In accordance with the research purposes, questions and framework, this chapter presented findings from interviews. The first finding categories of this study covered the role of corporate training professionals. The second section showed the tasks of corporate training professionals. The third section identified the competences required for corporate training professionals. Finally, the last section presented the approaches to develop the competences needed for corporate training professionals. The findings and discussions were shown as follows.
Roles of Corporate Training Professionals
In light of the first research purpose, interviewees were asked to describe the role they play in the HR department or in their organizations. Strategic partner, employee advocate, functional expert, human capital developer, and leader are five main roles of corporate training professionals generalized from the interviews. (shown as table 4.1)
Table 4.1.
Coding List for the Roles of Corporate Training Professionals
Topics Categories Concept Coding
Role Strategic partner
1.Strategic planning C-07-01, A-04-01, A-02-05, D-41-01, A-19-02, F-02-02, F-03-01, H-05-04, H-06-01, G-04-03, G-05-03, E-09-05, E-17-01
2.Business player C-02-04, B-04-02 , A-07-03,A-08-01, D-31-01, B-20-02, A-05-03, A-14-02, A-14-03, D-19-01, B-07-01, B-08-01, B-06-06,B-09-01, D-13-01, D-13-02, G-04-04, G-08-03, G-09-01, B2-02-03
(continued)
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Topics Categories Concept Coding
3.Internal consultant B-29-06,B-23-05, B-23-02, B-18-05, B-23-03, A-10-05, G-08-02
coordination E-02-02, E-02-03 4. Executive
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Strategic Partner
According to the description from the interviewees, corporate training professionals usually make plans according to organization's process of defining its strategy or direction.
With the understanding of business strategies, plans made by corporate training professionals can also convey the organization's vision, mission and values. Rather than being business partners, corporate training professionals not just discuss and communicate with line managers but also support and cooperate with them as business players to “play the game together” with managers. In addition to combining business strategies to align HR systems and helping line managers to get things done and reach their goals, corporate training professionals also advises leaders on what should be done and how to have a better results.
“A nice HR directors is like a designer who diagnoses organizational problems with a
Topics Categories Concept Coding
3. Offer employees B-35-01, B-06-05 , I-17-01, H-02-01, H-34-01, B2-38-02, E-03-01, E-05-01,
cohesion F-11-02, F-11-03, G-13-02, B2-13-01, 4. Supervise
subordinate
B-16-01, D-02-02, A-19-03, B-18-02, C-23-04
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flexibility in dealing with the changeable situation ’’(E)
“You need to know well your organization and their characteristics first, then you will know how to do to work it well”(F)
“We communicate with line managers very often to understand what they are busy for and what kind of problem they face with”(D)
“We are like preachers. You have to deliver those messages about what did the organization do, how do they think and what do they want to the employees’’ (H)
These categories of strategic partner correspond to the definition from Ulrich &
Brockbank, (2005) which represented strategic partner who involves business literate and savvy, strategic HR planner, change agent who diagnoses organization problems and separates symptoms form cause, internal consultant and facilitator who advises leaders and assists to manage the process for change, and combining them to align HR systems to help accomplish the organization’s vision and mission, helping line managers to reach their goals.
Employee Advocate
Employer-employee relationship is a significant relationship of mutual dependency that being a HR professional should help two parties keep their relationship harmonious and that’s why how to play the role standing between employer and employee is critical to the business success. Not only putting yourself in employee’s place, caring about employee is usually a good way to find out what kind of problem the employee may be faced with through observing them, interacting with them, chatting with them and listening what they thought.
“Employer-employee relationship is definitely a partnership”(E)
“Put yourself in employee’s shoes when you deal with ER issue”(C)
“Caring about employees should be the same way as we care about our family”(F) As being revealed by Ulrich and Brockbank (2005), employee advocate takes charge with ensuring the employer-employee relationship and concerning with the needs of
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employees through listening, understanding and empathizing.
Functional Expert
Designing and delivering HR practices including communications, work process, organization design, and leadership development execution can assure individual ability and establish organization capability (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005).
“HR intervention contributes to the cooperation and coordination among different business units. That is what we called organizational design”(C)
“Making decision tied to core value of the company can make the organization much more efficient and effective”(C)
“Understanding the problem each organization might have and then providing them full functional HR services”(D)
“Finding the right person and build up your talent pipeline”(B)
“We usually came up with many ideas about how to apply something to establish a right environment and maximize workforce productivity” (H)
The issue with many companies today is that organizations put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, whereas spend little time retaining and developing talent. To improve business value and make it possible for organizations to reach their goals, talent management is gradually linked to the business strategy.
