CHAPTER V. MAIN FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Through investigating the training management statuses of 11 life insurance companies and their comparisons with ISO 10015 guidelines, some conclusions and recommendations can be derived from the findings. In this chapter, the main findings, conclusions and
recommendations are presented.
Main Findings
Based on the research purposes, the conclusions were drawn here in the sequence of training management status, opinions on satisfaction for training management status, actions and opinions on improving training process, and finally the gaps to meet ISO 10015
guidelines and opinions on ISO 10015.
Training management status
1. The foundation of KASH training needs for sales personnel was established, while the others to cope with changes or belonging to personal needs were mostly derived from informal communications. Only a few companies applied competency analysis in training.
The scope of KASH (knowledge, attitude, skill, habit) required for sales personnel was clear in the life insurance industry. Base on this foundation, most companies had defined the major part of training needs. Besides this, other training needs to cope with changes or belonging to personal needs were mostly derived from informal
communications between training department with supervisors, sales personnel and district training personnel. The performance review or appraisal was also utilized to obtain
personal training needs. In addition, the reports filled by sales personnel were also used to extract any problem or competency gap.
The official competency analysis was started to be adopted in life insurance companies. However, its application mainly stayed at the operations of recruitment. Only some of the life insurance companies extended the application to the following functions of training and management.
2. Course design of practice and role playing was emphasized. Training materials were mostly developed internally. Sales managers participated in course
development. Training manuals included trainer’s manual, trainee’s manual, and also coaching manual in some companies. Detailed trainer’s manuals were
developed. Internal trainers were in the majority. Some companies delivered training via TV.
For the training methods, life insurance companies emphasized the design of practice and role playing. The products that life insurance companies sell are invisible, and therefore how sales personnel communicate with customers is the top issue.
Through practice and role playing, sales personnel had the opportunities to apply what they had learned in the classrooms. Besides, most courses were designed with group discussing, case study, business game and leading trainees to raise questions.
For the training materials, considering the cost, life insurance companies had them developed mostly by their own training departments. Only part of them were purchased and then modified or localized from local or foreign organizations. Besides the logistic training personnel, companies invited their sales mangers to join the training committee to provide their professional and practical suggestions. For the procedures of finalizing the training materials, companies held the trail teaching, made modifications, and repeated the procedures till no further modification was required.
There were three kinds of training manuals being seen in life insurance companies.
Most companies had trainer’s manual and trainee’s manual, and some of it further developed coaching manual for supervisors to help the trainees. Trainer’s manuals were written in the form of outlines, time and activity allocation and teaching reminders, but some companies had developed part of their trainer’s manuals written word for word.
Most trainers were companies’ internal trainers, and the rest were invited from external market. For internal trainers, local companies mostly had their full-time trainers organized under the supervision of training department, while for the companies
originated from foreign systems, most of their trainers were part-time trainers and organized under sales departments.
Most companies delivered the courses through the traditional classroom resources, while some of them had developed to hook their courses on TV channels.
3. Pre-training support included notifying trainers and trainees for the course related information. Class supervisors were responsible for the proceeding of training. Most companies had every course recorded. Post-training support included letting
supervisors have trainees’ learning contracts.
Before training, some companies communicated with trainers about the course and also the trainees’ backgrounds information so as to let the trainers address the course best meeting trainees’ demands. For notifying the course message to trainees, the frequently adopted measures were sending official letter to trainees and putting information on company website. Next to the above was sending e-mail and short messages via mobile phones to their trainees. The companies owning the TV channel resource also
broadcasted the training information on TV. In addition, there were companies sending the letter to supervisors or communicating with them face to face to let the supervisors convey the information to trainees.
During training, some companies had organized the class supervisors to monitor and help the proceeding of the courses.
After training, most companies had the record or report for every course. Some companies gave supervisors the trainees’ action plan or set goals for supervisors to monitor and help the trainees.
4. Questionnaires were applied to make reaction evaluation. Tests, practices and role playing were applied to make learning evaluation. Not every company had
behavior evaluation. Most companies took the figures like sales amount to make result evaluation.
For reaction evaluation, every life insurance company had questionnaires to be filled out by the trainees right after the courses. However, the reaction results about trainers were mostly taken for reference, and some companies would transfer the feedback to trainers.
For learning evaluation, most companies used tests to evaluate for the knowledge courses, while used practice and role playing to evaluate for the non-knowledge courses.
Other measures taken for this evaluation included through questionnaires, trainers’
feedback, training personnel’s visiting and meetings.
For behavior evaluation, not all the companies had made this evaluation. The measures taken to evaluate included supervisor’s monitoring, joint visiting, having meetings with trainees, study group, recording monitoring and communications at classes.
