SuperManager: Continuing Education – Who’s Responsible?
Christine: You’re listening to SuperManager, the podcast for people who manage people and business with ideas, trends, and expert interviews to help you be a SuperManager.
Sam: In a lot of fields these days things are really changing quickly and it’s important for employees to stay on top of their field, but who’s really responsible for that? Who’s responsible for the training? I’m here with my group of super friends today and we’re going to talk about continuing education and who’s responsible, and I have with me today:
Sally: Sally Bowles, Prefix Technologies. We take care of the IT needs of small and medium sized businesses.
Joel: And Joel Emery, a sales systems architect with ignite strategies.
Sam: And I’m Samantha Naes with CN Video. We do corporate video production. So ever changing technology ever changing world?
Sally: Absolutely. Technology changes so much. If we don’t keep up with the latest hack, the latest updates, our clients could be-
Sam: That’s probably really true in your industry. I mean everywhere, even in video production, there are new things to learn, but with technology-
Sally: It’s a daily, it’s a daily event of learning.
Sam: How do you keep your techs up to speed?
Sally: Most. Most of them, actually, all of them do a lot of reading. Even at night they’re motivated because they want it. I mean they’re self teaching at times by reading articles, sharing knowledge, but also there’s tons of certifications and also a lot of webinars, courses, etc. Oftentimes the courses are already kind of outdated when you’re looking at things like security and ransomware. So for-
Sam: By the time they get it documented, we’ve moved on to something else.
Sally: That’s right. For everybody in our company, it’s a daily learning.
Sam: I would think if somebody is really interested in what they do, they’re going to be interested in webinars and reading up on it and keeping up.
Sally: And we’re passionate about taking care of our customers. So we are motivated to stay on top of everything because we would never want a customer to not have what they need to do their business.
Sam: I think any service based industry, it’s going to be really important for people to kind of stay up on trends and technology and things. I mean, no matter what industry, if you’re service based, you’ve got to keep up on your training.
Joel: And in the marketing world and the major platforms of Google, Facebook and then, individual platforms that people use- or they’re constantly tweaking, refining, updating, improving, sometimes not improving, but they’re always changing it and trying to make it better. So just because you’ve had it down four months ago doesn’t mean today you completely have no idea what’s going on. So, uh, people in that industry have to be constantly watching it and keeping on top of it.
Sam: With things changing that rapidly in order for people to stay on top of it. Somebody has to be teaching it.
Sally: Teaching or showing or-
Sam: Showing or.
Sally: Sharing, sharing I think is-
Sam: Well, I mean in general everybody is probably seeing the same problems with technology changing and everything changing. Keeping employees, especially for service industry, keeping everybody up to date. I guess it’s up to what organizations- Google has to somehow post that these changes have been made or virus protection software. They’ll post alerts or their newsletters or something that you stay on top of.
Sally: Absolutely.
Joel: Yeah. I mean both Google and Facebook’s end up notifications about the changes and any well documented and put together platform, whether it’s a CRM or other tools that are used, they will continually push out information about the changes and updates they’ve made to their platform and new ways to use it. Where I also see a significant challenge though is with companies where very frequently a company is founded and the person who created the company is a natural salesperson. They get it, they understand it, they can get out there, they can hustle business and bring it in. Then they start hiring more salespeople and they perceive that those individual salespeople should also be natural born salespeople and just intuitively know how to do it. And so very frequently in sales organizations that I work with, there’s a huge opportunity to provide more sales training to those employees, whether it’s immediate upon hire, whether it’s a year down the road, whether it’s five years down the road. I mean, we can all continually improve and hone our skills.
Sam: Well, I think that applies to any, I think no matter where you work, no matter what you do, IT organizations, there are new development tools available and people with a Salesforce, any kind of operational jobs, there’s new equipment, there’s safety training, there’s um-
Sally: And on the operation side there’s often changes in the laws that somebody’s got to keep on top of that, you know? Because I understand sales is important and I get your service centers is, but somebody’s holding that ship together and I think sometimes they’re overlooked as far as the continuing education piece, what needs to be posted in the office.
