There is not such thing as Micky Mouse Job

Even simplest jobs require consistent execution. Consistency is one of the greatest challenges for any business. The larger the business the greater the challenge. While customers increasingly call for great service anytime, everytime; businesses can still get away with mediocrity. McDonald’s and Subway are only two examples. Both makes you wonder what are the official standard procedures.

Mc Donalds‘ soft cones sometimes come with two twists, sometimes with three. Sometimes, the cone is fully filled with ice cream, sometimes it is just above the waffle. Sometimes, the ice cream is watery and less sweet, sometimes, creamy and sweeter.

Subway delivers even more diverse experience. The number of any countable ingredient such as ham or tomato slices differs even when not being subject to individual preferences and wishes. Sometimes, the more I talked with staff the greater amount they gave me. Other times, the more I talked, the less I received. The biggest surprise happened at one Arizona Subway restaurant where two employees have trained a newbie in making a sub. The instruction was more or less like this: If the customer is nice, talks to you and is generally a kind person, you take the tomato and you give him the inner parts of it. If the customer is not nice, you give him the endings. Importantly, Subway’s employees also vary greatly in passion for what they do, some put heart into every sandwich, others seem just not very comfortable working when everybody watches their hands.

What’s behind those inconsistent experiences? Undefined quality standards, lack of commitment to excellence, poor supervision, unfair franchise‘ owners attempting to cut corners, boost margins and what not or just the nature of humans that no recruitment, training nor human resource policy can 100% restrain.

Job Swap Practical Considerations

Job swaps are expensive, in terms of money spent and HR department time. To ensure that they present the best development opportunity, a various issues shall be carefully considered.

Per definition, the job swap requires that job swappers swap jobs and hence are in similar position and have similar areas of expertise and experience in order to be able to cover each other position's workload while on exchange. However, the companies must also be clear about how the employee's workload will be handled during the job swap in the case employees cannot swap exactly the same positions.

At times, identifying job swap candidates along with client and language consideration might be a challenge. In regards to client, training intervention in form of a job swap creates a slight disturbance to the account service. The key account person is leaving and replaced by a new colleague with whom the Client has to yet establish a rapport. In regards to the language issue, while both potentials job swappers are most likely fluent in English, hardly anyone of them may speak the local language of the host company. Hence, the employee need to serve on a global account where English is the working language. Ultimately, companies need to determine the remaining recruitment criteria of job swappers.

Further factors to consider when planning a job swap include:
* What is the overall purpose, vision, and expected benefits of the job swap?
* How shall the job swap be evaluated and the benefits quantified?
* What are the obligations of each swap office?
* What shall be the financial arrangement? Shall job swappers be paid by their respective home or host swap office during the exchange? Which party shall be responsible for costs such as airfares, accommodation, travel and medical insurance, visas and work permits of each job swapper?
* Shall job swappers sign a “stay guarantee” (i.e. that they stay with the employer for a certain period of time upon completion of the job swap)?
* What are the work responsibilities of job swappers during the exchange?
* What additional training and opportunities for development shall be provided by host office?
* How shall job swappers be prepared for the intercultural experiences?

Behavioral Changes through Job Swaps

Effective talent management depends on understanding the workforce, their desires and aspirations, and reconciling these with commercial and operational realities. One such desire of Chinese employees is the appetite for meaningful career advancement opportunities, not only in China, but also in the West.

Global job swaps are a unique opportunity for Chinese employees to gain first-hand experience with diverse business environments and cultures. Though, one cannot overlook the size of the investment a company needs to make to support such a program. Given the average training budget per employee per year, the job swap program costs (in particular as we only refer to one or a few job swappers) can be substantial.

Even so, in 2009, TBWA\China made an overseas assignment for one Chinese employee a reality. At the same time, the agency hosted a German employee in its office for the period of six months.

The 2009 job swap was kicked off as both agencies, in Shanghai and in Hamburg, saw the benefits that could accrue to the employees and the agencies from the exchange. Employees were provided with the opportunity to gain international exposure to a different business environment, insight into different cultures and societies, as well as the first hand knowledge of how other cultures approach agency operations and client relationships. Agencies expected to benefit by the ways of having more qualified and experienced staff who returns professionally inspired and equipped with a unique international perspective. Furthermore, agencies used the exchange to strengthen ties between them.

