ERP Talent Development & Training

Posted on: October 2, 2015 | By: Craig Thompson | QAD Financials, QAD Manufacturing, QAD Business Process, QAD Distribution

How to retain your ERP Talent Development Training? Is it challenging to help your internal resources develop the skills they need to be leaders in their job functions? Have you looked for external expertise with experience in your ERP applications, only to receive unqualified resume after unqualified resume? If these questions resonate with you. May be it’s time to refresh the acquisition and retention strategies you use for talent development. In this three part blog series, we will take a deeper look at the strategies that need to be refreshed and/or redesigned within your current business processes.

Part 1:  Talent Development & Training

Demands on resources today are more complex than they have ever been. If history is the indicator of future demands, this trend will continue. The best way to ensure that your organization has the highly skilled resources it needs, is to have talented internal expertise. In the past, a leader of a particular business function could be highly effective in their role. As long as they understood how to design, develop and deploy business processes for their particular business function. In today’s marketplace, world-class manufacturers and distributors utilize ERP systems to support their operations. This means that business leaders will now need to understand and utilize these tools. As you review your talent development strategy, please consider the following:

Start with the End in Mind

It is critical to the success of any training and development plan to have clear goals.  Goals can fit into two tiers: general training goals and everyday QAD ERP user goals. General training goals could involve establishing a baseline understanding of APICS and ERP concepts. Enabling quicker knowledge transfer between employees. After these goals are set, individual goals can be made for each everyday QAD ERP user.

Developing a Training Matrix

A training matrix should be developed. This can help you clearly understand the training required for each particular job category.  Here is an example:

We work with our clients to schedule group-training sessions. Where everyone associated with a particular job function, across all sites, participates in several training topics over the course of a few days.   Group training sessions have been proven to increase collaboration among similarly skilled resources during and after the event.

Developing a Training Calendar:

Once you understand who needs to be trained, what they need to be trained on and how long it will take, you can put together a Training Calendar that will support those inputs. We recommend the training calendar be reviewed and adjusted every business quarter.

Feedback & Refinement

The final step when it comes to training is to understand the value of your session by measuring the skill level before and after the training.  While the questions can vary greatly according to the training topics, here is an example of some measured ERP Development Training results:

Results Summary

  • 40% knew the correct definition of  MRP before the class, 78% knew the definition after class.
  • 50% knew the correct definition of MPS, increasing to 85% after class.
  • 100% of people knew what the term ‘back flushing’ meant

Results of your training program should be reviewed annually (at a minimum), so you can properly adjust the content, frequency and delivery as needed. Your company’s success is dependent on the quality of human capital you are able to attract and retain. With proper training on ERP utilization and optimization, you can ensure that your business processes are running as efficiently as possible. Keep reading for part 2 of “How to Attract, Develop and Retain Your ERP Team” . For more information on QAD ERP or QAD training, contact Logan Consulting, your Chicago based QAD ERP partner.