For results evaluation, because the target group of this study is sales personnel, most case companies used sales amount, no. of contracts and agent’s retention rate to make the evaluation. Some companies, instead of sticking on the results of each course, turned to evaluate from the perspectives of long-term performance and overall
production value.
Opinions on satisfaction for training management status
1. Satisfaction of Stage Defining training needs was ranked no. 3.
Among the four training stages, the satisfaction for defining training needs was ranked no. 3. The satisfactions came from having full planning and preparation or
employees’ satisfactions. The dissatisfactions came from the difficulties of integrating the requirements of top-level and basic-level, the problems of challenging with company culture, or time-consuming for finding out the real training needs.
2. Satisfaction of Stage Designing and planning training was ranked no. 2.
Designing and planning training was the no. 2 satisfactory stage. The satisfactions came from best control, having the most resources, full planning and preparation, employees’ satisfactions, or complete sales personnel’s course structures. The dissatisfactions came from the problems of challenging with company cultures.
3. Satisfaction of Stage Providing for the training was ranked no. 1.
Providing for the training was the most satisfactory stage. There were 10 case companies satisfying with this training stage because of full control and employees’
satisfactions. The rest one case company operated well also, but it ranked the stage as the most basic work for training department, and therefore it was not regarded as a
satisfactory issue. One case company pointed out their only dissatisfaction with this stage was that they cannot control the quality of trainers and trainees.
4. Evaluating the outcome of training was the most dissatisfactory stage.
The satisfaction for evaluating the outcomes of training ranked the last. None of the
case company showed satisfaction for this stage. The reasons were that sales personnel’s performances had too many variables, behaviors were hard to be quantified, and also the effects of training were over-expected.
Six case companies addressed their opinions on ROI, and all of them regarded it as a very difficult task. One case company disclosed that ROI is not a consideration in their planning and design of training.
Actions and opinions on improving training process
1. Use Personal competency analysis for helping define training needs
Some companies regarded the official personal competency analysis was necessary and could improve the performance of this stage.
2. Design and plan internalized culture-related courses, on-site training and charge policy.
The actions that the case companies had made to improve the performance of this stage included internalizing the courses relating to company culture so as to reveal the real status of the company, and sending training personnel to district offices to hold training courses to enhance company’s solidarity. The improvements that the case companies hope to do were changing the all-for-free course policy to gain trainees’
valuing of courses.
3. Provide for the training with control of trainer’s and trainee’s qualities, and e-system assistance.
The actions that the case companies had made included organizing part of the trainers under the supervision of training department to assure the course delivering quality, keeping utilizing e-system to operate more efficiently, and using more channels
to pass course information to their employees. The improvements that the case companies hope to do were having all trainers supervised by training departments, and controlling trainees’ quality from recruitment.
4. Evaluate the outcome of training with role-playing design, study group and overall performance indicators.
The actions that the case companies had made included using role playing and study group to improve the evaluation of learning and behavior, and looking into the overall performance differences between trainees and others not taking the trainings through report analysis.
The improvements that the case companies hope to do were finding more quantified indices to make linkage between performance and training and to let supervisors be able to help to evaluate, and having one unit to integrate and supervise together the sales, training and administration departments to have the close ties between sales and training.
Gaps to meet ISO 10015 guidelines and opinions on ISO 10015
1. The stages ranked from with small to large gaps were designing and planning
training, providing for the training, defining training needs, and then evaluating the outcomes of training.
For the overall questionnaire results of these 11 case companies, the score of
defining training needs was 4.34, designing and planning training was 4.73, providing for the training was 4.45, and evaluating the outcome of training was 3.65. For the following mechanics, monitoring and improving the training process, its score was 2.95.
For the four stages of training process, the stage best meeting ISO 10015 guideline was designing and planning training, while the stage having the largest gap was
evaluating the outcome of training.
2. ISO 10015 was regarded helpful for standardization, identification and advertising effects. The doubts for ISO 10015’s feasibility in the companies were no virtual effects and limited resources.
The considerations for life insurance companies to apply ISO 10015 were its help for standardizing the training process and unifying the actions, identifying the
performance of training department, and having advertising effects on company brands and images. However, there was such voice that, when ISO was left with only document operations, no virtual effect can be brought by ISO but the advertising value.
The considerations of not applying ISO 10015 were doubts of its virtual effects, not being so coherent to sales personnel’s real demand, seeing no help when sales targets had been achieved, and limited manpower, time and cost for implementing ISO 10015 in the long-term basis. Besides, some companies expressed that ISO 10015 was the low-bar requirement, and it was insufficient for them to use this requirement to request themselves or to compete with others.
