How Can We Convince Managers to Prioritize Employee Training Over Production Targets?

I have noticed a common issue in many organizations where Production Managers do not send workers for training, even when they are well-informed about it. They often cite the need to meet production targets as the primary reason for this. So, what is the solution? How can we encourage managers to prioritize sending workers for training?

To address this challenge, it may be necessary to emphasize the long-term benefits of investing in employee development. This could include improved productivity, quality of work, and overall job satisfaction. Additionally, creating a culture that values continuous learning and growth can help shift the mindset of managers towards supporting training initiatives for their teams.

Implementing policies that make training mandatory or tying training participation to performance evaluations could also incentivize managers to prioritize employee development. Providing resources and support for managers to better integrate training into their team's workflow can further facilitate this process.

Ultimately, fostering a culture that recognizes the importance of training and development for both individual and organizational growth is essential in ensuring that workers receive the necessary opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge.

Addressing the Training Dilemma in Production Departments

Production managers often do not spare their staff for training programs because they consider training an interference in their job. This action results from a lack of training culture within the company. Conducting training programs is the goal of the HR/Training Department, while delivering production output is the goal of the production department. Your post highlights a clash of goals between these departments.

Another reason the production manager might refuse to spare manpower for training is a lack of faith in the training's effectiveness. They may not believe that training programs improve the ratios associated with the production department. Additionally, they may lack standby manpower to maintain operational continuity. Today, most businesses operate with lean manpower, which can negatively impact training efforts.

Strategies for Effective Training Programs

In the future, before deciding on a training program, involve the production manager in designing the training calendar. Conduct only those programs whose outcomes are directly linked to the production department. To achieve this, establish a goal statement for each program. A few examples of goal-oriented training programs are:

a) ___ % of scrap is generated in our production process. This training program aims to reduce this percentage to _____.

b) Our Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) is _______. This training program aims to reduce the COPQ by at least ____ %.

After conducting a goal-oriented training program, measure its effectiveness after three or six months. Inform participants during the training that they are accountable for demonstrating results. They need to know how the training effectiveness will be measured, who will measure it, and when it will be measured.

Once you have 1-2 cases of measuring ROI in training, you will gain buy-in from the production manager and top management as well.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Thank you, Dinesh Sir, for your insights. If the trainings are general, such as one on ergonomics, what shall be the solution? Even trainings on PF and other topics are attended by most of the employees.

While fully agreeing with our senior colleague Mr. Dinesh's perspective here, Production Managers often do not provide manpower for training as they feel the training program might cause a loss in their production run time. You need to inform them to send employees or workers in phased manners to avoid clashes with production targets.

The role of Training and Development Manager

The onus lies on the Training and Development Manager to convince the Production Manager of the pros and cons of the training program. It is advised to seek the concurrence of the Production Manager for such programs to ensure effective utilization of the training.