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Learning & Earning
You know you need workforce training, so
let's talk
about where to get it and how much you should pay
 Left:
Debra Simmons (left) learns how to operate a frame grade
from Connie Gibson during a training session at Glen Raven Mills
By Laura Williams-Tracy
From
a company that invented the first pair of pantyhose and made the fabric for the
first American flag on the moon, you might expect innovation in the area of
workforce training.
Glen Raven, a century-old maker of high-performance fabrics based in Alamance
County, has always held fast to the philosophy that investing in workers’
knowledge helps the company. For years its in-house training programs have
offered adult education programs, a mini-MBA, supervisory coaching and technical
training to its 1,800 domestic employees in Glen Raven, Burnsville, Norlina and
Anderson, S.C.
When it came time to update and automate its processes from order entry to
shipping with a major systems conversion, those years of having employees hit
the books paid off.
“We have been able to successfully go through this process because we spent
years upping the education level of our associates,” says Sue Rich, Glen
Raven’s vice president of strategic planning. “It has always been the
philosophy of Glen Raven to invest in the education level of its employees, and
here’s it’s been a win-win situation.”
Glen Raven turned to its capable in-house training team to bring employees along
with the conversion. But for many small businesses, creating and maintaining a
skilled workforce is an every day challenge.
Most small businesses don’t have the resources to justify a dedicated training
department — and even more don’t even have the numbers to justify a human
resources manager.
“Many times a small business owner got into business to be the best printer,
for example,” says Laura Hampton, director of member services and marketing
for The Employers Association in Charlotte. “Now they’ve got 10 employees
and are suddenly faced with training issues. They may not even be large enough
to have an HR person but they’ve got to make decisions about where to go, how
much to spend, and how to make sure they are getting a return on their
investment.”
Despite a weakened economy, companies are spending more on employee training,
according to a 2002 report released by the American Society for Training &
Development. Nationally, training expenditures grew 10 percent between 2000 and
2001.
While many large national firms cut training budgets, small and medium sized
firms continued to invest in employee training. The study showed that total
training expenditures increased from $677 per employee in 1999 to $704 in 2000.
Industry sectors spending the most on training as a percentage of their payroll
were finance, insurance and real estate, transportation and public utilities and
technology.
So where do small businesses turn for help when their workforce needs help to
perform at optimum levels?
Sources for training are as broad as the types of businesses seeking help and
the variety of training they require. Options range from government agencies and
membership organizations to private training consultants.
Call Your Community College
When it comes to industrial training, North Carolina’s community college
system is the workhorse of training institutions.
Numerous times North Carolina has been named State of the Year for workforce
development by the National Alliance for Business and ranked as one of the
nation’s leading customized training programs by national site selection
consultants.
Even in the current economic downturn, the community college system’s New and
Expanding Industry Training (NEIT) program continues to enroll large and small
employers. Smaller employers tend to be pulled into the training program when
they are vendors to larger employers who are expanding. The small business’s
ability to assist in the supply chain helps them remain qualified to supply the
larger company.
“Not only do we serve the big guys needs but those they rely on for incoming
products and services,” says Larry Keen, vice president of economic and
workforce development for the North Carolina Community College System.
NEIT tends to focus on training of front line manufacturing workers, so
government dollars can make the biggest impact on jobs. To qualify for free
training through the NEIT program, a company needs only to add 12 new employees
over the course of a year that require training.
The community college system also offers such quality initiatives as ISO 9000 to
businesses large and small, ensuring that quality is consistent across the
supply chain. “In many respect it gives smaller companies the opportunity to
provide service to a wide variety of companies,” says Keen.
Companies that aren’t necessarily growing but which are changing processes can
find training assistance for front-line workers through the community
college’s Focused Industrial Training program. Training for the incumbent
workforce helps those industries become more competitive, says Keen.
“Size does not matter. The community colleges work with all different types of
industries regardless of size, product or number of employees,” says Maureen
Little, Charlotte region customized training director for the community college
system. “We’re there for workforce development.”
Enrollment at the state’s 58 community colleges is at its highest levels ever
as many workers have returned to the classroom to retool and find new skills.
Such continuing education courses, whether they be short-term focused courses to
earn a certification or simply to learn new skills or long-term academic courses
leading to a degree, are offered at minimal tuition rates for companies or
individual employees.
For many employers, especially those seeking front-line manufacturing workers,
basic skills are among the most critical ones needed among their pool of
workers.
Don Mott, vice president of Wilson Mott & Associates in Greenville, works
through Pitt Community College to help companies boost the skills of their
front-line workers, including time spent on basic reading and math skills,
learning to read measurements and other proficiencies. “Once they know that,
we can teach them almost anything,” says Mott.
