Why Training Matters
Being on top of your technical game is no longer enough to stay in the running in this highly competitive industry. Nowadays, CPAs must possess the often overlooked soft skills in addition to being highly trained in the technical competencies of their trade. Soft skills such as personal, interpersonal, managerial and organizational capabilities play a key role in making or breaking a firm’s success as clients are demanding more accountability and seeking “the right fit” both technically and personally.
Aside from client demand, the tough internal challenges of succession planning and recruiting and employee retention have more firm leaders implementing an all-inclusive approach to address the need for soft skill development within their firm. This means not only the managing partner or management group is held responsible for such soft skills. Instead, the entire staff is trained accordingly and held accountable at a level-appropriate basis.
Skills that Can be Applied Immediately
Traditional training and development programs focus on what people need to learn. In TGP’s workshops and programs, we focus on what people need to do. Yearly research surveys show that organizations in North America spend upwards of 30 billion dollars a year in training courses for their managers. The effectiveness of these courses for creating job-related changes is generally acknowledged to be uncertain at best. The two primary reasons are:
- Training programs are not integrated into an overall program of skill development
- The learner rarely finds immediate applicability
Given the structure of TGP’s workshops and programs and their individual components, the skills and competencies developed are readily transferable into concrete job performance changes. Through this enhanced transferability, the program is more cost-effective. Traditional workshops and programs rarely identify barriers to desired performance. TGP’s training workshops and programs consistently identify and deal with the barriers to desired performance.
Accountability Index™
A recent survey of more than 300 senior and executive-level professionals, conducted by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), identified a “shift from providing training to improving performance” as a significant trend. Many training companies continue to report on their activity, but not on their results. The success of TGP’s workshops and programs is measured in terms of the contribution to performance change and operational impact of the participant rather than in terms of the quality of the training program and how well participants like their experience. Those who invest in TGP’s workshops and programs want results.
The principles of our training division’s Accountability Index include:
- Indices that inform stakeholders about the results, value, and quality of the program—indices that are deemed important by all key stakeholders (including participants, managing partners, and/or sponsors)
- Opportunities to show commitment to continued progress on the part of participants
Reporting
The Growth Partnership is committed to accounting for its performance in serving program participants. To that end, we provide periodic reports to participants, their department heads, sponsors, and managing partners—through our own accountability process—that provide regular assessment of participant achievement and broader performance. These key stakeholders will also meet periodically with both the participant and his/her TGP coach.
