Training managers, it's time to think about your own skills! Faced with the major trends in the corporate training function, what training courses should you be taking in 2022? Philippe Argouges, an expert in training engineering and needs analysis, takes a closer look.
The pandemic seems to be behind us... and professional activity is returning to normal, little by little. It is even accelerating with increasing hiring. As far as professional training is concerned, the last two years will certainly leave their mark, at least in terms of training formats.
As training managers, you have had to manage many priorities. It’s time to think a little about yourself, your skills development and your own training needs.
Five areas of development are emerging for the corporate training function. Focus on the training courses that can help you follow these developments.
Axis 1: listen to and advise managers and employees
The law on professional training (or rather the laws, I should say) aims to make employees active in their professional development. Consequently, systems are multiplying in this direction: personal training account (CPF), Transition Pro, professional development advice (CEP)… to name just a few.
The fact remains that you do not necessarily know how to act with employees who have questions or with managers who are not familiar with these systems.
Increasingly, the RF function is evolving towards an advisory role. With managers, to help them better support their employees. With employees, to better take into account their expectations and desires.
How can we better advise employees?
The first step is to listen to them. For this, the professional interview is a particularly relevant tool, when it is used well. Be careful not to confuse it with the annual maintenance. In fact, it is not a question of discussing the objectives assigned to employees, but rather of discussing their desires for development and seeing how to support them in this process.
Training to help you listen and advise
- Conduct professional interviews
- Active listening to communicate better
- Change management, approach and tools
Axis 2: integrate new professional training systems
With the pandemic, new training methods have emerged. Others have taken on a new dimension and grown beyond what was imaginable two years ago. Face-to-face, distance learning, training courses, blended learning, on-the-job training, etc.
All these devices are interesting. But which skills are they best suited for? And in what situations can they bring something to your employees?
For project managers, we could, for example, imagine training courses integrating:
- MOOC on generalities;
- face-to-face or remote training sessions on the specificities of the methodologies used by your company.
Training to better understand these devices
- Integrate MOOCs into your training system
- E-learning, the essential points for successful projects
- Train differently: lead a virtual class
Axis 3: develop your know-how as a training manager
If you have inherited the role of training manager without necessarily knowing the mysteries of the profession, you probably need to organize yourself better. It may also be interesting to think about your activity, your role, your functions.
In the post-pandemic period that is beginning, we must be increasingly smart. In other words: find new funding, take better advantage of professional training systems, put in place diversified offers, integrate training engineering projects to adapt the offer to needs, evaluate the results.
How to do ?
For example, with the Co-constructed CPFs, training managers can offer employees the opportunity to use their personal training account to follow training courses that are also of interest to the company. And this, during their working time. It’s a win-win logic where everyone can benefit. In fact, the employee invests part of his CPF (which he will recover fairly quickly anyway) and the company invests the employee's working time.
Training to see more clearly in your missions
- Build and manage the skills development plan
- Build and manage a training project
- Evaluate training actions
Axis 4: communicate to sell your offer internally
The role of training manager is evolving.
Previously seen as an accountant, he is responsible for verifying that the company is fulfilling its obligations, completing slips to validate financing or writing declarations at regular intervals.
Today in the position of career guidance advisor, the training manager becomes the advocate of skills development plans to sell them to the teams. It is no longer enough to present them to staff representative bodies: we must also convince managers of the value of training for everyone and highlight the benefits to employees.
To do this, training managers must develop their communication skills.
Training to communicate better
- Optimize your communication
- Speak with ease and efficiency
- Speak up and succeed in your public interventions
Axis 5: integrate the training offer into the company's strategy
Training is an integral part of the company's strategy. For example, in a period when recruiting becomes more difficult, the training manager has a role to play in establishing an internal skills development strategy.
But, concretely, how to proceed?
Of course, developing the company's strategy is not your responsibility but that of the management committee. However, it is by understanding how it is established, how we can integrate it into the needs analysis and how training can be at its service, that we build an offer more adapted to the needs of tomorrow.
A development strategy indeed implies skills management adapted upstream. And therefore a mapping of the existing situation to then develop an appropriate skills development plan.
Training related to strategic aspects of the company
- Business strategy: analysis, diagnosis and deployment
- Implement an effective training policy
- Analyze training needs
When training managers build skills development plans, they frequently forget their own needs. Don't they say that shoemakers are often the worst shod? The time has come to change our mindset on the evolution of skills within the company's RF function.