Language often creates a barrier for employees at this level, and the community
colleges offer English as a Second Language courses to give potential employees
the skills they need to communicate on the job.
“The training they get through the community college is the best bargain these
companies are going to find,” says Mott.
“There’s a great deal of emphasis on training in the workplace,” says
Keen. “And as long as there are new processes and procedures there will be
training. It’s the only way companies can become more efficient and
effective.”
Specifically to meet the needs of small businesses, there’s a Small Business
Center located on the campus of each of the state’s 58 community colleges. In
any given year the small business centers serve some 70,000 people through
workshops and seminars to gain skills in such areas as customer service
training, telephone skills, training for child care and adult day care workers,
OSHA safety training, real estate and notary training, says Gayle Harvey, state
director of the Small Business Center Network. Programs are often free or
offered at a nominal cost.
“In most cases small business owners know their product or service but they
are also learning how to keep money coming in to pay their employees,” says
Harvey. “It can be extremely frustrating to not have a trained workforce and
have those employees turn over often.”
You May Need a Pro
Small business owners also face the daily frustration of requiring training in
areas outside their line of business just to keep operations running smoothly.
Raleigh-based Alphanumeric Systems Inc., an information technology consulting
company with satellite offices in Charlotte, Greenville and Greensboro, provides
training to businesses big and small in such areas a software application
training as well as network engineering.
Small businesses owners often gravitate to the systems administrator courses
when they need to reduce the cost of maintaining their network for business to
function smoothly, says Matt Benik, education center manager for Alphanumeric.
Maintaining a network is just one of the many duties of small business owners,
and often the job can become a burdensome task.
“Many small business owners try to do it on their own and eventually their
network goes down,” says Benik. Calling on an outside network engineer on a
regular bases becomes an expensive proposition.
“We give them all the effective skills they need to maintain their network and
the goal is always to maximize their return on investment,” says Benik.
Emmie Alexander, a business consultant and trainer with AlexanderHancock
Associates in Charlotte, says smaller businesses are often the first to see how
improved efficiency and training can help their bottom line.
“Smaller institutions have often done the math and seen the value
proposition,” she says. “The payoff is certainly there over time.”
And the right kind of training can help take a small, entrepreneurial business
from the start-up mode to one with basic systems in place that allow personnel
to focus on the company’s core business.
Business Groups Can Help
Balancing the cost and the likely return on the investment is a calculation all
small business owners must make. And for many small businesses, cost is a
barrier to getting the training workers need.
“Cost is probably the major concern for small businesses,” says Hampton of
The Employers Association, a membership organization for business and industry
that provides services to create productive relations between employers and
employees. “Usually their budgets are tight and they can’t afford to take a
person out of a position for a week to get training. But it’s a Catch 22
because if they don’t they aren’t developing that employee to contribute to
the company.”
Many private training consultants can help hold costs down for employers for
whom cost is a major barrier.
In some cases, AlexanderHancock has paired up clients with each sending a
handful of employees to a training program, thereby sharing the cost of the
event. Other companies chose to pay for individual coaching for an employee,
such as leadership coaching for the CEO, who can then filter that information to
the lieutenants.
“There is a trend afoot to find creative ways to educate employees without the
traditional classroom approach,” says Jerry Hancock, a partner with
AlexanderHancock Associates. Distance learning and online courses work well for
skills training, he says, but a cheap alternative is yet to be found for
training of interpersonal skills.
The Employers Association offers training in the areas of human resources,
leadership training and computer training, and through established relationships
with training service providers they can make referrals for additional training
needs. Likewise, its sister associations in Raleigh, called Capital Associated
Industries; in Greensboro, called Piedmont Associated Industries; and Asheville,
called Western Carolina Industries, those referrals can be valued resources for
finding quality training in the private sector at a reasonable price.
When considering hiring an outside company to offer training to employees,
Hampton recommends that companies investigate the companies they are considering
hiring.
Always check the trainer’s references, and don’t just call the names
provided by the trainer but ask those companies if they know of anyone else who
used the trainer, says Hampton. Getting a broad range of feedback will help an
employer know if the trainer will tailor the course to employee needs.
Hampton recommends that employers audit a training class to get a preview of the
trainer’s teaching style. Don’t contract with a training company that
won’t let you sit in on a class, she says.
And finally, research the educational and work background of the trainer. Those
that have management experience tend to have a wider depth of expertise to draw
on.
Check With Local Officials
Among the workforce skills needed most urgently in North Carolina are for
frontline workers in the field of biotechnology.