Conclusions
Based on the research purposes and findings in Chapter IV, the conclusions drawn from this research were stated as follows:
1. Life insurance companies had well-developed training management system for sales personnel.
The training process of life insurance companies all included four stages, which were defining training needs, designing and planning training, providing for the training, and evaluating the outcome of training. It revealed that the training in life insurance industry was already a well-developed system.
2. The training stages ordered from small to large gaps comparing with ISO 10015 guidelines were designing and planning training, providing for the training, defining training needs, and evaluating the outcome of training.
Looking into each training stage, for the completeness of implementation
comparing with ISO 10015 requirements, the order from high to low was designing and planning training, providing for the training, defining training needs, and the last one of evaluating the outcome of training. For defining training needs, besides the
long-developed organizational and job training needs, most information about personal training needs was through informal communicating channels. For evaluating the outcome of training, every company had reaction evaluation, and some companies had no good measures to make learning evaluation for non-knowledge training. Some companies made no behavior evaluation. Most companies made the result evaluation by sales performance, but, meanwhile, they also admitted there was no absolute linkage between training and sales performance.
3. Organizational and job training needs were well developed, while personal training needs mostly came from informal channels. The method of official competency analysis was started to be adopted.
Life insurance companies had good foundations to reveal organizational and job needs. For the person needs, they were mostly derived from informal communicating channels. Some companies had already taken official competency analysis to define job and personal training needs. Some companies proceeded such analysis but its
application was in recruitment, and not yet extended to the following managing aspects.
4. Training design was well developed in life insurance companies in the aspects of course design, trainer’s training and training materials.
Life insurance companies designed the training with lots of opportunities to practice and make role playing at classes. Most trainers were from companies’ internal personnel and received good trainer’s training. In local companies, most internal trainers were full-time trainers under the supervision of training departments, while in most foreign companies, the conditions were the reverse. Some companies had proceeded to write the detailed trainer’s manual word for word to assure the course quality. Some had developed the coaching manual for guiding supervisors to prolong the training effect and make behavior evaluation.
5. The evaluating levels ordered from full to partial implementation were reaction, learning, results, and then behavior.
Life insurance companies had questionnaires to be filled by the trainees right after the courses for making the evaluation of reaction. Learning was evaluated through tests, questionnaires, trainer’s feedback, training personnel’s visiting, meetings and practices.
Because the target group was sales personnel, most case companies used sales amount,
no. of contracts and agent’s retention rate to make the result evaluation. Not all the life insurance companies made behavior evaluation.
6. The training stages ordered from high to low satisfaction were providing for the training, designing and planning training, defining training needs, and evaluating the outcome of training.
For the satisfaction of each training stage, the order from high to low was
providing for the training, designing and planning training, defining training needs, and the last one of evaluating the outcome of training. The satisfactions came from best control, full planning and preparation, rich resources, employees’ satisfactions. The dissatisfactions came from too many variables, difficulties of being quantified, no full control, challenges with corporate culture, and difficulties of integrating the top and basis levels’ requirements.
7. The improving actions and opinions on training process included personal competency analysis, internalized, on-site, or charged courses, assurance of
trainer’s and trainee’s quality, role playing, study group, and overall performance analysis.
For the actions and opinions to improve the training stages by the life insurance companies, in defining training needs, official personal competency analysis was proceeded or considered. In designing and planning training, the actions included internalizing the corporate-culture related courses, holding courses on the site of district office to enhance company’s solidarity. One company addressed the method of
changing all-for-free course policy to increase employees’ valuing on training. In providing for the training, the actions included letting trainers be organized under training department so as to control their performance during classes, and suggesting
recruit only the sales personnel above the set quality requirements. In evaluating the outcome of training, role playing and study group were adopted to improve the evaluation of learning and behavior. Analyzing overall performance differences between trainees and others not taking the training through report analysis was also started to be implemented. Using database to find more quantified indices, letting supervisor involve deeper, and having one unit to integrate different function departments were the opinions hoping to do to improve the outcome evaluation.
8. Most life insurance companies considered not to apply ISO 10015 for the worries of no virtual effects, heavy load of manpower, time and cost for implementing in long-term basis and lacking flexibility.
The positive perspective on ISO was its unifying the operational procedures, while the negative ones were no virtual effect, and lacking flexibility. The
considerations of applying ISO 10015 were the helps of standardizing the training process, unifying the actions, and the recognition given to training departments. The considerations of not applying ISO 10015 were no virtual effects, heavy load of manpower, time and cost for implementing in long-term basis and lacking flexibility.
The effect of advertising was regarded as both worthy and unworthy to apply for ISO 10015.
Recommendations
For life insurance companies
1. Define the training needs to cultivate the sales personnel to adhere to the unique corporate culture. Implement a well-designed and regular performance review system or an official personal competency analysis to define training needs.