A questionnaire was distributed to job swappers to explore their self-assessment of the interpersonal and intercultural skills. Job swappers completed the questionnaire twice, first after the first 2 weeks of the exchange and second 2 weeks after the exchange was finished and job swappers returned to their home office.

Both job swappers agreed that they developed new skills during the job swap. They became more aware that they sometimes hear people, but they do not truly listen to what they are telling. They learned to strive to get the true message that people of different cultural background were trying to send, read between the lines, and pick up the non-verbal nuances. During the job swap, the job swappers developed into better listeners. Furthermore, job swappers got a better feel for empathy. They became skilled at putting themselves in another's shoes, an ability essential for account service professionals. These behavioral changes were the most realized personal development gains and advantages of a job swap.

Beginning a Career in the Creative Department of an Ad Agency

Concerning career opportunities for creative talent in Advertising Agencies in Mainland China, I am upbeat about their prospects. People with excellent creative thinking abilities, graphic skills, a strong work ethic, and client centric outlook will always jump ahead of the curve.

In the early stage of one's career, young designers should concentrate on enhancing their design skills, learning to manage time and project challenges effectively and efficiently, and demonstrating superb standards of quality on a consistent basis.

Given the fact that the vast majority of local designers have relatively weak conceptual and English skills, I would also suggest that young designers undertake a frank self-assessment and if needed, commit to devising and implementing a workable plan for personal improvement in these areas. A few tips include studying and practicing different kinds of art forms and actively engaging in brainstorming sessions.

Now, once a designer begins to climb the career ladder, they will need to demonstrate confidence and comfort with doing new things all the time and exemplify an attitude that embraces a variety of media; not only the traditional ones but also any imaginable space between the brand and its consumers.

When to Embark on a Career in the Account Service Department of an Ad Agency?

This post addresses a recent enquiry from a young Chinese professional.

"After my graduation, I started working at a Company in their Marketing department. Now, after three years, I think that I would prefer to work in an Advertising Agency in the long-term. I heard that the most common career path is to first start out at an Ad Agency and then to switch to the client side. Do I still have the chance in an Advertising Agency?”

First, Advertising Agencies are constantly on the lookout for talent with the ability to establish strong relationships with colleagues and clients, quickly grasp an understanding of the Agency's processes and internal project management principles, and adapt to their matrix reporting structure and multidisciplinary nature of projects while working well in large teams. So, if you are this kind of person, then chances are good that you will get noticed.

Second, Advertising Agencies are oftentimes more demanding, ambiguous, and faster paced than in-house Marketing Departments. Many professionals also experience difficulty thriving in such an environment after spending too much time on the client side. Consequently, it is best for you to get your hands dirty at an Ad Agency as soon as possible.

At any career level, it is easier to exit an Advertising Agency and move to an in-house Marketing Department than vice-a-versa. But, the time spent in an Agency is always fruitful for one’s career in the Marketing field. It allows you to familiarize yourself with the Agency's processes inside and out and apply this experience in any future dealings with them. Agencies like to joke around that Ex-Agency staff makes for the worst most demanding clients.

Recruitment and Training Interdependency

HR sub-processes, recruitment and training, may be operated and managed independently. But essentially, they are two sides of one coin. Therefore, if recruitment and training professionals work in isolation, then, for example, an incompatible set of metrics will be used causing inefficiencies.

Companies that measure cost per hire and hold hiring managers accountable for this outcome will see lower cost per hire over time. But, the unintended consequence of this action is usually a lower quality of new hires resulting in increasing training needs and total labor costs. Similarly, poorly designed training may be ineffective and will not bring about a change in performance. This may negatively impact employee job satisfaction which in turn influences the attrition rate. An escalating attrition rate causes greater demand for recruitment.

Therefore, when analyzing recruitment and training dynamics, a clear understanding must exist between which competencies have to be bought (recruitment) and which can be built (training and development). The traditional trade-off is; “Hire for attitude and train for skills and/or knowledge”.

