For 5 years I have been working in Qatar as Director of Operations of IbTECHar Digital Solutions, a leading Qatari company in innovation, selected twice (2017 and 2019) by the World Economic Forum Committee as one of the 100 new companies in the MENA region that is shaping the 4th Industrial Revolution (4iR).
Being part of a company that has managed to revolutionize Qatar's innovation ecosystem in recent years, promoting and developing tailor-made innovative solutions for public and private institutions/companies in the country, has been really stimulating but mainly challenging.
One of the biggest challenges has obviously been the cultural clash, not only from a community and religious point of view but mainly from the mindset of the Arab countries and in particular the Gulf countries, they have a business approach and development approach way different from what I was used to in my experiences working both in America and Europe.
The speed, and efficiency, but mainly their political pressure in decision making, are some of the elements which I had to "unlearn" to learn, in order to understand the necessary dynamics that would allow me to merge and connect, beyond imposing a style that was not culturally aligned.
In these 5 years, our company has grown rapidly, even during the two critical years resulting from the pandemic. This growth has generated an increase in human resources, which has become one of the issues that most requires my energy, attention, and mainly dedication.
Ibtechar has a very diverse business model in terms of services, but technically very specific. This factor added to the fact that the Qatari economy attracts a growing number of migrant workers in numerous sectors has set that we currently have a human team with high cultural diversity (10 different nationalities), a team responsible for operating innovation spaces, carrying out tailor-made consultancies, product and project development and the participation in numerous tenders.
As Director of Operations, one of the most difficult challenges, from an efficiency and productivity point of view, has been to train the different and diverse teams and their project leaders, due to the nature of our projects, they tend to be young professionals who still don't have all the capabilities required by the company for an initial job position; requiring a huge effort to establish the necessary skills, not only in the technical part but also in the interpersonal one.
This is why I started a research and study on how to train my teams more effectively, in order to keep them motivated in their work and performing their tasks efficiently and productively. In this process, I came across a series of books that taught me very interesting models and processes, but one, in particular, caught my attention, this book is “Creating Passion-Driven teams” by Dan Bobinski, which in chapter 12, "Poor Training: A leading cause of trouble" had a profound effect on how I was looking at the challenge I needed to solve.
This chapter defines that most managers and team leaders simply do not know how to train people, which I totally agree with and I include myself, since, although for many years I was a professor at the university and guest mentor in several learning centers, the way in which business teams should be trained, in terms of the creation, development, and monitoring of processes, is something totally different.
One of the things that caught my attention when reading was the question: Why do people leave a company? In my head, most of the time, this is associated with issues of salary and motivation, however, I was not at all clear on what scale of values my assumption was. According to an investigation made by Christian & Timbers (recognized company based on data science to offer the best talent and human resources for the famous companies called Technological Giants and many of the outstanding "Unicorns" of Silicon Valley), the number one reason is the lack of challenges, followed by lack of opportunities for growth or advancement. The insufficient payment was the ninth position as a reason, far from what I thought.
This makes it clear that employees currently require a constant challenge and an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to learn and grow. Payment is a crucial factor, but currently and especially with the new generations of millennials as part of the workforce, it is the motivation for what is being done and the impact/results of any action that leads many people to choose where and for how long they want to work for someone else.
Another finding of my reading, which has particular repercussions on my study, is the fact that the companies that offered little, none, or poor training present 41% of employees who want to leave within a year. However, in companies where training was considered good or excellent, only 12% of employees were considering working elsewhere. This means a 240% greater chance that employees will want to leave, becoming a lot of human and financial capital that slips away if people don't feel like a company is investing in them.
With these percentages of employees leaving companies, the big question that must be asked is: How much does it cost to replace an employee who leaves?
According to the Society for Human Resources Management, the cost to replace an employee in the United States of America averages $17,000. Those who earn more than 60,000 USD/year will cost around 38,000 USD to be replaced (63% of a year's salary).
This means that, if a company wants to invest in passionate teams, it must invest in training, increasing the annual training budget, and in this way it will be saving money, instead of losing it by replacing employees and restarting processes over and over again, thus minimizing an efficient productivity line.
If we are looking to be a company that is serious about developing passion-driven teams, we need to make sure that our teams are receiving good and appropriate training and stimulation.
“The Manager or Leader as Coach”
One of the primary responsibilities of managers and team leaders is to train their frontline employees. However, asking a person to read and learn the necessary material without testing the acquired skills or demonstrating competence can never be classified as training, a cheap shot because I accept that I made the mistake of assuming this was enough.
The ability to stand up and speak does not make a coach. The fact that we show someone how to do something does not mean that he has learned.
After this harsh realization of my knowledge transfer processes, I found the Four Steps Skill-Transfer Method. This method is considered one of the most effective in knowledge transfer due to it manages to differentiate cognitive learning (knowledge/comprehension) and physical learning (muscular movement/skill) by separating them and putting cerebral learning before muscular learning.
When the brain understands what is supposed to be happening, it is easier for it to communicate precise instructions to the muscle.
Here are the four steps:
The instructor does, the instructor explains. As a mentor, it is crucial to demonstrate what you want a trainee to do, by going through a set of activities, providing a narrative to describe, and explaining what to do.
The instructor does, and the trainee explains. It is demonstrated again, but this time the apprentice says what to do. Taking the mentee through any of the steps is avoided, he is responsible for describing what to do before the mentor does it. This step allows the learner to engage in the new mental skill.
The trainee does, the instructor explains. The learner performs the task with step-by-step instructions. One of the biggest obstacles to learning is the learner's embarrassment. The learner should focus her brainpower on the manual (follow the instructions) instead of trying to remember what to do next.
The learner does, the learner explains, and the instructor evaluates. Here the trainee merges mental and physical learning under the guidance of the instructor. The learner builds trust and the stage is set for true ownership of her ability to perform the task. It's not just "I showed you, now you do it." The learner has the ability to explain what is to be done and demonstrate competence in performing the task.
It is important to emphasize that this four-step method is not necessary or applicable for all learning situations, and as explained above, it is mainly aimed at companies that have processes and operations that must be adopted by the work team, in order to guarantee a unified way of carrying out its processes.
Along with these 4 steps, there is a revealing way to build and design training programs through 5 steps:
Step 1 - Analysis: The analysis usually begins with the clear identification of the gap between what is and what is wanted.
Example:
What employees currently know vs. what they need to know.
What employees currently do versus what they need to do.
What employees currently believe versus what they need to believe.
Step 2 - Design: It determines what learning objectives, what knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes should be taught. Learning objectives should be based on specific job-related functions and tasks.
Step 3 - Development: How an instructor will present material, accommodate interaction, allow the practice, assess proficiency, and remediate.
Step 4 - Implementation: Delivery of training. Need to create a safe learning environment and present material in a way that reaches learners.
Step 5: - Evaluation: Determine the effectiveness of training:
Were the learning objectives met?
Were the materials used correctly?
Evaluation should be a continuous process.
We are experiencing very particular work dynamics and pressures, which are increasingly diverse, varied, and changing in terms of the types of knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes that are required within a company. This makes it difficult for universities to include them within their curriculum and stay aligned with the needs presented by companies, much less when only about 58% of Latin American workers currently practice the profession they studied (Bumeran, 2021).
Companies must take an active role in the training processes of their work teams if they want to be competitive in the labor market, and above all, become workplaces that retain their talents, offer spaces for growth and achievement, and create an environment of sustainable and sustainable work overtime for both the employer and the employee, a win-win situation.
Published 09th June 2022, La República Newspaper, Costa Rica 👈 (spanish version)