An example of the rapid pace of expansion for this industry is Novo Nordisk, a
Danish biopharmaceutical firm with an insulin-making plant in Clayton that grew
its workforce by 75 percent this past year.
With growth like that, Johnston County Commissioners have offered up $3 million
to build a workforce development center on land owned by and adjacent to Novo
Nordisk’s operations to train future workers.
“We believe the best incentive we have to offer business is a prepared
workforce that needs less training,” says Linwood Parker, owner of White Swan
Barbecue and chairman of the Johnston County Economic Development Advisory
Board, which led area business leaders, government and education officials in
making the funding request.
The facility, which is being built in cooperation with Johnston County Community
College and Johnston County Public Schools, is expected to open in spring of
2004 and begin offering apprenticeship programs to school age students and
targeting training to workers.
Mike Desherbinin, director of Johnston County Economic Development, says
building the training center on land donated by Novo Nordisk sends the message
to biotech companies that the county wants those employers to remain in the
rapidly growing county outside of Raleigh. Yet the center’s curriculum will be
flexible enough to provide training in such areas as distribution, electronics,
and to the service sector, including healthcare and retail.
“It behooves us to be in a position to provide the best available
workforce,” says Desherbinin.
“New technology is really driving the need for retraining,” says Desherbinin.
“Standard operating procedures 10 years ago no longer exist. It’s a constant
lifelong process for the workforce to be adaptable as possible. Retraining never
goes away.”
New
Web Service Connects Employers, Consultants
 Left:
Clifton Dunn (left) trains Kenneth Williams on an order picker
at Glen Raven, a textiles company near Burlington
Jeff Groves, a 15-year-veteran of
the training industry, saw a gap between businesses that need training
consultants and the consultants looking for work, and found a way to fill it.
The time was three years ago, and Groves, then president of the Charlotte
Chapter of the American Society of Trainers and Developers, heard many of his
colleagues bemoan the lack of a good avenue to market their skills. Likewise,
area employers had few options for finding training consultants other than by
word-of-mouth. Often they looked out of town for training help.
Upon returning home from a consulting stint in Brussels on Sept. 9, 2001, the
terrorist events of a few days later solidified the idea in Groves’ head. If
he could link area companies and training consultants, Groves believed both
would benefit from the introduction. At the same time, the chilling effect on
business travel could be mitigated if both consultants and companies could find
work resources closer to home.
The result is TrainCharlotte.com, a web site launched last August offering a
localized solution for companies seeking training consultants in a variety of
fields from computer software and hospitality training to real estate courses
and sales strategies.
This month, Groves will launch TrainRaleigh.com, a similar localized web site
providing the link between trainers and companies in the Research Triangle Park.
There are plenty of national directories, Groves says, but the advantages of a
local connection are many. With training budgets among the first to be slashed
in an economic downturn, companies are eager to find the training they need
without the added expense of travel.
“I know as a training consultant, my hotel, airfare and other expenses often
equaled my consulting fee,” says Groves, president of Charlotte-based City
Train Inc., a firm specializing in organizational development, leadership
development and performance management.
Making the local connection between companies and consultants also helps keep
training dollars spent at home in the local economy.
Not only do the web sites provide search capabilities for trainers with
expertise in a wide variety of fields, the sites also include the ancillary
services they may require for training, such as conference meeting space,
audio-visual equipment rentals and caterers.
Trainers and other affiliated businesses pay a fee to be included on the site.
Then companies looking to hire those services are able to access the databases
for free. The sites merely introduce the two parties, says Groves. Then the task
of determining whether the fit will work is up to the hiring company.
If a company can’t find what it’s looking for, it can submit a request for a
proposal, and Groves will circulate the work proposal to qualified training
providers to respond directly to the request.
“The economy is making small businesses realize they can’t just do training
for training’s sake,” says Groves. “Training has to prove a return on
their investment. Sharing this information helps companies do that.”
— Laura Williams-Tracy
Where
to Find Help on the Internet
Looking for qualified help with
employee training? There are a number of sources for assistance with everything
from basic skills to customized manufacturing training, leadership training and
computer training to sales and customer service training,
In addition to your local chamber of commerce, here are some of the places where
you can go for help:
 Small Business Center at your local community college.
American Society for Training & Development;
local chapters in Research Triangle Park;
Charlotte;
Greenville;
and Greensboro.
The Employers Association in Charlotte.
Capital Associated Industries in Raleigh.
Piedmont Associated Industries in Greensboro.
Western Carolina Industries in Asheville.
TrainCharlotte, which provides a database for identifying local resources in
training.
Society for Human Resource
Management, where you can find your local chapter.
International Society of Performance
Improvement, where you can find your
local chapter.
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