In the client facing area of financial services, there is a school of thought, that you recruit those that already have the right knowledge and the required external training and qualifications, so that they can fit into the business quickly, rather than undergoing a longer, unproductive, period of internal training.
However, not everything that goes on in a business is easy to understand, and not every office is laid out the same. Even with very experienced newcomers therefore, some degree of initial training and orientation is required, to acclimatise them to the company, its systems, and its people locally, as well as the time required to assess their level of knowledge and competence.
Whilst, in the initial stages, those responsible for T&C are heavily involved in ensuring such new recruits are trained and can be deemed competent in the new role, what happens outside of this formal element? It is easy to forget that new employees would have been used to knowing where things were in their previous offices, and that they may potentially feel like a fish out of water, both in and out of the T&C training process.
Employees must unlearn what they knew before, to be fully comfortable and competent in their new role
This has been something I have become aware of again recently as, although I now work from home on a freelance basis, so I do know where the printer is, the small US based firm that I have worked for over the past four years, has recently been taken over by a larger UK based firm, with its own systems, culture and practices.
The implications of this have been relatively minor compared with someone moving directly from one company to another, or from one location to another, and indeed from one desk to the other. However, I have still been asked to decide whether I wanted to become an employee again, to consider the IR35 tax implications of the work arrangements, and finally to engage with a third party as part of the invoicing process.
There are new email addresses to be created, systems to access with new passwords that will need to be changed on a more regular basis, to ensure IT security is maintained. All of this, as well as adapting my own financial arrangements to suit the different invoicing arrangements and payment dates that come with the package.
This took me back to my previous T&C work, and the fact that I was responsible for new recruits up and down the UK, from Edinburgh, to London, and from Birmingham to Bristol. This meant that, even though I had worked for the same firm for over 20 years, I didn’t know what the protocols were in every office, the security arrangements, nor indeed where every printer was……..although I did always seem to have a sixth sense for finding the kitchen and the coffee.
The point is that in those circumstances, the T&C Supervisor’ role is to help embed the provided training with the individual, to make sure that the information and processes that have been covered during the initial training, are carried forward and applied in the client facing environment. It is also to enhance both their learning and their development in their dealing with clients but, it is not to be a repository of information on the day-to-day activities in an office, unless of course it is in a small organisation.
This is where the individual’s line manager and colleagues come in, and the most successful arrangement I have experienced with this is where the line manager, the T&C Supervisor, and a designated Office Buddy, all worked together to ensure that the new recruits progress was assessed across the board, on a regular basis. This meant that any issues were identified and addressed by the appropriate individual, with the results then fed back into that management team.
Indeed, in medium sized or larger organisations, this can also be a beneficial arrangement for either a member of the advice team, or of the administration staff to be chosen to act as a form of initial mentor, as part of their own development, to get them used to providing feedback, within the work they do with the new colleague.
With the increasing level of complexity of regulatory requirements, and the FCA’s mantra that,” If it isn’t written down it didn’t happen” let alone the range of different IT systems in the market, every firm will have slight nuances in their processes compared with other organisations.
This has the prospect of being initially confusing to any newcomers and may push them outside their previous comfort zone. Not a bad thing necessarily but if this is unmanaged it could mean that at worst a firm loses a recruit, who may have had other options.
The problems here are those of assumptions and unlearning. On the concept of unlearning, Gloria Marie Steinem, an American journalist, and social-political activist was quoted as saying “The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.” Whilst this was said about political issues at the time, the concept is still the same when dealing with new employees who have come from other companies. Employees must unlearn what they knew before, to be fully comfortable and competent in their new role, including knowing where the printer is.
There are also opportunities for those who are new to a business, or to a different product, to makes mistakes based on assumptions, without being given sufficient time to unlearn what they knew previously before setting out into the wider world.
As an example of this I recall a time where two leasing firms were being merged, and one of the existing sales team from the dominant player in the merger was sent to see a client of the other business. As a result, there was an agreement on a sizeable piece of business with a client who was impressed by the rates offered. But only later was it identified that this normally professional leasing specialist had misunderstood the other firm’s business model and had made assumptions based on what they knew.
Because of a lack of clarity and his assumptions, he missed the fact that the seemingly good rates relied on a 3 month down-payment, with a further 36 months payments, thereafter, making 39 months in all. However, the normal model from his current firm was 1 month in advance and 35 months thereafter, a 36-month premium contract. This is what he agreed therefore, but using the lower monthly rates from the other firm’s product.
This made it a 3-month free deal for the client, and an unprofitable contract for the firm, all because the initial training, the administration support and explanations were inadequate, and despite the individuals own experience and professionalism, assumptions had prevailed.
The more help therefore that a T&C Supervisor can have in dealing with the local orientation requirements of new employees, the easier it will be to concentrate on ensuring an individual’s competence on a client facing basis. This allows more time for a T&C Supervisor to help a new employee to unlearn what they knew before, and then to learn the way that their new employer wants them to act and behave, without any assumptions.
While this may seem obvious to some, the concept of unlearning before learning something new is still one that has not gained sufficient traction across the wider employment landscape, except perhaps among trainers. I wonder if it is because people find the concept of changing habits easier to understand, with much made of this in the fitness and weight loss world, among others. The concepts and the effects are though the same, if you don’t help someone to unlearn what they have been used to, whether that is how to sell leasing, or how to eat chocolate biscuits, progress may be slow with mistakes made on the way.
Well, that’s it for me…………….………………..I’m off to the printer………………..…………..… via the biscuit cupboard!