Human Capital Developer
Most of the corporate training professionals emphasize on how to develop employees’
future abilities and generously provide them with training opportunities or even match employees’ desires with opportunities. Assigning challenging project or different tasks, job rotation and delegation are most common approaches to reinforce employees’ competency in the workplace.
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“I can decide the one who should be involved in a new project to offer him opportunities to develop future abilities and I always encourage managers to assign their subordinates different tasks” (D)
“Always think about what kind of skill of the talent you need to enhance”(B)
“When they get boring about their job, I will build up something challenging to let them conquer. When they feel that they need something fresh about their job, then job rotation is a must”(E)
“When they made mistakes on their job, I focus on what did you learn from the experience, what kind of lesson you learn from, how do you prevent from happening again”(A)
“Not only knowing what kind of future opportunities they might want to catch and what do they need, but also meeting their need of career plan or development plan” (D)
“Knowing how to facilitate subordinates to share their thoughts, how to guide them to discuss and make them feel ease during the process of discussion is very important”
(B2)
“Not giving them answers right away but guiding them to find out solutions on their own”(C)
Through creating an open and supportive climate for discussion and offering constructive feedback and advice, corporate training professionals, as coaches, facilitate subordinates to think instead of giving solutions or answers immediately.
Leader
Corporate training professionals who are in managerial positions provide leadership to their subordinates with supervision and goal setting and enhance the standards for strategic thinking. Moreover, finding ways to strengthen team cohesion is also critical to leadership.
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Sometimes, giving the credit to others is good for the teambuilding.
“Telling them why I have this goal setting, what should be done to achieve this goal, what is the result, and what kind of work procedures should be established to accomplish the task’’ (F)
“How I lead the subordinate depends on and how many things he has already known and which skill level the subordinate has been” (B)
“Sometimes complaining about the supervisors can strengthen team cohesion” (G)
“Creating some opportunities and activities to let them interact each others” (F)
“Sometime it is a must to give the credit to other participants. Then they will be willing to participate next time and give more ideas.”(C)
Not only creating a culture in which all team members are happy to put their ideas forward, but a leader set directions in visualizing the future and in executing plans.
Tasks of Corporate Training Professionals
In accordance with the research purpose, with STAR technique, the researcher asked interviewees to depict the main task they do in the HR department or in their organizations.
Tasks of corporate training professionals can be generalized into four categories which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling which can correspond to management function advocated by Robbins and Coulter (2001) .(see table 4.2)
Table 4.2.
Coding List for the Tasks of Corporate Training Professionals
Topic Category Concept Coding
Task Planning 1. Develop plans A-05-01, A-09-02, B-06-06 ,F-02-03, F-03-01, H-02-03, H-05-01, H-12-03, G-04-01 , G-05-01, B2-02-02, E-09-03, F-18-01, B-06-01, H-27-01, E-35-01, B-23-01, C-13-01D-10-01
(continued)
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Topic Category Concept Coding
2. Establish strategies A-23-01, E-08-01, E-09-07, F-05-02, F-06-01
controlling 1.Budget auditing A-14-01, A-14-02, I-07-01, I-02-05 2. Approve projects
4. Evaluating A-07-01, B-08-02, E-20-02, E-23-01, F-02-03, H-02-03,B2-17-02, F-18-04
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Planning
From the interview, some corporate training professionals who participate in high-level decision making faced the difficulties when they try to improve the effectiveness of teamwork. At that time, they integrated and coordinated activities through establishing strategies and developing plans such as compensation plan, career plan and training program.
Furthermore, when they developed plans or established strategies, the most important thing is to align with the organizational goals.
“Because I think they should be functional HR, I restructured the HR department and divided them into HRM and HRD” (F)
“I found out line manager were too careless about their subordinates, then I not only asked them to have a HR related training courses but also promoted a plan which is
‘leader rains leader’ to offload the HR workload.”(A)
“I modified the compensation system to create win-win situation between employers and employees”(H)
“The goals of HR link to the organizational goals. After headquarter decided what they want to pursue, HR strategies will align with those goals.”(C)
Organizing
From the interview, most of the corporate training professionals budget for their training program or specific project, optimize the resource, and assign responsibility for each a specific individual or group.
