human-resource-guide

Introduction

Learning guides are a very useful medium for delivering flexible delivery when the topic and circumstances are conducive to it. According to Bruhn and Guthrie (1994), a Learning Guide is a ’structured booklet designed to direct the learner through a series of learning activities and to a range of resources to achieve specified competencies or learning outcomes”.

A learning guide is not a ‘how to’ manual like manuals that accompany television sets, microwaves and computers etc, but they may be used in conjunction with them. The key focus of learning guides (hereafter ‘guides’) is that they guide users through a structured learning experience. Manuals don’t do that, they simply provide a number of activities users can follow to get certain outcomes. An example will highlight the difference.

Example:

On one occasion I used guides to cover a half dozen or so small topics that were important, but which did not warrant group training sessions (I later redeveloped them as computer based instruction modules delivered online). This was in an organisation that had six offices spread throughout the Northern Territory (Australia), two of which were remote. Costs for training delivery were often very high due to the need for travel, therefore, it was desirable to find alternative delivery modes in order to keep costs.

One of the topics my guides covered for example, was titled “Using Delegations” and consisted of only 16 pages.

Note: For those not familiar with delegations, they refer to the acts or omissions a person holding a specific job can do or not do eg, approve leave of absence for a staff member, buy goods and services valued up to $30,000, or terminate an employee’s service. People exercising a delegation are called delegates. If you don’t hold delegation, then you can’t lawfully execute a task.

It was important that delegates knew what they were, or weren’t authorised to do. Non-delegates had to know who had delegation to carry out the tasks required. My short learning guide included the following parts:

1. A Module Overview setting out the purpose, delivery strategy, learning outcomes, how to achieve the outcomes, resources required, and details about how the topic was to be assessed
2. Five learning activities
3. An assessment questionnaire
4. A summary and review page
5. An attached answers guide for the intermediate assessment topics (self assessment)

Learning activity one detailed the framework in which delegations exist ie, Constitutional and other legislative matters that allow delegation. There were two activities at the end of Learning Activity One. The first required learners to obtain a copy of an Act of Parliament and study several sections (about delegation). The second required people to read a description, find the section of an Act that related to that description and write in the answers on a blank table. (This was my way of making sure people actually read specific sections).

Learning activities two through five all had a similar process of getting learners to do something followed by a short self-assessment.

Finally, learners were expected to answer 10 “fill in the answer” questions and provide answers for two small case studies involving real life delegations activities. The former required learners to refer to the organisation’s Delegations Manual and record which delegation (if any) fitted a specific circumstance. When learners completed the assessment questionnaire, they would fax it to the Training Department. One of my people would mark it and provide feedback about the result.

Each learning activity covered a separate, small part of the whole topic. (People learn in small bits). I provided feedback through self-assessment and faxed assessment. (People need feedback). Topics were logically sequenced. (People need to work from general concepts to specific concepts). Learners used the manuals and legislation that actually applied to them in their everyday jobs. (Adult learners particularly want to learn ‘real’, practical solutions, not deal with fiction).

You’ll understand now how the structure in a learning guide and the use of instructional design principles makes them different from a standard operating manual. One key advantage of learning guides is that you don’t have to incorporate documents that are elsewhere available … all you do is reference them. If they change, it’s not that difficult to update your learning guide.

Conclusion

Just as there is a time and place for everything else, there is a time and place for learning guides. If you use them on the right occasion AND your target audience is conducive to self-directed learning, they can be an excellent solution to some of your training delivery challenges. Design lead time is relatively short and they can be effectively delivered using electronic or printed media; they can be used for just-in-time training.

However, like any training intervention, they need to be ‘designed’ using appropriate instructional design principles. That means that it is a specialist job to produce quality guides, not the role of a person who is a ‘presenter’ or ‘facilitator’ having completed a two or three day course in workplace training and assessment.

Most of the learning guides I produced were based on Bruhn and Guthrie’s work, although I had used other methods during my teaching/training career and read many other texts. For example, Derek Rowntree’s book, details of which appear below, also contain excellent advice and information for anyone wanting to learn the art.

When next you need to deliver numbers of small, concise, discrete topics, think about using learning guides to accompany your organisations operational and procedures manuals.

References:

Bruhn, P and Guthrie, H (1994), Designing Learning Guides for TAFE and Industry. National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd, Victoria.

Rowntree, D (Latest edition), Teaching Through Self-Instruction: How to Develop Open learning Materials. Kogan Page Publishing, New York.

Copyright 2005 Robin Henry

Robin Henry is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet entrepreneur. He helps small and home-based businesses and individuals improve performance by applying smart technology and processes and developing personally. He runs his business Desert Wave Enterprises from his home base at Alice Springs in Central Australia, although at present he is working in the United Arab Emirates.

If you need to streamline your business email system, implement a link management program, get a world class Internet site management program, or simply need to know how to apply for a government job, Robin can help.

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Recently I come across the following scale in a national research report to grade each state’s education performance within numerous areas. Do you see anything questionable about this scale?