Sam: Right. I was thinking that as you were saying it, if it’s an operational change or a safety or something like that, the employer definitely needs to take responsibility for making sure that all employees are aware of it. And that kind of brought up the question becomes when it’s for personal improvement on the job for a specific employee, then how much of that is the responsibility of the company and how much of that is the responsibility of the employee to say, you know, I want to do better at my job, I want to, I’m gonna go out and proactively find a conference or a book or a certification. Obviously it’s better for the company if the employees are continuing education, but at what point does the employee take responsibility for their own career?
Joel: Yeah, well I see that it has to do with scale. At the end of the day, the companies that either have goals to grow larger or are larger tend to invest more in that. You know, Edward Jones is a fantastic example. I mean they have a whole team full time people that provide continuing education and training within your organization. Absolutely. And you know there’s years of coursework you can take essentially.
Sam: I would think that would be a benefit of, you know, when you’re, when you’re looking for a job knowing that you have this continuing education available via benefit.
Joel: Exactly. And so the end result is they have a high retention level. People come and they stay put for years and years. They, you know they-
Sally: Well sure, well think about it though, because you as an employee knows that you’re important enough to the organization that they’re willing to invest in you. And so if you’re motivated, you’re going to grow as a person and you’re going to become passionate about your company, I think it’s awesome they do that.
Joel: So I think there’s ways for small businesses to do similar, whether it’s bringing in people to train in your office on a monthly basis or to send your people to training sessions, whether it’s in town or out of town, you know, to spot those opportunities. Now that doesn’t mean that the individual employee shouldn’t watch for opportunities to read, write, or learn. But there’s to some extent, at the end of the day it comes down to money. You know, who’s paying for it. Is there an, is there a budget? Is the individual employee expected to fork out one or $2,000 three thousand five thousand for some sort of education class? Or is the company going to spend five thousand eight thousand dollars to bring in somebody to train the group of employees?
Joel: Well, and then they’re the obvious answers video. But there are companies with video training libraries where you know, you make a video and then people can at their leisure and however many you want. We ya know-
Sally: I think you make a really valid point though that even if employees had been with the same organization, say three or five years, they still need to be motivated and kind of cultivated along with continued training because they’re going to become complacent and turnover is horrible. And I think this is a great way to avoid turnover and invest in your people.
Sam: While they say too a great way to get new ideas is bringing in new people. And in some respects I get that. But in some respects it’s kind of a shame that you’re not getting great new ideas from the people that you already have.
Sally: But are they actively learning? Are they motivated?
Sam: Yeah.
Sally: And I think this is a huge piece, you know, knowing that you are encouraged to stay on top of the trends, to get out and meet people, learn new skills, you’re going to start coming up with new ideas, you know you’re going to be happy your employee.
Sam: Feels like it’s kind of 50 50. That’s one of the things that I look for in hiring is somebody who’s really so interested in what they do, that they’re staying on top of it and watching videos and constantly learning because that’s going to be the type of person that’s going to be most interested in continuing education once they become an employee. But I mean I think you’re right, the more the company encourages it or provides it onsite.
Joel: Now, I find some businesses are hesitant to provide training for their employees under the theory that if they invest deeply in their employees, then their employees then become very poachable. So they’re going to spend a lot of money, time, energy, and resources on training this employee, getting them to be fantastic and wonderful, and then a competitor is going to swoop in and steal them. And I find that to be a fear a lot of leadership has.
Sally: I think though that if, if companies invest in their employees and the employees feel as if they have growth opportunity in some of these may be listening to their ideas, I would think it would create more loyalty.
Joel: I agree with you, but I also know that a lot of people perceive this whether it’s right or wrong.
Sam: Yeah.
Sally: Oh, I agree.
Sam: It could happen. I think that it could happen periodically, but I think more often, way more often than that, it’s going to be more beneficial. It’s just getting past that fear and giving it a try.
Sally: Well, no matter what level your employees are, everybody wants to feel part of a team. Everybody wants to know that they have some type of value, or excuse my lingo, skin in the game. That somebody is going to listen to them. Right? So I think continuing education is kind of proof that, “Hey, you are valuable, we want you to learn and we want you to be part of the team”.
Sam: Well you’re, you’re gaining something because like why do people come into work? Well, because they get paid. They have bills to pay,
Sally: Right.