In China, English is a skill that must be hired and trained for. Even so, two divergent approaches exist for tackling this challenge. The first approach involves prioritizing the hiring of employees with solid professional knowledge and mediocre English skills in hopes of improving their language skills through training and development programs. The second approach focuses on hiring employees with high levels of English proficiency while providing training in the relevant professional area. In this case, the English majors quite often pursue a part-time post-graduate business degree to boost their career.

Shopping WISELY for an ESL Provider

It is unrealistic to expect a barber to ask a customer why s/he needs their hair cut and refuse service if the customer hopes to lose 10 pounds as a result; even though the barber realizes that a new hair cut will not guarantee the desired outcome. Similarly, it is highly unlikely that a sales person will send a prospect away once you knock on their door asking for English language training. Nevertheless, a results-oriented English language training provider must be interested in determining whether or not English training is really going to solve your performance problems and if warranted, advise you to go ahead with a different solution.

So, to be successful in training endeavors, you should find ESL providers that:

Understand the art of tailor-made solutions
Tailor-made programs are sold at a significant premium and providers favor them over off-the-shelf solutions. Before you choose a tailor-made course, understand the advantages and disadvantages of both. Most-importantly however, ensure that there is adequate customization based on well-understood learning tasks and thus there is “more to it” then just your logo on the training materials.

Are able to see the big picture
Corporate training is predominantly about enhancing a company’s business performance. Choose ESL providers that focus on job application of their training solutions and care about your company’s plan to provide participants the opportunity to practice their new skills in the workplace. In addition, expect training providers to consider your company’s values, approach to leadership, strategy, and vision in order to reinforce them during the training.

Approach training evaluation as an 80:20 split
Training evaluation is an integral part of planning processes (pre-training) whereupon performance objectives and criteria should be agreed upon. Expect training providers to spend 80 percent of their time and effort on pre-training evaluation processes and the remaining 20 percent on post-training ones.

Focus on your needs instead of implementation issues
Mistakenly, some ESL providers tend to believe they provide tailor-made solutions when they work with clients on pure implementation issues as the group size, number of training hours, days on which training will take place, financial constraints, etc. Although these are notable features of tailor-made solutions, the true value lies in training material that corresponds to established objectives. Ensure ESL providers understand the art of tailor-made solutions.

Role of Managers

“People join companies but they leave managers.” Gallup

“People don’t work for companies as much as they work for other people.” Ruth Branson

"Money can't replace good management." Ann Howard

One of the most impact driven elements of a sound retention strategy is the role of the manager. Regardless of how hard HR professionals work on the retention strategy and how attractive and accommodative the company’s culture and values are, if the managers do not have basic managerial skills, then there is no way the company will succeed and thrive.

Management basics for supervisors and managers include:
• Goal setting,
• Performance evaluation,
• Knowing how to provide feedback – both positive and negative,
• Knowing how to motivate employees,
• Knowing when and how to praise employees,
• The ability to develop other people, and
• Coaching skills to help employees reach greater levels of achievement.

Since several decades, many companies rely on management training programs to build and enhance the talent pipeline for future managers and leaders. During management training, trainees at German companies in China familiarize themselves with various aspects of the company’s operations and develop technical skills and industry knowledge.

A major drawback exists though in most of these management training programs. They simply do not nurture talent in skills related to working with people. This is a significant concern because management is really all about communication.

ESL Training Effectiveness

Was 2007 a successful year for your L&D department? Was your company able to arrange and run effective English language trainings that received good reviews, satisfied your learning objectives, were highly applicable, and delivered an impact to your business? If so, Congratulations!

If not, then the following steps will assist your department to ensure effective trainings in 2008.

1. Ask, “Why do we offer English language training?”
Ask the above question in order to confirm that your company views training as an investment.

2. Spell out business needs
Review goals realized and unrealized, employee performance, and customer surveys to identify performance gaps and areas that must be changed. Be specific and tangible about the nature of your company’s lackluster performance. Choose a level of performance (benchmark) before any learning intervention occurs. Preferably, use existing business measures like:
• Error rates (measured as the number of applications that have to redirected due to data mistakes),
• Costs of miscommunication,
• Service time, and
• Customer satisfaction.

