The Certification of Core Competencies In the Communications Marketplace

Presented by:
Richard Burke and Eric Kenly
September 2000

Preface

The biggest decision any executive faces today is not the investment decision, but the hiring decision. It is a decision that is typically made with the least amount of information. If a business executive wants to purchase a new piece of equipment, they will typically have specification sheets, competitive comparisons, benchmark tests, operational videos, photographs and maybe even a live demonstration. The same executive will be lucky to get a well-written resume and solid references when they want to hire a new employee. Legislation differs from state to state and legal opinions differ on the types of testing that can be part of the hiring process. This cloud of confusion coupled with increasing management concerns about diversity and harassment make it difficult for a hiring manager to make an informed choice.

In the communications marketplace, the lack of knowledge about prospective employees is somewhat frightening. The communications market is evolving so fast; some managers don't even understand what questions to ask to determine if a prospective employee is qualified. Vendor's and distributors have to train technical and sales people about 3-5 weeks per year to make sure they are qualified to present and support their products. Manufacturers (Printers and Publishers) also have to train their production personnel on the specific workflow and equipment in their facilities. In the past, organizations could spend the time and money to make sure their personnel understood the technological and organizational infrastructures that supported their business. Today, training departments do not have the time to prepare and deliver core knowledge and managers have to assure that their personnel have the pre-requisite skills required for the job.

Why Competency Based Training

In order for a certification to be binding several steps have to take place. First, a list of valid objectives needs to be created. This is done by a process of gathering several different objectives from several different people on what the person needs to know in order to perform to a minimum standard. These objectives are then sent out to other people in the industry and they are weighted.

These weighted objectives then form the basis for the test questions. If the respondents feel one objective is more important than another it will be given a higher weight. The higher the importance of the objectives the more test questions that need to be asked. This insures we are questioning the important aspects of the process.

Without a this type of formal analysis employing both policy and empirical elements, it would be easy for instructional design to drift from the goals of the program or the issues that are important to real-world work.

Process-Based Competency Defined

How can you know if the person you are hiring is worth the investment? How will a manager determine if the employee has the right skill set to grasp the knowledge? The answer is process based competency certification.

In the communications industries there are many certification programs that are product or vendor specific. Microsoft, Cisco and Compaq all offer these sorts of programs. Process-based competencies are skills that are vital to the process and are not vendor or product specific.

The key features of core competencies certification is that:¹

• They are not discriminatory
• They establish uniform performance standard
• They insure that the participant has a level of knowledge
• They attract and retain staff
• They facilitate outsourcing
• They raise the level of performance
• They enable multi-disciplined jobs
• They insure the training is not incestuous

Missing Process Based Competency in Communications

How often have you heard managers yearn for the good old days? Have you heard about the days when we used to have apprentices that would work for years to develop skills? Unfortunately, downsizing, mergers and a rapidly changing workflow have eliminated the days of on the job training. For example currently, managers must turn to universities like the Rochester Institute of Technology and hire degreed specialists from the School of Printing to make sure they have the core skills they require.

Unfortunately, there are not enough RIT graduates to go around. They demand high salaries and job positions that do not typically work at the production level. Also, just because they earned a college degree doesn't mean that they are competent in all the areas of their training. Not everyone who wants a production or technical job can afford to go to or get accepted by a university and there is a limited number who offer Graphic Arts or Printing majors.

The following areas in Graphic Communication would lend themselves very well to competency certification programs:

• Color Industry Professional
• Document Management Professional
• Digital Workflow Professional
• Offset Printing Professional E-commerce

The Universe for Graphic Arts Core Skills Training

US Census report "Supplemental 1999 report on Information" Sept. 30th 1999
--Total Universe 4,334,631

Knowledge Management

Some may feel that the universities should provide the core skills and the vendors and manufacturers will continue to supply the product and specific application skills. Unfortunately, this would not work and not be healthy. The exciting dynamic in the communications industry is our diversity of skills. From the Printing Pressman's Union to the Silicon Valley software writer, we are all part of the same industry. The entire industry needs processed-based skills training. For example, the expert designer working in RGB color space needs to be trained on the Printer's CMYK Color Space and both have to understand LAB color space and how it is used for color transformations. These are core skills.

