Company and Management Support for Training

[RosieA]

Do any of you work for companies that require a certain number of hours of training per employee per year?

I never have. Is it a myth? Or is it something that only big companies do?

Let me know and tell me what size company you work for. Mine has slightly over 500 in two locations. Support for training is definitely cyclical, there in good times, not there in bad.

If your company does specify training hours, how would you describe the company culture?

[Dan Armstrong]

Each of our production employees attend formal cGMP training monthly, with each session lasting approximately one hour. These are given by our training department. The safety group puts out a monthly training session that is given by the front-line supervisors. Other training is given on an as-needed basis, usually as part of a CA/PA from a deviation investigation.
For us (the Pharmaceuticals Industry) training is a regulatory requirement.
Our plant has approximately 725 production employees and 500 management and technical personnel. All personnel from the CEO down receive some training periodically.

[RCBeyette]

We have no *required* amount of hours to be set aside for training, per se, but it is *tracked*. Managements likes to see how much training was done and looks at the areas that training occurs in.

Of course, for some training there are "quotas" that need to be met like fork lift operators, crane operators, etc. They are required to recertify at a specified frequency. We have a training tracker programme which allows us to view who has a certificate coming due and whether training was successful.

[Teknow]

I've not yet come across a company that stipulates "X" hours training per employee p.a.
IMO this could very easily lead to a great deal of waste of resources - training should be provided against a specific need not a quota of hours.
Would be interesting to see how they measure training effectiveness.

[gpainter]

I once read in a training magazine that the average world class company (?)allows 40 hours per year per employee. I know of one company that has an average of 30 minutes of safety training daily. I feel the majority of companies are production oriented and when it comes to training, "If it going to take an hour, get in done in less than 10 minutes.". Most Supervisors do not see the benefits of a good training program only that it will cost them production! Sound familiar to anyone?

[howste]

Originally Posted by Teknow

I've not yet come across a company that stipulates "X" hours training per employee p.a.
IMO this could very easily lead to a great deal of waste of resources - training should be provided against a specific need not a quota of hours.
Would be interesting to see how they measure training effectiveness.

I have seen at least two companies that had a quota for training hours per employee. I have yet to see one where that philosophy was really effective...

[Graeme]

Originally Posted by RosieA

Do any of you work for companies that require a certain number of hours of training per employee per year?

Let me know and tell me what size company you work for. Mine has slightly over 500 in two locations. Support for training is definitely cyclical, there in good times, not there in bad.

If your company does specify training hours, how would you describe the company culture?

Company size = approximately 60,000+ worldwide

Annual training requirements vary by the type of work. There are two major types of work -- public contact, and the rest of it. I know little of the public contact side; that is who you deal with when you are traveling -- reservations and airport customer service.

I see mostly the "invisible" mass of people and work, those who fly and maintain aircraft and their systems. The principal emphasis of most of their training is on safety, then emergency response, safety, proficiency in job skills, and finally safety. Training is definitely NOT cyclical, because the safety of our customers (YOU!) depends on it.

• Flight crews - periodic refresher training, as well as qualification training for new aircraft types, is mandated by the regulatory agency. (FAA)
• Mechanics and technicians - the regulatory agency mandates training required to qualify for an appropriate professional license. The company also provides ongoing safety and skills oriented training, and training required to become proficient on new systems or equipment. The specific training is determined by where a person works (engine mechanics get different training than electronics technicians) and is required based on courses -- I do not know of any requirement based on hours.
• Regulatory and Legal Requirements - there is regular recurrent training for affected people based on these requirements. Interested agencies include EPA, OSHA, EEOC, FAA, DOD, equivalent state and local agencies, and more. Courses are heavy on safety: gerneral workplace safety, fall protection, use of personal protective equipment, fire prevention and suppression, chemical hazards, FOD prevention, and a lot more that affects the safety of our customers and employees. There is also recurrent training in other matters: safety, environmental protection, sexual harassment prevention, certain types of aircraft operations, security, details of the business, quality, technical subjects and so on.

Again, there is not (other than for flight crews) any requirement based on hours that I am aware of. The courses needed for your job function are identified, and you take them.

Now, let's shift gears a bit to the department I work in -- the 10-person ISO 9001:2000-registered electronic calibration lab that is part of the big (not-registered) company. The lab supervisor requires, in addition to whatever else is required by the company, that each person log an average of one hour per week in professional training. The subject matter can be anything related to professional expertise or to quality. He does not overtly check up on the staff, but it does come up in evaluations and there are other ways -- we have some computer-based courses that he can check the progress on, he can check Internet use logs, and there is observation while walking around. Considering that we work in a field where the science advances so fast you can fall a year behind while eating lunch one day this hour per week is seen as very reasonable, and a number of the people actually exceed it. (As for me, some of my time in The Cove counts toward that hour per week.)

What does get cut in hard times is expenses for non-mandatory off-site training or similar activities. For example, if I want to go to a conference (Measurement Science Conference, ASQ Anuual Quality Congress, NCSL Workshops and Conference, etc.) the whole expense comes out of my personal pocket. That means I get very choosy, and usually get to only one per year.

The main aspect of company culture is safety. The safety of the customers is paramount. The aircraft must be safe to operate, and the crews must oeperate in a safe manner. We may leave or arrive late, but the reason is almost always safety-related. You may hit the 10 ppm jackpot and have your bag take a different trip than you did, but you (and your bag) got there safely. After all, we and our families fly as well!

[SteelMaiden]

We do not require a set number of hours per year in most cases, exceptions being EMT's HazMat and HazWOPER, Nurses and other licensed or credentialed personnel. We do however, provide various levels of training each year for employee development. ie some sort of supervisory development training for supervisors and lead people, some sort of development for all employees, this year's is a customer focus training; these are mandatory unless your manager excuses your attendance. So, in a way, they do have minimum training hours. We are about 500 employees.