An Investment in Enabling Skills Development Continues to be a Key Differentiator
2/02/2009
By Chuck Kovach
Companies are realizing that one way to differentiate themselves from others in the marketplace is to build a team of well-rounded employees; employees with both “hard skills” (technical skills) and “soft skills” (enabling skills)—such as the ability to build relationships, communicate effectively, and demonstrate teamwork. They know that with the same technical training material readily available to most businesses within an industry, a team with strong enabling skills is a competitive advantage. They also realize that enabling skills help to increase productivity internally and enhance employee and customer satisfaction.
At J.H. Cohn, we believe that strengthening enabling skills is a critical performance and career development tool. Our Learning and Development departmentoffers long-term learning paths and resource materials for technical knowledge, such as audit work process. Yet we have also placed a strong emphasis on the interpersonal skills that support technical performance. Technical expertise remains the core of our learning initiatives, but supplementing these courses with enabling skills development gives our employees the tools to become better equipped and as a result, more valuable to the Firm and to clients.
Enabling Skills Development In Practice
As with technical skills, our approach to enabling skills development is multifaceted and includes job assignments, coaching, and formal training.
The most critical enabling skills on which we focus include communications both oral and written; relationship building; team performance; and leading/managing people. We believe that a strong approach should include courses that are in-depth and go beyond the standard, “101” versions of these skills. For example, instead of “how to write,” communication courses should concentrate on helping employees develop the skills they need to articulate thoughts convincingly, both verbally and on paper.
Relationship development is relevant both internally among colleagues, and externally, with clients. When it comes to business development, courses should focus on developing the role of a trusted adviser. A teamwork program establishes how the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, how to share knowledge, and how to offer positive and constructive feedback to team members.
Approaches should also vary by employee level. For example, our learning track for managers emphasizes topics such as how to encourage people to grow and how to set goals and provide feedback, whereas the learning track for staff professionals emphasizes the communication skills described above.
In addition to formal training, we use action learning to help move development out of the classroom. J.H. Cohn’s partner academy, which offers managerial and career development training to high-potential, manager-level employees, is one area where we use action learning assignments. The up-and-coming professionals participating in the program are presented with a real-world issue facing the Firm. They are asked to work together to develop solutions, which encourages both teamwork and strategic thinking as well as the development of technical knowledge on the assigned topic. Over the three months that they work on the project, we have built in mechanisms for participants to debrief on what they have learned about working as a team and the ways they have addressed the issue at hand.
In addition, our employees get an opportunity to strengthen their enabling skills by serving as instructors for internal training programs. Managers and senior managers present courses on technical topics. Through these experiences, they hone both presentation and discussion skills as well as their technical expertise in a given subject.
Walk before you run
When we introduced enabling skills development at J.H. Cohn, we committed to taking the time to pinpoint the needs of our Firm. We took a “roll up, roll down” approach by asking for feedback from over one-third of the Firm’s employees. We interviewed all of our senior partners and asked, “What are the most critical enabling skills that our staff needs to perform day-to-day to help differentiate the Firm?” We also held focus groups with managers and staff to gain their perspective as well. For some time, there was ongoing dialogue about how best to address the needs we identified.
Based on the feedback from this assessment, we prioritized developing people, negotiating/handling tough conversations, relationship development, managing people, and oral and written communication. In addition, we clarified the specific ways in which we needed to align our approach with the Firm’s strategic plan. For instance, relationship building is a key strategic driver within the Firm, thus this skill set became one of our highest priorities for development.
Before creating the program, we benchmarked against the Learning and Development offerings of other firms, both within and outside of the accounting industry. This phase also included a vigorous and in-depth search for leading providers of these programs.
Once our enabling skills path was launched, we developed the program gradually by piloting courses and offering them as electives at first. Now fine-tuned, some of these courses are required. Today, about 25 percent of the department’s course selections address enabling skills. In employee surveys, when asked about training effectiveness, satisfaction has increased. People have commented that they feel better equipped to do their jobs. In fact, when asked to the extent to which the programs are applicable on the job, ratings of enabling skills courses are equal or higher than technical courses.
Program Implementation
For companies considering implementing or extending a program that offers enabling skills as well as technical skills development, consider these guidelines:
- Get support from senior management. Buy-in from senior management is instrumental to any successful program, yet it’s important to recognize that in this case you may also be introducing a significant culture change. Build in time to introduce the concept gradually.
- Assess needs. Understand which enabling skills are most needed by your workforce and in your industry. Meet with employees and conduct surveys to determine the skill gaps. You may not need to concentrate on all of the top enabling skills.
- Establish goals. Have long-term as well as short-term objectives in place to help keep the program on the right track.
- Develop gradually. Start by offering a few courses as a test run. It will be easier to improve and grow the program.
- Evaluate progress – Step One. At minimum, have a strong feedback system in place to identify what is working and what needs to improve. Since enabling skills may be seen within the organization as less critical than technical skills, clearly identify the desired results and how they will be measured. We currently have Level I and Level II evaluation in place. In addition, we conduct follow-up interviews and focus groups to gather specific results and learn how our people have used enabling skills, internally and externally.
- Evaluate progress – Step Two. Once the program is established, consider selectively implementing Level III (behavior change) evaluation. Level III allows for a more in-depth look at the success of an enabling skills program. Companies can determine, for example, whether a leadership program did indeed have an impact on a manager’s day-to-day activities.
Looking ahead
From a learning industry perspective, we believe that enabling skills development will continue to increase as a component of learning initiatives. As more and more companies become global, the need for this type of training will become especially relevant and we will likely see more businesses adopting global enabling skills models. For the most part, the priority on enabling skills should eventually level off as companies find the right balance. However, we anticipate a growing emphasis on blended solutions in this area and leveraging e-learning for enabling skills training.
The bottom line
Making a true commitment to enabling skills development can reap many rewards, including employee retention and competitive advantage. We believe that companies will continue to find that the development of employees’ enabling skills is a worthwhile use of time and resources.
Chuck Kovach is the director of the Learning and Development department at J.H. Cohn LLP, the largest accounting and consulting firm in the Northeast. He can be reached at ckovach@jhcohn.com or 973-364-6663.
This article appeared in the January 2009 issue of Chief Learning Officer.