“To achieve the organizational goals, it’s a must to reallocate everyone’s tasks” (D)
“For that project, I organized a project team and also distributed their work” (I)
“We should let them know the distribution of work clearly. They should know the role they have to play exactly” (B2)
“You have to know what kind of resource you have and how to utilize them. Then
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distribute them appropriately.” (B2)
According to the definition proposed by Robbins and Coulter (2001), organizing covers the process of determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made. The idea is similar to the opinion from some interviewees.
Leading
To lead the team, department or an organization to success, open communication with subordinates is the indispensable element of team building. Moreover, influencing individuals or teams as they work and always motivating subordinates are the characteristic of leading based on the definition proposed by Robbins and Coulter (2001).
“It’s very important to have a transparent communication within the team. If my subordinates face the difficulties, I always discuss with them right away. When I get the updated business news, I also deliver to them as soon as possible” (B)
“I told my subordinates if they think there is somewhere in the progress needed to be improved when implementing, just bring it up anytime.”(C)
“In order to get the awards, I led them to cooperate each other, made the information transparent, and motivated everyone to have the same goal and passion to earn the pride”(B2)
To be an effective supervisor, some corporate training professionals think it is necessary to be able to delegate because delegation can assess the current abilities of the subordinates and their potential to accept and complete assignments through established guidelines. However, the premise of the delegation is trust. The supervisors only delegate the work to the people who is trustworthy.
“With the delegation, the more opportunities they get, the much improvement they have on their technique and other skills.”(D)
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“When I delegate the work to her, I seldom modify the result she turn in because I trust her. …You need to trust your subordinates first because you are in the same boat.” (G)
Controlling
Controlling is defined as the process of monitoring, comparing and correcting a process (Robbins and Coulter, 2001) Based on the interviews, some corporate training professionals will set checkpoints or key milestones to track the progress of the program. If the organizational policies changes, they will also adjust the goals of the training programs.
“We have a meeting every one to two months to keep tracking the progress of the strategies.” (G)
“You need to modify your training programs all the time due to the changeable environment” (H)
“After implementing, you also need to evaluate that which team did a good job, whether they did as schedule or not, if not, how to correct it” (F)
Competences Required for Corporate Training Professionals
This section attempted to identify the competences needed for corporate training professionals. As explained by the research framework, this section follows the roles and tasks from interviewees’ descriptions to investigate the skill, knowledge and personal attribute they might have. (as shown in table 4.3)
Table 4.3.
Coding List for the Competences Required for Corporate Training Professionals
Topic Category Concept Coding
Competence Skill 1.Visionary ability B-30-02, , A-30-01,I-12-01, E-09-02, I-14-02, I-14-08, H-37-02, H-37-03, E-39-01, E-39-02
(continued)
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Topic Category Concept Coding
2. Management 4. Persuasion skills B-21-05, B-33-06 , B-19-07, C-22-10,
C-26-06, C-26-07, A-10-03, D-20-01, A-10-04 , B-19-08
5. Ability to expression
B-18-06, B-19-01,C-22-04, C-22-08, C-23-02, C-26-05, C-23-01, C-25-02, , C-22-09, G-24-03, G-24-04, G-24-05, F-18-02, F-22-07
Knowledge 1.HR knowledge B-29-02, B-29-07, B-32-04, B-33-05, C-29-01, A-25-01, H-35-01, H-35-03, H-36-01, B2-26-01, E-30-01, F-22-04 2.Business acumen B-19-05, B-29-01, B-21-04, B-19-06,
B-19-05, B-19-04,C-22-03, B-19-03, C-22-04, C-22-05, C-22-07, C-28-03, D-17-01, D-15-03, F-04-03, H-06-03, H-07-01, H-32-02, H-33-03, F-22-03 3.Labor law C-22-01,E-40-02, F-26-02
Personal Attribute
1.Passionate B-26-01,B-27-03, C-29-04 ,G-24-01, B2-32-01, B2-41-01, B2-36-04, E-37-04 2.Introspective C-21-02,B-29-04, B2-36-02, B2-36-03,
B2-39-03, B2-39-04
3.Empathy C-25-03, C-31-02, C-32-02, A-27-04, A-28-03, A-29-01, A-29-03, D-15-04, E-19-01, C-29-05 ,C-32-03, F-26-01 4.Open-minded D-32-02, D-33-01, D-36-02, B2-38-01,
I-22-02, I-22-03, I-16-02, H-36-03 , B-17-08, C-20-02, C-21-03, I-14-07 5.Committed to
work
B-27-05, B-33-03, I-14-04, H-36-04, D-11-05, I-22-01,I-16-01, D-43-01, 6. Trustworthy A-25-03, A-28-04, A-25-04, A-25-05,
A-26-01, C-38-01, D-14-06, B-33-02 D-35-01, D-14-10, E-11-01, F-16-02
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Skill
The skills corporate training professionals need to hold can be categorized into four sections including management skill, which covers change management, business management, and time management; visionary ability, which means look beyond the "now"
and develop strategies for future success; interpersonal skill, which involves interaction with others; persuasion skills which influence others’ thinking and convince them of evidence;
ability to expression which includes presentation skills.