Thanks to XML, we now have a system that allows us to store information in "buckets" with tags and apply sophisticated profiling techniques to repurpose that information on demand. This sophisticated language is perfect for distributing knowledge on demand and structuring that knowledge based on a needs or skills profile.

Knowledge Management on the Fly

Issues Facing Vendors and Distributors

Seventy percent of Fortune 10000 companies state the lack of trained employees as their number one barrier to sustaining growth ². The globalization of corporations is forcing organizations into different ways of distributing knowledge. Employees are more willing to give up some of their personal time to acquire knowledge and the Internet provides the vehicle for knowledge transfer.

Companies that had a 10% higher education level had an 8.4% higher level of productivity--Conversely companies that had a 10% higher level of capital investment had only a 3.4% higher productivity ³. Unfortunately, management often looks at training as the first stop on the reorganization express and investments are not often planned with this paradigm in mind.

Consolidation has left large companies with almost unmanageable product lines. Reducing product lines takes time and informed decisions, so in the interim companies must support all products or fear losing customers. This is further impacted by the fact that consolidation is usually combined with a reduction in force that may leave the vendor without the knowledge base to support the products. Vendors, now more then ever, need technical consultants to help their customers in the field. Most vendors are committed to this, but limit their support to focus on their own specific part of the workflow or products. Their customers, however, want support personnel who understand their business and their entire workflow.

In addition, vendors are introducing new products at a faster rate. Workflows are becoming more complex and products more specific and niche targeted. This requires an increasing amount of product training and vendor's training organizations do not have time to focus on core competencies. Personnel that have the knowledge, frequently depart for greener pastures forcing the vendors to add new staff that may not have the core skills they require.

Issues Facing Manufacturers

Manufacturers in the communications industry are Printers, Pre-Press Organizations, Publishers, Designers, and web page developers. The workflows in their companies are mostly hybrid in nature. They add equipment and process to their existing workflows to improve productivity. They require support from manufacturers and industry groups to integrate these workflows and improve productivity. The profit margin for printers has slipped to below 6% allowing them little room for error. The manufacturers have a number of issues in supporting their current workflows:

• They can't find needed skills for new workflows.
• They can't verify core competencies.
• Their training costs are rising.
• They must invest in specific product training.
• Time-lines are shrinking.
• Rapid product development.
• No time for competency training.

Internet based training allows the user to learn what they want, when they want it. The results are 60% quicker learning curve compared to instructor lead classes ⁴. Manufacturers are interested in investing in Internet Based Training, but can't find the core classes that they need to invest in. Classes offered on line today are only product focused and manufacturers can get a lot of this training directly from the vendors or distributors.

The Return on Investment

There are a number of "soft" reasons to train personnel in core competencies and certify their skills.

• Employees are happier.
• They learn specific product knowledge more quickly.
• They are more productive.
• They are more helpful to customers.
• Managers can measure knowledge.

There are also "hard" financial reasons to look to third party supply of core competency skill certification. The models below assume that this training is desired and illustrate the costs between "doing it yourself" and using third party certification.

Assumptions for return on Investment models:

• Travel time at $1,200/week average
• Trainee time @ $45/hour
• Trainer time @ $75/hour
• Clients customizing program
• Original content in some form
• Internal training skills
• Content development skills

100 Students, Generic Program

• 5% Reduction in Training Costs ($2,594 per student)
• Program at GATF,RIT etc...

100 Students, Customized Program

• 55% Reduction in Training Costs ($2,514 per student)

• Customized or Generic Courses
• Assumes customer has on site training skills, rough content and regional locations

Conclusions

The communications industry always seems to be at a crossroad. It is understandable since the one thing we humans do better than the other creatures on earth is communicate. Guttenberg was the man of the millennium, yet he died a pauper. He had a great invention but did not really understand how to apply that knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge no longer has to be linear; it can be repurposed instantly and matched to the skill level of the learner. This technology makes it possible to easily train personnel on the core knowledge they need to be able to apply their specific knowledge to solve problems.

¹ Dr. Judith Hale, Xerox Corporation
² Price Waterhouse Coopers Survey, 1999
³ Bank of Boston, 2000
⁴ Credit Suisse/First Boston Feb 5, 2000