Since the products sold in this industry are invisible, the sales personnel’s quality becomes the most important issue. The sales personnel’s quality should be molded by the company with its unique corporation culture. Therefore, it is important for training department to know what competencies are required for the sales personnel of its one and only company, and what training needs are to reflect such culture cultivation.
The general training needs for sales personnel are well known in this industry, and the course structures designed thereafter are similar to every company. Having such well-build groundwork of training needs is valuable, and, to create the most value added to training, it is important for training department to explore the new and changed training needs. Most companies use informal communications to “feel” the training needs. The researcher recommends the training department to seize firmly the burgeon of training needs by implementing a well-designed and regularly-executed performance review system or an official personal competency analysis. Through these means, the competency gaps can clearly emerge from the records, and the training department can make analysis and obtain persuasive evidences to define the training needs.
2. Design and plan a good training through better control of trainer’s and trainee’s quality, deeper involvement of supervisors, and effective promoting strategy.
To assure the trainer’s quality, the trainer’s performance should be also appraised by training departments through joint performance appraisal or having them organized under the supervision of training department. To minimize the unnecessary training and management costs, the sales personnel’s quality should be valued and controlled from the very first - recruitment. To unify the course quality, for the courses which are important or have large coverage, like the ones for cultivating new agents, companies can consider to design the detailed and word-for-word trainer’s manual. To let
supervisors prolong the training effects and help on the evaluation of behavior, the training department can design the coaching manual to guide supervisors. To increase the acceptance and success probability of promoting a new training strategy, the training departments can firstly have it tried in a small group who accepts it, and after the positive results revealing, announce the “successful experience” to the others.
3. Pre- and post-training are important for securing and boosting training effects.
Designing good training courses is important, but if the course information cannot reach the employees and let them know the existence of the courses, it will be all in vain. The announcing channels include paper document, website, e-mail, short message via mobile phone, meeting, and even TV for some companies. For the trainees
attending courses, training departments should let them clearly know the purposes and expected effects, and for the trainers, training departments should brief to them the background of the trainees enabling them to adjust the contents to better meet trainees’
demands.
After classes, the training departments should let supervisors know what goals or expectations their sales personnel set after taking the courses, and encourage
supervisors to make good followup. In this way, supervisors can make better
monitoring and counseling, better evaluation of behaviors, and help to increase training effects.
4. Make better training evaluations through better designed methods like role playing, deeper involvement of supervisors, and good tracking systems for the outcome of training.
For the evaluation of learning, besides tests for knowledge courses, for other non-knowledge ones, training departments should develop the effective and practical
ways to proceed, such as role playing, to make sure the trainees do learn what are taught. For the evaluation of behavior, training department could design coaching system to let supervisors involve deeper in the evaluation. For example, a
well-designed checklist, showing the behaviors that trainees should apply at their works, could help supervisors clearly know what behaviors should be monitored and also help training departments to exactly evaluate the trainees’ applied and changed behaviors.
For the evaluation of results, besides finding more quantified variables to evaluate, training departments could design a good tracking system to make the short-term and also long-term evaluations for individual and overall training outcomes.
5. ISO 10015 guidelines can be taken to be a useful reference tool to examine the completeness of training management system, and training departments can work on the incomplete aspects to enhance training quality.
ISO’s spirit is to unify the operational procedures, and assure to achieve a certain quality standard when ISO is exactly implemented. Applying ISO 10015 certification is an issue, but the currently practical issue for training departments to do right away is to extract the quintessence and refer to the tasks or routes suggested by ISO 10015, and pinpoint the places that are left behind attention and implementation. For the companies which intend to make complete analysis for organization’s future needs, ISO 10015 suggests a variety of internal and external sources. For the companies which intend to review competences, ISO 10015 suggests several methods. For the companies which intend to develop a comprehensive training plan, ISO lists the required elements that should be considered. For the companies which have no effective way to develop the evaluation report, ISO indicates the components that should be covered. By following the leading of ISO 10015, all basic elements relating to training will be considered and designed ahead, and therefore, the training can be assured with a certain quality, effect
and satisfaction.
For future research
Firstly, the target group designated in this study is the life insurance companies which have received ISO 9000 certification. The number of qualified companies is 14, and its combinations are with 10 local companies (one turned down being interviewed), three subsidiaries of foreign group (one turned down being interviewed), and one branch of foreign group. Future study could include all 29 life insurance companies (16 local companies, six subsidiaries of foreign group, seven branches of foreign group) for further analyzing the differences of training management between these three different company patterns.
Secondly, this study was dug into the industry of life insurance. The future studies could be extended to other industries to explore more measures to implement effective and satisfactory training management, and also examine their gaps to meet ISO 10015 guidelines.
