TRAINING PROGRAM

Having answered the questions

-      To train whom?

-      To train for what?

we must turn our attention to,

To train how?

To train when?

The answers to these, then, will make up the complete program. Let us attempt to answer,

To train when?

If training and self development are perpetual, it is obvious that the training will have to be 'on' the job as well as 'off' the job.

without exception, all supervisors like to think that they spend a good deal of their time on training their assis­tants. In reality most of us are trying to impress our subordi­nates by telling them how efficiently we would have handled a particular job, which the subordinate has got all messed up! The man is obviously not 'getting trained on-the-job' even though he may be listening.

The few who are trying to do an honest job of training are all too unfamiliar with the training techniques and the achievements are non-coherent. Besides no line supervisor can tackle the total training job single-handed. Today's training needs encompass a vast number of widely varying disciplines which no single person can be expert in.

This one person to another person approach then has very limited usefulness and cannot be the answer.

And then, as already stated earlier, very few people can be expected to read books at home and train themselves on a 'do-it-yourself' basis.

The answer is,

When and how do we then train people?

We must have a full-fledged training school at Powai. A self-contained building having

-      a central library of books and films

-      an auditorium

-      10/15 lecture rooms.

The building must be equipped with all sorts of teaching aids. And then we must breathe soul into this edifice by recruiting a few full-time and a few part time professors. The part-time lecturers can be had from

1     the VJTI

2     The Engineering College, Andheri

3     NITIE

4     The BPC

5     The Jamanlal Bajaj Institute of Management

6     The Central Labour Institute

7     The Indian Institute of Technology, Powai

8     Professional Consultants such as

a     BEAM

B     IBCON

C     BEACONS

D     Personnel and Productivity Services

E     The British Institute

F     ALMECO

The efforts of the faculty can and must be supplemented by each one of our managers and departmental heads (all of whom are experts in some or other field) delivering one lecture every week.

Since the training is an investment in future by the company as well as by the employee concerned~, the time for training must be shared by both in equal proportions. This would mean that if an employee is required to spend a total of 6 hours/week attending lectures, 3 hours of these would be on· the company's time i.e. during his normal working hours and the remaining three hours when he is off-duty. This would mean that a large percentage of the total number of lectures would have to be arranged after 4 pm as also on Saturday afternoons.

The training program initially will have to be voluntary. After 2/3 years of successful operation, a certain amount of indirect pressure can be brought to bear upon the employees. This can be done. by introduction of ' Qualification Bars' in salaries and promotion to higher grades, for persons not having successfully completed a specified training course.

In the preceding chapter we discussed two types of training needs

- for technical subjects

-for business management techniques

Appendix A gives a comprehensive list of topics which meets both types of training needs. Appendix B gives a typical management Training Program. Appendix C furnishes data regarding different curricula.

with some modifications, a training program to suit )cal needs can be quickly drawn up.

The Top Management is then requested

-      to recognize the need for and accept the urgency of a Management Development Program.

-      to issue instructions- to our Training Office to prepare and- submit for MGM approval, a detailed proposal of capital investment and recurring expenditure.

The proposal should also include a comprehensive 'Pilot Program' for the switchgear factory staff.

-      to approve the proposal and issue instructions for implementation. Pending construction of a separate building for the training school, use may be made of the existing 3/4 conference rooms as well as the welfare centre at Powai.

-      until such time that satisfactory training facilities

are established at Powai, to issue a directive for an extensive use of the training courses offered by

1          NITIE

2          VJTI

3          Jamanlal Bajaj Institute of Management

4          BPC

5          IIM Ahmedabad

6          IIM Calcutta

7          Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad

8          Management Consultants

The target for such an external training may be made subject to the following constraints:

-      not less than 10 of the salaried staff be sent to attend external courses every year.

-      a minimum of 3 of the departmental salary bill be . budgeted towards such external training~ (For switch­gear factory this is less than 1.5 for 1967-68).

It is, at this point, worthwhile to remember that the amount if not spent , would attract an income-tax rate of 55% on the gross profits.

It is difficult to sum up this report because summing up denotes the end of a discussion and training has no end!