Tailoring training to fit
December 1st 2008 Hygiene Group provides specialist cleaning and hygiene services to the food and
pharmaceutical industries.Helen Millership, HR and safety manager, talks to
Gerardine Coyne about its new Supervisory Academy training initiative
In November this year,Hygiene Group
rolled out its new Supervisory Academy
scheme.The junior management
training programme is tailored to the
needs of Hygiene Group and its clients'
businesses.The scheme is geared solely to
meeting the requirements of a manager
operating within the cleaning sector and
within the food industry."It's quite unique
for an organisation of our size to have
something so specifically tailored," says
Helen Millership."Obviously other
organisations will have management programmes, but often, they are
off the shelf and probably externally run."
Hygiene Group has run supervisory training including its
Management Academy programme for years, but Millership says
the company has had to "redevelop the wheel"each time it provided
training, depending on the specific issues being experienced at that
point.This time a more structured approach has been taken to ensure
the training meets standards that are validated industry wide."When
we set out to put the Supervisory Academy into a programme we
could run annually across our business,we decided that instead of
just taking the Management Academy and diluting it down, it would
be improved if we could get some kind of external accreditation,"
says Millership."But rather than taking an external accreditation and
making our Supervisory Academy model fit into it,we wanted to
develop the model and then gain accreditation for it."
The approach has allowed Hygiene Group to really focus on what it
believes are the vital issues and exclude those that are irrelevant."And
we've been able to do that through the Food and Drink
Qualifications," says Millership. On successful completion of the
Supervisory Academy, the individuals achieve a Food and Drink
Qualification Level 2 Certificate in Management which is a VRQ
(Vocationally Recognised Qualification).
From November, a monthly workshop will take place over a six
month period, and then workplace assignments will be carried out to
enable participants to apply the management thinking and skills
acquired.They then come back and present the assignment to the
group as a 'considered consolidation'of the last session.At the start of
the next workshop they complete a short question paper.The paper
is a mandatory requirement and key to achieving the Level 2
Certificate.
"The assignment isn't actually required by the Food and Drink
Qualification,"explains Millership, "but historically we found that
getting people to do an assignment, doing something practical and
then talking about it, really helps to develop skills." During the
training, participants get a good grounding in the company as well as
learning skills and applications."We look at the background of
Hygiene as a business, the culture, its vision.Then we move into
customer service and client care skills, communication skills, through
safety legislation, current food safety legislation, time management,
recruitment of staff, leadership and motivation; developing and
appraising staff, effective training and instruction, running effective
team meetings and carrying out internal auditing."
In terms of benefits to clients,Millership says it is the finely focused
approach that means the scheme is precisely tailored to clients as
well as to the company itself."We have looked very specifically at
client needs for a manager in contract cleaning as much as we've
looked at the needs of what we require from a manager." In food and
hygiene industries there are certain areas that need to be covered.
"Food safety, internal auditing and communication skills are all key to
our clients particularly nowadays,we spend so much time being
audited, by the British Retail Consortium,Marks & Spencer, AIB and so
on, that the more that our managers understand current food safety
legislation and the importance of effective auditing, then the more
our clients are going to benefit."
The only way is up
Internally, it is hoped that the new scheme will impact positively on
Hygiene Group staff by encouraging employees to pursue the path to
promotion."We've always operated a policy of promotion from
within.We do get managers from outside but I'd say around 60% of
them are home-grown,"explains Millership."Now that the
Supervisory Academy has outside accreditation,we think it will give
our staff a thirst to develop themselves. Previously people may not
have seen such a structured opportunity for promotion within the
business.Maybe in the past it's been seen as being in the right place
at the right time."
The company's aim
is to open up career
opportunities and staff
development with
clearly defined
procedures."The
academy puts the
message out that we
are looking to groom
the managers of the
future," says Millership,
"and if you want to put
your hand up and
demonstrate your
interest in getting on
in the business, then
this is the way to do it."The scheme will also ensure that those in
charge of training staff have the support to do it."A clearer structure
will assist the line managers in developing their people better," says
Millership,"and the scheme provides a model against which to do
that."
After the November pilot programme,Millership says there is a
another kicking off in January, and probably a third one in the spring.
She says there has been a huge interest from people wanting to get
onto the programme, and this has had a knock on effect. "Seeing the
interest and the success only one month in,we're now revisiting the
Management Academy programme, to try and gain an externally
accredited qualification for that,"says Millership. "And after this trial run,
we're likely to run one Supervisory
Academy a year." More articles from Hygiene Group: | 
