GMA SHRM HR Link

New Model for Training Programs
By Steve Schad, President, Vector Group, LLC, and
Barbara Markoff, Associate for Vector Group

Imagine the corporate training room. Picture employees seated in neat rows, a binder in front of every chair. After a full day of "diversity bingo", videos, role-play exercises, and lecture, employees fill out their course evaluations and depart.

Ah...diversity awareness has happened! Right?

In light of some recent studies, it is valid to question whether diversity training programs produce the results they promise. For example, according to a 2000 study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 50 percent of respondent companies indicated their programs had only mixed or negligible long-term impact on the attitudes of participants. Another 18 percent indicated their programs had no long-term impact.

Is it enough for only three out of every 10 training programs to succeed? Given the high stakes of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, the answer to that question is clearly "no".

The question of training impact is not limited to the diversity realm. Since the late 2000 economic downturn, corporate leaders have started demanding to know how investments in employee education help the bottom line. While this has not stemmed corporate investments in training, it has brought a sensitivity to impact that permeates the world of training professionals. There is a need for a radically different approach to training.

So, let's imagine a very different scene than the one that opened this article. Imagine that the diversity training participants are not even in a corporate training room. Instead, we see them practicing their newfound awareness and skills - actually "doing" diversity - as they spend a day rehabilitating central city housing. They serve side-by-side with different people, challenging assumptions and testing skills rather than simply hearing about it in the classroom. They leave with refined skills, deeper insights, boosted morale - and the community is a little better off.

They are experiencing something called "workplace service learning". It is a new model for employee training and development that leverages volunteer service as the experiential dimension of training programs. It brings together two things many companies are already doing: training and volunteering. Where they connect, companies have the potential for a very powerful formula for changing the way people do business - while changing lives.

Workplace service learning is first and foremost a training effort. Properly used, the volunteer activity provides a challenging, alternative work setting in which participants can safely explore new skills, with a completely different perspective and sense of purpose made possible by the charitable intent of the activity.

Studies have long shown that adults learn best when they can try new skills in a highly practical, non-threatening, and real-world-grounded experience. Further, studies on higher education service learning, which has been around for decades, show that students get better grades and develop higher skills in critical thinking, leadership, interpersonal communication, dealing with diversity, and conflict resolution.

What does this mean for building diversity competency within the organization? When a training experience is powerful, especially one with the transformative power of service learning, participants often become champions of what they experienced and learned. Such champions can be change agents, with greater potential to transform culture - something experts agree is critical for diversity initiatives to succeed.

The uniqueness of this approach is one reason why in the afternoon of October 15, "IDEAL Connections" will feature a workshop on workplace service learning. The Institute for Diversity Education & Leadership - Milwaukee (IDEAL) recognizes the power of workplace service learning to help corporations deliver on the promise of diversity.

Today's companies have taken that important first step of diversity awareness. Now, with the help of new training models like Workplace Service Learning, they can move from awareness to action.

Originally printed in the Milwaukee Business Journal June 25, 2004. Reprinted with permission.

E-mail Steve Schad for more information.

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