Sam: But it’s another form of payment if you’re gaining knowledge, if you’re learning something, it’s another benefit and I would think personally it would be hard to leave that behind.
Sally: Absolutely.
Sam: To go somewhere else.
Sally: Absolutely. If you’re with an organization that is staying on top of everything and wants you to become a better person or a better leader, better sales, whatever your role is, I would think you’d be really hesitant to walk away because you’re not going to find it everywhere.
Joel: I’ve known a few peak performers at various companies where they went through the company’s training curriculum and reach kind of the end of it and they reached a point where they were frustrated because there was nothing else for them to learn at that company and a little bit later they went ahead and transitioned to another company because they felt like there was nothing else this company can provide to help them up their game. So that’s when they began to look to make their move. If they felt they’d maxed out everything that they could.
Sam: That’s one of those situations where if you care about what you do, there are some environments that are going to nurture that and there are some environments where it’s going to be impossible to, to stay. If you care about what you do, it’s just going to become more stressful or boring or or whatnot.
Sally: Valid point.
Sam: Sally, I liked what you said earlier about how companies can encourage employees to continue with education. I know here I get certain newsletters having to do with video production and I’ll forward them an email to other people who might be interested. Newsletters on podcasting, I’ll forward over to people who might want to read it.
Sally: Absolutely. I think sharing articles, I think even having staff meetings, whether that’s by your department or not, and sharing maybe, “Hey, I went to this conference.” This is what I learned. Next time it’s available. I would encourage you all to go. Or flip side, “Hey, I went to this conference. It was just, okay. Does somebody know of a better one?” But giving a chance to do it face to face. I think now so many people are remote now and about. We forget about that. I think it’s huge. Even if it’s an email, whether it’s an article, whether it’s a podcast, whether it’s, “Hey, signed up for this webinar. Anybody want to join me?” It can be that simple and people are gonna at least look at it or feel like, “Oh, if it’s important enough to Sam, maybe it should be important enough for me too”
Joel: That is something that I really like is when companies do send somebody to a conference, whether it’s a trade show or an educational opportunity- as part of it, when they come back they will frequently do a debrief with the other members of their team. Basically “This is what I saw and learned. This was cool, this wasn’t” and “let me share.” And then other people on the team come up with ideas of things that they can do and take and run with that. So you’re able to take what that one employee has done and spread that around. And so then when you send multiple employees over the course of the year to conferences, then they can each come back with additional information to share.
Sam: And I don’t know if this is good or bad, but one of my biggest resources for continuing education is YouTube. There is nothing you can’t find on YouTube as far as, as how to do something. Now, whether or not it’s accurate or the best way, but it’s a great place to research.
Joel: That’s an interesting one. It has to do with quality of content. I mean we’re, we as a society right now are creating more content than ever before. Whether written word podcasts like this one, video, whatever the case may be and really assessing what’s credible and legitimate versus what isn’t is a challenge. So navigating that and making sure that you’re sticking with credible sources for that is something that people definitely need to spend some time with.
Sam: I feel like maybe that depends on whether it’s soft skills or how to’s. Like the YouTube videos that are just made by individuals are great for how to’s, you know, showing you exactly how to do something, what the outcome is, but maybe the soft skills, that’s where you have to worry a little bit about credibility- taking someone’s advice.
Joel: For sure. I mean I know for example, the Harvard Business Review, I follow and re-forward stuff from them constantly to people.
Sam: I get stuff from you sometimes.
Joel: Yeah, and that’s a, that that that’s a great source to subscribe to. But there’s other publications I won’t name, but one of the things that they do is people who want to be perceived as industry leaders in their subject matter will write articles that are basically paid placements in those publications. Then they get pushed out as content from that publication. So you assume because it’s from X publication that it’s highly credible when in reality somebody just paid to have it put in there. And so and so whether that person really does or doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it can be hard to assess.
Sally: I know that oftentimes I’ll even, when I’m Googling something, I’ll quickly look at the placement because I tend to scroll down further because I’m like maybe it’s that person that’s just doing this out of the goodness, not because they want to advertise a product or you know.
Joel: Yeah.
Sally: Yeah. And I’m sure YouTube’s the same way, you kind of have to weed through it and yeah.
