By ANNEMARIE FRANCZYK

For Buffalo-area employees, workplace training and development appear to be as much of the job as the job itself.

Sitting in or signing on is happening at impressive rates at industries that range from financial and technical to health and retail. The 300 training and development courses offered by HealthNow, for example, last year attracted 2,800 participants, a number more than double the insurer's work force of 1,200.

The improving economy might be behind the overall situation. Training budgets across the country were cut drastically during the recession but appear to be stabilizing, and the average investment per learner is increasing - slightly, perhaps, but still increasing. One national estimate suggests employers in 2010 spent $682 per participant, or 2 percent more than the previous year.

Employers are making this significant investment, banking on an atmosphere of continuous improvement to compete effectively in their industries and reach their goals.

"You have to have a clear vision and what you have to do to get to where employees fit in," says Michele Garcia, director of corporate training and quality for HealthNow. "If there's any deficit between your vision and the capability of your employees, you really owe it to yourself to invest in upscaling or knowledge transfer."

An added benefit, employers find, is that morale rises when they take such interest in their workers.

Bersin & Associates, national human resources consultants, say training budgets dropped 21 percent at the height of the recession but began to hold steady in 2010. The recession intensified some employers' focus on workforce planning. Others "shifted their attention beyond efficiency and are now looking toward innovation in their learning environments," according to the consultants' Corporate Learning Factbook 2011.

Companies have resumed projects that were postponed during the downturn, and employees began to receive training and development. Training hours per learner increased to 12.8 percent - a 13 percent jump from 2009, according to Bersin.

Interestingly, Jiffy Lube International, a subsidiary of Shell Oil Co., established an elaborate training program in 2008, just as the recession was taking hold. Its Jiffy Lube University combines computer-based instruction, supervised on-the-job training and proficiency testing to equip its 20,000 employees with the skills to provide quality service to customers and their vehicles. That's according to Kenneth Barber, manager of learning and development at Jiffy Lube International. It's a mandatory program for all employees at the company's nearly 2,000 service centers, which include the three locations nearest to Buffalo in Niagara Falls and Welland and St. Catharines, Ont.

The 41-store Valu Home Centers has a similar niche in customer service, and training is the key, says James Quinn, director of training and development. The company has formal classroom training for its 900 employees multiple times a year on customer service, selling skills, product knowledge and specific job duties. Management gets further training in leadership, building a store culture, conflict resolution, communication, problem solving and inventory management.

Last year, 45,000 workers across New York at state, county and nonprofit organizations participated in the 1,200 courses offered by the Center for the Development of Human Services, a statewide training agency based at Buffalo State College.

"People are looking for specific expertise they wouldn't normally receive on the job," says Michael Incorvia, project director for the center.

Most course topics center on child welfare, medical assistance and computer technology. The center expects to take advantage of the general interest in training and expand its management skills program to corporations with an online version beginning this summer, Incorvia says. It's currently offered to the state Office of Child and Family Services and the state Department of Health.

Online courses and webinars are particularly sought after for their convenience, says Marie Betti, CEO of the Western New York Federal Credit Union in West Seneca. She takes advantage of electronic programs for teller training, fraud identification, security issues and the like that are offered through the state credit union association.

"Everyone can't always have people out of the office, traveling here, there and everywhere. Here we can have them in an office for two or three hours," Betti says.

But there is value in the conversations and shared information in classroom training and meeting programs, ones that bring in speakers for motivational purposes or to update attendees on changes in the law or compliance issues, she says. They're held eight times annually and draw employees of credit unions from Niagara Falls to Jamestown.

Assessing the effect of training and development is easy enough when the lesson is skills building, but a little less quantifiable when measuring leadership or interactions with customers. Valu Home Centers doesn't attach numbers to training effectiveness, Quinn says.

"We gauge the overall customer service culture we have at each location and how well it is providing the exceptional service we want to provide," he says. "We receive feedback through customer responses and surveys to help us along with open discussions with our team to make sure we are providing them with the necessary tools."

The Western New York Nurse Council, a function of the SEIU 1199 health-care union, was formed three years ago to boost morale among union nurses. It has since held about 15 training sessions a year on care techniques, practicing under new laws and personal health and safety on the job. Sessions attract about 75 nurses and management, as well, said Sandy Harmon, the council chair.

While it might be more difficult to gauge than sales, employee enthusiasm for the job might be a key reason to engage in a training-and-development program. Employees are complimented by a company that invests in them, Garcia says.

"The minute they stop doing that," Garcia says, "it impacts a lot of things like employee morale."

Annemarie Franczyk is frequent contributor to the Buffalo Law Journal.

Timeline, budget keys to success

No matter the size, employers thinking about instituting a training-and-development program must consider timeline and budget, says Suanne McMullen, president of the local chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.

If the need is short term, the employer should consider a subject matter expert already on staff to direct training, she says. External vendors would be able to address the company's needs if the timeline is longer.

The external vendor - there are local and national vendors to choose from - may have online materials to access that would suffice or could customize a program for the company.

Keep in mind that there generally are licensing fees to use materials, whether they're purchased from a vendor or accessed online, and per-person fees for supplies such as workbooks, she says.

There's no one answer. That's why McMullen suggests that employers contemplating a training-and-development program attend a meeting of the society. It has 135 members who are HR professionals, organization developers and instructional designers, all with a strong interest in training and development. 

The organization was established to be the source of training resources in Western New York, she says.

"That is our hope, that they come through us," she says.

For more information: www.astdniagara.org