Last night I got into conversation with a young lady I was sitting next to on the train home from London. It transpired that she had been on a course in London with her employer, and was based in Leeds. Being a trainer myself, and also an inquisitive person, I asked her what sort of course it was.
‘Oh, it was my induction’ she replied.
‘Right, so you have just started with the company, then?’
‘No, I started six months ago’
‘You started six months ago and you are just having your induction now? (incredulous tone of voice from me!)
‘Yes, well, I think it’s something new. They didn’t really seem to know what they were doing’
‘Is it a big company that you work for?’
‘Yes, it’s global. It’s a global insurance broker (she mentioned the name – I hadn’t heard of them, not a surprise if their external communication is as good as their internal communication!)
It turned out that this new employee of a global company had done her FSA training via e-learning at her office in Leeds when she had first started with the company earlier in 2012. They had waited six months to tell her (and the other new people on the induction day, who had come from as far away as Dublin and Glasgow) about the company mission and values, and the other corporate messages that are usually included in induction.
I asked her how she felt about the day.
‘Well, it cost them over £200 to get me to London and back, because the ticket wasn’t bought until yesterday, and I don’t feel any different. I suppose it was a nice day out but it won’t really make any difference to my job. I know how to do that already, and that’s all that really matters’.
My question is – do you think this global insurance and risk-management company has really engaged employees?
No. I wish I could comment that this was unusual, but unfortunately, I can’t. Induction is rarely designed or used properly in organisations – large or small, global or not-for-profilt, in UK or abroad.
Seems to me this company had money to burn and an HR team who didn’t care about the value of the induction training, or they wouldn’t have let it happen.
The sad fact is that while this malpractice continues, it casts doubt in the minds of those who hold the budget as to the value of ANY training and that gets us trainers a bad name. 🙁
Thank you Jozefa. In order to balance the story, I met some people from BGL, the insurance business that runs ComparetheMarket.com today. One of them had only been with the company for three weeks, the other for over two years. They were great ambassadors for their brand because they had been introduced to the company’s mission and values on day one and were obviously both passionate about working there. BGL have an active and influential Learning and Development function too! 🙂 Not all news is bad news, fortunately!