Sam: I’ve actually wondered why people take the time sometimes. Like, I’ll need to learn how to do something and I’ll open up a YouTube video and it’s just some guy showing the world how to do it. He’s not advertising anything, he’s not a business. And I’m like “Thank you kind sir, this was very helpful.
Sally: I know, I love those.
Joel: Well and frequently those people maybe have a sponsorship associated with the product that they’re sharing that that’s often the case.
Sally: Some of the ones that I’ve watched never even name a brand or you know, you really need to invest in-
Sam: Well when they’ve got the ad before you play it.
Sally: Oh yeah. Okay.
Joel: Yeah. And they, they can make money off of the ad placement. If you, once you get up to a certain number of followers, then you get money for every view or click on the ads. So people then make money on it,
Sam: Leave it to the marketing guy to- you know, we’re here going “Out of the goodness of their hearts”
Sally: He’s like “No girls.”
Joel: So that’s one of them. But then, but then also because YouTube is owned by Google, so these things all play together. I feel like there’s an opportunity that I see a lot of businesses where as they start promoting people into leadership roles, they take somebody who’s a significant technical or tactical expert in their area and move them into some sort of leadership or management role, whether it’s manager, director, VP, whatever the case, the title is. And so many opportunities are lost or minimized because that core training and that leadership training, that understanding that difference on how to guide and coach and draw the best out of a team versus dictate and tell and these elements, those aren’t passed on. And I know from personal experience, even when placed into a leadership position, I wish that some of the other leadership in the organization had said, “Hey, why don’t we invest in this and send you to this class, this course”, whatever the case may be. But nobody did. And I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So then I’ll just assume, well, just like everything, I’ll figure it out and just understand and just-
Sam: Sometimes that can be even worse than just hiring someone with no management experience, because if you’re an expert at something and now you’re managing people doing that something, you may have higher expectations for them because it comes so easy for you. You know what’s wrong with you that you’re not able to do it as well as I did.
Joel: Yeah. You tended to then get frustrated and lash out at the people. They’re not doing it the way you want as opposed to understanding that everybody does things differently.
Sam: Right.
Joel: But without that training, without that shift in mindset, that shifting from, competitive.
Sally: I agree with you completely. I wish there was more training. I have two friends that turned down promotions because they realized that what they were passionate about, they were going to have to give up because now they had to just manage people and they were like, ah. I don’t know if that’s for me.
Sam: I think that was a wise decision and not the choice that most people make. I think they take the promotion and-
Sally: No, but I think they had been with a large organization long enough to go, “Every time you get promoted you just have to manage more people. I don’t, I don’t want to manage people. I’ve got my passion right here and”, and that’s, that’s too bad. Cause had they had been with an organization that was going to invest in their training and leadership skills, maybe things would’ve been different.
Sam: Yeah. Well in summary we’ve talked about whether you’re in sales or technology or video production or any type of business, whether it’s a product or a service, it’s going to be beneficial for the employee and the organization and for productivity and for loyalty to encourage or provide this type of continuing education. And we talked about having people come in and teach, doing webinars, reading material, getting together and having employees share their experiences with others about seminars. A little bit about video training, but do we have a horror story this week?
Sally: I do.
Sam: All right. Sally spill it.
Sally: Walked into a company just to do a quick security check and someone had bought a beautiful expensive firewall, but the company that had put it in never programmed it and they’re shipped wide open. So it’s, so it had been sitting there and when I tried to explain it to him, he became very angry and pulled out papers and you know, “I paid for that.” But in reality what happened was the company he hired to do it probably didn’t train that technician on what to do and said-
Sam: So the technician basically plugged it in.
Sally: “Go put it in.” So he plugged it in in their server room and walked away. And I, I was upset about it. But now that I think about it, I feel sorry for that tech. That maybe it was assumed he knew because those change constantly.
Sam: What could have happened to that company if they would have been breached and what would have happened to the technology company that set it up for him, if you know? Oh boy, that’s.. yeah.
Sally: Nothing but hurt would have come from and I assure you. A lot of money and a lot of hurt.
Christine: Thanks for listening to SuperManager by CN Video Production. Visit our website at cn-video.com for additional episodes and lots of SuperManager resources, or give us a call at 314-VIDEO-ME.