1. COVER COLUMN
TRAINING, THE ENABLER
ARUN PRAKASH RAY, TRAINING HEAD, FULLERTON SECURITIES & WEALTH ADVISORS LTD.
in deciding whether he needs brushing
up or not.
“We also have field observations,
where on a particular day we tag along
with the salesperson on an absolutely
no-input basis, except the observation.
Post that, we connect with the feedback,”
he says. He maintains that, training is a
part of HR in Fullerton, therefore, the
training department reports into the HR
and HR reports into the CEO, creating
a pefect tandem. Besides that, the com-
pany has a training calendar that has 7
PHOTO: VIKRAM KUMAR
to 10 man days of training that has been
allotted for each month.
Now, after rolling out the training
mandate, Mr. Ray relies heavily on cus-
tomer testimonials and emails of cus-
tomer satisfaction, for measuring ROI.
I
n the domains of wealth advisory He explains, “There are customer sat-
and financial planning, it is ex- TRAINING TRENDS isfaction surveys (CSAT) which happen
tremely important to train people regularly in our call centres. If the CSAT
right, otherwise there are chances
• Training should not be a report is satisfactory, may be with a few
that the employee would end up doing
one-time event, but rather small glitches, then we know our train-
the wrong kind of selling, asserts Mr.
an ongoing process. ing has done well.” For business train-
Arun Prakash Ray.
• Customer testimonials and ings, the pre-training and post-training
Having rich experience of close to two
feedback are good data is extracted, and the difference is
decades, Mr. Ray has traversed through
measures of ROI. then analysed to get a measure of train-
various financial institutions. Having
• External training adds val- ing effectiveness.
worked for MetLife, Aviva, Max New
ue and should not be done As far as the mode of training is con-
York Life, he assumed various training
just for the sake of it. cerned, he maintains that 90 per cent is
responsibilities, starting from training done in-house, while the rest 10 per cent
advisors to bankers and other business employee visits the training room and is is done externally. But anything related
partners, before he stepped in as Ful- trained on skill-building. This is known to products and processes is 100 per
lerton Securities’ Training Head. as the Refresher Programme. cent in-house. “If there is a behaviourial
For a Fullerton Securities employ- While identifying the training needs training, I would love to take it up. For
ee, training begins as soon as he is of employees, Mr. Ray lists out various specific programmes on domains, we
brought on-board. “The employee is options. For example, they have one-to- might hire a consultant or send people
taken through a structured induction one discussions with the business heads for an off-site programme,” he shares.
programme, within the first month of his to determine the training needs. Also, However, he concludes by warning,
joining, before he visits any prospects on there is a mandatory three-day induc- “There is a fad these days pan-India that
behalf of Fullerton. The moment he is tion programme, irrespective of the per- you go for an outing and call it training.
trained, we test him through role plays son’s skill level. “We know about the Before engaging in any external train-
and tests, and determine whether the skill set of the person before the training ing, we have to check the costs that will
person is ready to face the audience,” starts, but during the programme we be incurred, and find out if that will add
he elaborates. Training is not just a one- can derive areas where we need to work value in return.” thf
time event, but rather an ongoing pro- on,” he says. Also, observing a person’s
cess. Here, every month for a day the activities on a day-to-day basis can help Abhishek Chanda & Sushmita Yadav
22 THE HUMAN FACTOR April 2011