Grading Curve: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59)

If you aren’t scratching your head yet, please allow me ask another question. If you are an employer, a human resource or a quality control manager what expectations do you have toward the performance of your employees? In other words, do you expect your employees to know 50%, 60%, 75%, 80%, 90% or 100% of their job skills or job description? At what level of knowledge and years on the job, would you consider that employee’s performance to be sub-standard and would not entitle her or him to a promotion or a raise and might be within the area of specific discipline strategies from suspension to termination?

Now you might be thinking what is this lady talking about. Common sense dictates that every employee should know at least 75% or 3 out of every 4 requirements of their job and within a certain time frame progress to 100%. Errors are costly in business and employees’ errors are extremely expensive as they have a cascade affect within the organization.

Even though the above scale is for a national research report on education in America, this scale is present in many classrooms throughout this country. What has happened is that the low expectations within the classroom have migrated up and now are affecting research organizations that consider 60% as passing. F is failing and everything above F is passing. From a simple performance perspective, if we don’t fail, we have success because success has been defined at 60%.

These low expectations have contributed to the low results that have been documented through such research as the National Assessment of Educational Progress where for example reading scores collectively for 17 year olds over the course of 33 years have not changed.

The high standards of 40 plus years ago where anything less than 75% was failing are non-existent in the majority (that being over 50%) American schools. NOTE: As a former school board trustee, I continually fought to raise the bar to 75% as passing, but that outraged teachers, parents and students who argued such standards would prevent the students from playing sports. For playing sports was no longer a privilege, but a right.

Many young people experience 12 years of conditioning where doing less than your personal best is OK. And guess what? You even get rewarded by a promotion to the next grade. How cool is that? Now, these same young people go into the workforce with a belief that it is OK to just get by as long as you don’t fail. During my 20 years in management, I saw this on a regular basis with many of our new hires.

If we, as business owners, truly desire to improve the performance of today’s employees, we need to raise the standards within both the schools and the organizations that report on the schools’ and states’ performance. Until we stop this cycle of mediocrity, we will continue to receive employees who expect the world without working hard at acceptable levels of performance. And these employees will continue to view 60% as success.

Leanne helps individuals, small businesses and large organizations to double performance in real time. Click here to learn the Secret of Success and sign up for a free monthly newsletter. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601. If you truly don’t believe doubling your results is possible, read some case studies where individuals and businesses took the risk and experienced unheard of results.

One quick question, if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.

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Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff.

Are you a manager, director or other senior-level personnel who wants to work more effectively with your administrative support professional? Did you know that partnering with your administrative assistants and executive assistants can actually help you to meet your professional goals at work? Would you like to know how to improve morale among your administrative support professionals and retain them as long-term employees? After all, isn’t it a lot more profitable to retain existing staff than to constantly hire, train and get along with new staff? Here are five ways to work more effectively with your current administrative support professionals starting now:

1. Assume that your administrative support professional doesn’t know what’s on your mind until you tell him. That’s the one assumption it’s okay to make in the office environment. Always remember that your administrative support professional is not a mind reader–no matter how in tune with your thoughts she or he may seem to be sometimes. It’s that one time that you “assume” when things will go awry in your work relationship.

2. Discuss your personal and professional goals. In order to be your partner, your administrative support professional needs to know who you want to be when. What do you personally want in your career? And what are you striving for on behalf of the company? These answers will affect your administrative professional’s duties. She wants to help you achieve your plans. Knowing these answers helps her to clarify the prioritization of tasks and situations that arise daily. She’ll focus on projects relevant to your goals first when possible. And she’ll know and pass along pieces of information she happens upon throughout the year that would be useful or of interest to you.

3. Discuss project expectations. When you’re giving an assignment, make sure your administrative professional precisely understands the expected project outcome. This means you will need to clarify the outcome in your head first and then clearly relay that expected outcome to your administrative professional. Clearly voicing the precise (or nearly precise) expected project outcome before it happens means no surprises upon project completion and efficient use of your time and that of your administrative professional. Precise communication prevents misinterpretation by both parties which can cause bad relationships and inappropriate work results. If the results aren’t what you asked for then maybe in actuality you didn’t quite ask for the results you wanted.

4. Have a daily briefing with your administrative support person. Meet daily whether either of you want to do so or not. This meeting forces communication to flow daily between you both, which is a good thing. And comfort levels with each other will rise. It could be a five minute meeting while standing. Or it could be a 10 minute meeting while seated that’s officially posted on the calendar to happen every day that you’re in the office at 9:00 a.m. Do what works best for you both. And make sure you’re uninterrupted during this time.

5. Support opportunities for your administrative professional to achieve certifications. For example, your administrative professional can become a Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) and a Certified Professional Secretary (CPS), both elite designations by administrative professional criteria. Encourage her or him to train and test for these titles as well as have your company pay the registration costs.

(c) 2005 Karen Fritscher-Porter

Karen Fritscher-Porter is the author of 87 Ways You Can Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Support Professional. She publishes The Effective Admin website and newsletter (http://www.admin-ezine.com). The bimonthly e-zine is distributed to 2,300+ administrative professionals globally to help them excel on the job and in their careers.

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