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