“It’s very hard to be a general manager’s partner without the utilization of business management.” (F)
“Do Forward thinking. You have to think about the questions your supervisor might ask in advance.” (B)
“Profession only takes up 30%, whereas interpersonal relationship occupies 70%” (I) From the descriptions of the interviewees, as a director or senior managers, there are always opportunities that they need to convince others such as line managers and outside vendors to get their support or influence them to make the program smoothly go on.
“When having a communication, you need to know who you are going to communicate with, when and where it is best to communicate, and what the goal of this communication is. Not only delivering message clearly, but also you need to communicate with them sincerely” (C)
“Being a corporate training professional, it is necessary that to have a presentation skill to express your profession with clear thinking” (G)
Knowledge
Solid HR knowledge, strong business acumen and profound knowledge in labor law are acknowledged by the interviewees that being corporate training professionals should have.
“Your profession should show what solutions you can offer, more than service, and have
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others ask for your advice when they meet people-related issues”(B)
“Understanding the situation of the industry and their business helps communicate well with the clients. So that, a corporate training professional should have the sensibility about industry trend, and have an understanding about the cause of the announcement made by the organization”(C)
“With the understanding of business strategies and what organization is doing, you can develop a training program that meet the need of the organization”(H)
Personal attribute
For many corporate training professionals, passion is the important element of positive working attitude. “Being passionate can make your work easier,” said by the interviewee from case G. Some of the interviewees also mentioned that they always introspect themselves and adjusted when taking others feedback. Moreover, showing empathy is also one of the personal attribute recorded from the interviews. In terms of employee development, being open-minded can help to develop the employees.
“Show your passion to the work! You can share everything what you have. Not only knowledge, skills but also something you learn or obtain” (B2)
“After taking others’ feedback, you need to introspect yourself, and improve the competency”(B2)
“When dealing with that kind of ER issue, I always put myself in their shoes and treat them as my family”(C)
Approaches to Competency Development for Corporate Training Professionals
In this section, the researcher categorized the approaches to develop the competences required for corporate training professionals into three parts which are on-the-job training,
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off-the-job training and self-development. (see table 4.4)
Table 4.4.
Coding List for the Approaches to Competency Development for Corporate Training Professionals
Topic Category Concept Coding
Competency competitors, interacting with business unit, mentoring and learning from the on-the-job experience.
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“The experiences from the employees in the same company may not happen in your department, but it is still worth learning.” (B)
“To be professional, you need time to accumulate your knowledge and strengthen skills from your working experiences” (A)
“I usually invite the professionals in other departments to let HR staffs have a better understanding about business trend. Having dinner with the clients is also the way to obtain the business knowledge” (C)
“Senior employees or managers can be your mentor to provide you with their experience and you can learn from that”(D)
Off-the-job Training
Not just gaining the skills while they are carrying out their jobs, as a corporate training center, they also learn outside the job and even involve themselves in full time learning. Most common way of off-the-job training is to take lecture provided by the organization. However, compared to on-the-job training, a few of companies have a training strategy which put more emphasis on on-the-job training .
“Our training strategy is 70-20-10. On-the-job training takes up 70%, learning from others takes up 20%, and only remain 10% for taking training program ” (B)
“Taking lectures can reinforce the fundamental knowledge” (C)
Self-development
To develop one's capabilities or potentialities after working, corporate training professionals usually encourage employees to take lectures from other institutions. In addition to sitting in classroom taking lectures, being a corporate training professional who plays an important role in disseminating learning across the organization, they keep learning all the time. They absorb new information from book, newspaper, and even interactions with
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others and digest it as its knowledge. That is what they called-- ubiquitous learning.
“Catch the opportunities you can learn” (A)
“Everything related to work is the information you need to know, learn and follow”(B)
“Have a positive attitude to learning. Then you’ll find out there are always opportunity you can learn”(B2)
“Pay attention to the announcement made by the organization. At meanwhile, not just staying in your office, but step up your presence”(C)
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