HR Development, Consultancy and Support Services

CREDAL Business Consulting advocates the need for integrating formal and informal training with on-the-job development of skills and knowledge. In close support of the varied range of management consultancy services is that of staff development and training services. Such services support a client’s efforts to maintain an on-going commitment to assist in the development of staff at all levels. One of the most important elements in this area is the compilation of a training needs analysis. This provides a studied evaluation of the competencies and abilities of the personnel and identifies those areas of specialised or general training required. Once these needs are evaluated, CREDAL Business Consulting is involved in the development of customised training programmes to meet the training needs of the customer. The focus on client in-house training ensures smoother integration of the training programme and the work practices, thereby improving the effectiveness of staff within their work environment.

The proposed review of the client’s training requirements will be based on personal interviews by senior CREDAL Business Consulting personnel with senior and middle management staff. These interviews will be based on a semi-structured format and will provide qualitative data upon which to assess the organisation’s training requirements. A structured questionnaire is also used to assess training needs within the middle management and line staff levels of staff within the organisation. Once the various training needs of the different levels are identified, these will be standardised somewhat to allow for the development of customised training programmes to meet these needs. Personalised training programmes could then be developed to supplement these programmes, thereby meeting the individual requirements of members of staff within a particular training module.

The training needs analysis report to be presented upon completion of this phase of the assignment will provide the client with a detailed profile of the training needs over the short and medium term with general indications of long term training needs also identified. A ranking of training needs within the different levels, different units and also on an individual basis will also be covered in this report. Once the Training Needs Analysis is submitted to the client, a review period is envisaged during which detailed discussions of the report and its findings will be conducted with the relevant executives within the client firm. Once the findings of the report, particularly the ranking of the various training priorities are approved by the client, work can commence on the formulation of a training strategy.

The development of the training strategy cannot be undertaken solely within the time-frame of a single year. Such a training strategy should be linked to the client’s long term business plans to ensure that its human resources are developed in line with its strategic requirements. Within such a perspective, a training strategy can be formulated for, say, a three year period, with subsequent annual training plans integrated as part of the three year strategy. On completion of a detailed Training Strategy Report for the relevant period, the client will then have a comprehensive document outlining an integrated approach to implementing the proposed on-going company-wide training effort focused at improving the level of performance within the individual units of the client firm.

The required customised in-house training course programme can then be finalised, including course descriptions on all training programmes to be included in the programme. The co-ordination of the required company-wide training programme will be based on the development of a working relationship in which CREDAL Business Consulting assumes responsibility for the implementation of the approved training plan within the approved budgetary parameters. The co-ordination will be based on a regular Operations Meeting to be co-ordinated by CREDAL Business Consulting personnel and a liaison officer to be appointed by the client. A quarterly Review Meeting will also be required to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the training programmes being carried out. Such high level meetings will provide a forum for client executives to discuss any changes in their training requirements which may be called for due to changing circumstances.