3. Question whether English language training is the correct intervention
First, evaluate either mediocre language skills are the cause of performance gaps. Frequently instead, personal skills as communication skills and interpersonal skills, or behavioral characteristics as a very modest level of confidence and boldness are the true performance barriers. In addition, performance gaps may be a result of different perceptions of how work should be executed, an inappropriate organizational environment, or uninspiring rewards.
Second, assess either training is the correct intervention to close performance gaps. Lackluster talent or personality traits cannot be changed through ESL training but instead requires other intervention.

4. Define training objectives
Determine Business Impact Objectives (level 4), Application Objectives (level 3), Learning Objectives (level 2), and Reaction/Satisfaction Objectives (level 1) for your training. Based on the sample business needs listed above, examples of Business Impact Objectives are:
• Decreasing the error rate by x percent,
• Eliminating costs associated with improper language skills and/or miscommunication,
• Shortening service time by x percent, and
• Increasing customer satisfaction by x percent or raising scores related to staff interaction by x percent.

5. Design the training
Seek out actual and true tailor-made training solutions. If you do not have an in-house design team, develop a set of criteria for selecting an English language training provider that can best meet your needs. Expect them to follow the above four steps and continue shopping around if they do not. Once you engage an ESL provider, work with them closely to define key areas to be addressed in the course and to translate your training objectives into course material imperatives. Do not rush this stage forward, it takes planning, discussions (frank and open), and assessment.

6. Secure employees buy-in
Secure employees’ buy-in by involving them in performance-training dynamics. Develop a corresponding set of HR practices for greater learning impact. Furthermore, ensure that new skills gained by employees through their training are applied and tested in daily work.

7. Perform post-course evaluation
Once the training is over, evaluate the entire process with the provider against previously set criteria. Measure performance again, measure how well skills are applied on-the-job, the learning effect, and reactions of participants.

You can consider skipping lower level objectives and measurements and instead focus on business impact and performance issues only. However, all four levels help define the course objectives more precisely and link the course material to training imperatives more effectively.

Measuring training effectiveness essentially focuses on a range of pre-course sub-processes. If you or the ESL provider cannot execute this important step or you are interested in a third party’s point of view; then engage a consultant with the skills and knowledge to guide this process. A third-party can help you to design and implement effective ESL training and thereby assist your department in making a valid business case for training to the Board and other Executives.

ESL Training: Expense or Investment?

When companies consider English language training for their employees in China and Hong Kong, they increasingly seek out a positive Return on Investment (ROI). However, oftentimes companies do not link this training with the on-the-job-performance. This causes difficulty in assessing the effectiveness of the trainings and frustration for companies and English language training providers alike.

Before exerting efforts to measure training effectiveness, companies should recognize their genuine motives for supplying English Training. This exercise will help to determine either ROI is an essential measure or should be refrained from.

Simply asking, Why do we offer English language training?, allows you to clarify whether your company views English language training as an expense (tactical approach) or investment (strategic approach) and what are the ensuing complementary steps.

If you agree with one or more of the following statements, then your company most likely perceives training as an expense and probably provides English language training each year regardless of the business impact:
• English language training is a type of reward for the best performers.
• English language training is part of a development plan for employees with leadership and/or management potential.
• English language training is part of the company’s retention strategy and employer branding.
• English language training is pursued because competitors are providing this training already.
• The company has an annual budget allocated for employee training initiatives.
• Employees have communicated eagerness to attend English language training in employee surveys.
In this case, measuring satisfaction levels among participants and shopping for cost-effective solutions is appropriate.

On the contrary, if the following reasons apply to you, your company views training as an investment and thus conducts training programs aimed at creating significant measurable difference in on-the-job performance:
• During performance appraisals, employees have identified weak English skills as barriers to their individual performance.
• Supervisors recognize weak English skills as key barriers preventing individuals from achieving goals/objectives and greater performance levels.
In this case, you should certainly strive to calculate ROI after first linking training objectives with the on-the-job performance.

Understanding your approach can help you to effectively manage expectations, and improve your entire training experience and engagement with English language training providers.