A right organization is the one which has the right people with the right skills.

Hiring the right candidates is just the beginning of creating a successful team. Teaching the right skills and imparting the required knowledge are vital for the success of an organization. Continuous investment in Training and Development leads to measurement and improvement of performance of employees. This will result in high quality service delivery and exceed customer expectations.

In an outsourcing environment, the service provider is constantly dealing with different clients from different geographies and work cultures. Hence, it is very important to build a seamless communication channel with clients and also understand their organizational culture and processes during the entire life cycle of an engagement. A very good way to do that is by creating a detailed transition plan where trainers/domain experts from the service provider visit the clients’ sites to study the processes, document the required training material, prepare a structured training plan and get it approved by the client prior to starting any project. Ideally, getting the trainers certified would ensure a thorough understanding of the business, process workflows and nuances of the program.

Developing customized training programs based on client process mapping and participating in regular calls and meetings with the clients’ process specialists helps in consistently updating training curriculum and formulating training workshops and taking quizzes regularly to check the retention of information by the team.

It is also equally important to further provide thorough training to the identified team on various aspects of the client businesses such as differences in work culture, accent neutralization in the case of voice related programs, business writing skills, communication skills, soft skills, processes related to the program, the tools to be used, etc. For example, Motif’s delivery centers are based in India and the Philippines while its clients are spread across US and the Europe. As a regular practice, Motif’s resident US trainer provides a thorough ‘Americanization’ training which includes understanding American culture, history, geography, common American phrases and business writing skills prior to any new employee getting associated with any client program.

Beyond the clients’ requirements, it is essential to impart training on the company’s organizational culture. A proactive environment in a training class helps employees learn to work in groups as they make presentations, participate in quizzes conducted in the class, and actively get involved in the other activities. This encourages them to be interactive and maintain their interest in work. Conducting incremental tests during the training helps in monitoring performance.

Finally, it is imperative to design a measurement process and feedback mechanism based on the quality of results from the training outcome. To give an example, at Motif, trainers work very closely with the QA team to understand the quality results and find the areas of improvement. This helps them provide one-on-one coaching to the required team members, or conduct additional sessions to help the team improve their knowledge and skills, and provide floor support.

The company should also announce regular rewards and recognition programs. This encourages employees to take initiatives and share their ideas. By creating such an environment, the employees get the freedom to express, initiate and implement their ideas, get an opportunity to develop their abilities and skills, and grow as talented and responsible individuals.

Dharmendra Aherwal

The author is Assistant Manager - Training at Motif, Inc., a specialized BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company providing rules based and decision intensive back office transaction processing services, customized email response services and research & analytics.

(www.motifinc.com)