Wanted: L&D Officer

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Here is a question I always get asked by L&D heads: 

I need to hire someone to assist me in Training/L&D. I’ve whittled down the applicants to a certain extent, but is there a process to choose the final candidate? Applicants can claim to know certain things when they actually don’t.

#1:  What are the main responsibilities and deliverables of the employee you are looking for? L&D includes many facets: conducting Needs Analysis, designing training programs, training delivery, evaluating learning courses, developing instructional materials, and/or coordinating and administering the learning programs. Be clear in your expectations.

#2: Based on the expected responsibilities and deliverables, what skills are required of the person? If designing programs is the focus, the ability to create a cohesive flow of instruction will be very important. Developing handouts will require conceptualization and written communications. A trainer should be able to present material clearly and build rapport with the audience.  Be realistic in your expectations and your priorities. If you expect too much, you may not find the right person. If you get to hire the person with all these, be prepared to pay a higher price. This is all right for as long as she is not overqualified for the job; otherwise you will lose her in the long run.

#3: Once you know the critical skills you are looking for, go over the CV for claims or indications of  these. Flag the items for clarification during the interview. For example, when you read “designed/delivered a Customer Service Program,” you may want to ask what the result of the program was based on participants’ feedback, and on the business itself.  Remember that you are not looking for people to do tasks; you are looking for people to contribute to results.

#4: Ask yourself how urgently you require these skills in the person. Some employers need the incoming employee to be competent from the outset, while others are willing to provide some training. 

#5: As part of, or after the, interview, test the applicant on the critical skills you require. If she claims to have evaluated training programs before, give her data from your existing courses, and let her explain how she will proceed. If the job is in the e-learning unit or courseware development department, let her prepare a mini course (even in PowerPoint if she is using a different software from yours).

If you have several applicants, you can rank them based on #2 (required skills). You can then go back to #4 (train or buy the skills).

Beware of a common mistake of L&D hiring managers: Some are not sure of what specific skills to look for (#2) so they cannot verify these in the applicants (#5).  

You cannot assess what you are not clear about.

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My Learning Journey

I discovered my love of learning later in life. I did alright in school but did not particularly excel nor care about academic achievements. Even as I was applying for my college degree, I chose what took my fancy; and even then, moved from one course to another. My only consideration then was that my job would allow me to travel.

My first jobs applied what I learned in school: sales and marketing in the tourism field. I liked the planning part and setting up sales agencies. My sales were also adequate but I detested going on sales calls; each call took all the internal conditioning I could muster. I liked to travel but I forgot to qualify that being a guest and being a service provider are two very different things!  What I really enjoyed was orienting new sales executives and explaining the sales process.

This went on until the opportunity to move to a Training position came along.  Thankfully, the organization I was working for believed in developing its employees in other functions. Although I supposedly headed the Training section, not knowing any better, most of the work I did was coordination. I “progressed” into asking the different member companies for the training programs they wanted to have. I improved by changing that from “what they wanted” to “what they needed.”  Ha! Real progress I thought. Except I did not attempt to validate any of these; I simply proceeded to take and process the orders. I felt something was missing in the way training was conducted but I couldn’t really put my finger on it. The training function seemed so established already that I could only do incremental improvements.

Despite these bumps in the journey, I fell in love with HR in general and Training in particular, so much so that during cross-functional meetings, each situation for me was an HR issue.  I knew I needed to do something when one colleague asked me once “Can you tell what you think that has nothing to do with HR?” Organizing and attending the in-house Management Development Program (MDP) was my first step, but I couldn’t resist the challenge of a post-graduate degree.

So I quit my job, applied for a loan and went back to school for a masteral degree in management. This is when I realized that learning could be so much fun. I found myself understanding the big picture, and how the different functions contributed to it. Slowly, I was pulled away from my HR-centric view and started asking different types of questions.  I didn’t do this on my own; my professors and classmates at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) helped in my transformation.

My corporate job after my masteral degree involved looking at the different business opportunities, and new economy strategies of existing businesses. While it allowed me to utilize my more holistic management know-how, I truly missed my Training work. To keep my connection to the discipline, I enrolled in Instructional Technology courses.  It started to dawn on me that this was the missing link I was looking for- the essence of why learning was needed, and how it could make a difference and be justified.

Despite persistent cajoling from friends that I was turning into a professional student, I pursued my second master’s degree in Instructional and Performance Technology at Boise State University. Although it meant further belt-tightening, juggling multiple priorities, and being uncertain of whether it was worth studying what others felt was already an established practice, I felt it answered the fundamental question of what my chosen vocation was all about.

This degree and my decision to leave the corporate world and join the Academe (AIM) were 2 life changing decisions for me. These experiences further strengthened my interest in Learning & Development (that was how Training was starting to be called then). 

In 2003, backed by AIM’s encouragement of its faculty members to engage in external work to enrich our teaching, I put up a training and consulting company.  I refined the knowledge I gained in my studies to make them more applicable to the organizations I worked with; continued to network with fellow practitioners/former classmates to plan new ways of approaching old problems. I continued to expand the work that I did, helped clients, and also learned in the process.

Since that time, I have had what I would call different adventures:  designing, delivering and evaluating training programs, developing curricula in various industries, coaching subject matter experts-turned- trainers, developing training materials, and setting up corporate universities. What started out as “play” has turned out to be one of my most meaningful pursuits. 

In my almost 20 year-journey as a learning practitioner, there were numerous instances in which I had to do a lot or research to get the answers I needed. With L&D becoming an important discipline in today’s talent economy, I hope to be able to contribute by sharing some knowledge and experiences to those new to the field; and more importantly, to help others realize what fun this line of work is!

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