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Creation of new elements of personnel agenda, particularly
motivational system, adaptation programme and forms of
employees’ supervision and evaluation.
Provision of relevant information system and mechanisms
to support the processes.
For the sake of implementation, it is necessary to specify the
corporate education strategy, namely the operational steps, tasks
and programmes and choose appropriate implementation tools.
Main tools of the education strategy implementation include [3]:
Competency models.
Managing according to competence.
Managing the work performance.
Balanced Scorecard.
Knowledge and talent management.
Project management.
Incentive mechanisms.
Career management.
A learning organization etc.
Corporate education strategy needs to be monitored and
evaluated. For this purpose, consulting companies can use the
following tools [3]:
Management methodology according to competence.
Process of managing the work performance.
Balanced Scorecard methodology.
Application of competency models and tools for measuring
the competence level.
Methods and techniques of evaluating the employees and
their work performance.
Management methodology according to objectives.
Methodology of tools for 360º feedback.
In this process, intuition, creativity, the knowledge of
educational and developmental needs of a consulting company,
as well as needs of its clients, play their role.
2.4
Education system in the field of consulting
Educational activity in the field of consulting represents a
continuous process that is factually and logically linked to other
processes in a company and consists of the analysis of
educational needs and their identification, planning,
implementation and evaluation of the educational activity.
Education system is based on a corporate strategy of a consulting
company, its objectives, sources and organizational needs, as
well as requirements for the education of its consultants
(diagram
№1).
Diagram 1: Education system in a consulting company
Source: authors’ own processing
Analysis and identification of educational needs. It is the most
important stage of the education planning in a consulting
company. At the same time it is a stage with the highest error
rate from the point of view of planning activity in the area of
education and personal development of consultants. It is based
on collecting information on the current state of knowledge in a
consulting company, competence and skills of consultants as
company’s
key employees, performance of individual
consultants as well as consulting teams. The data obtained are
being compared with their desired level.
Identification of educational needs. It answers the following
three questions:
1.
Is the employee motivated enough to apply required
competence and skills?
2.
Does the management support the required behaviour of
consultants?
3.
What barriers do exist in the area of consultants’
performance?
Planning the educational activity. It concerns planning the
specific educational events and programmes. Its result is the
education plan that should include not only planned activities,
but also consider potential problems and barriers in the field of
consultants’education. Education planning consists of several
stages:
Preparation stage – includes specification of needs,
analysis of participants in the educational activity and
setting the objectives.
Implementation stage – represents processing the
individual stages of educational process into specific
educational projects. It contains determination of a process
that will be followed in the course of education of
consultants and suggested forms, methods and techniques,
by means of which the education will be carried out.
Optimization stage – includes continuous evaluation of the
individual stages of educational programmes in relation to
the given objectives and correction of deficiencies.
Implementation of educational activity. It means using
appropriate tools, methods and forms of education of
consultants. Trainings represent an important tool in the field of
education and personal development of consultants. They play a
significant role at the time of taking up the employment and
adaptation on the one hand and during the employment as such
on the other. Training and lifelong education is important not
only for newly recruited, but also for experienced long-time
consultants. The aim of such trainings should be continuous
improvement of necessary occupational skills and boosting
consultants’ loyalty to the employer. At the same time, trainings
fulfil a significant communication function that is important
particularly during the adaptation process, but also later after
consultants’s integration into a regular work routine.
Coaching is another important tool used in the field of education
and personal development of consultants. It represents long-term
instruction, explanation and notification of remarks. Regular
supervision of a coachee is the part of it. The point is continuous
incitement and guidance of a coachee to reach the desired
performance and take his/her own initiative. The aim is to make
a coachee look at his/her own behaviour in a different light.
Coaching activates person’s ability to increase one’s own
performance of its own accord. As opposed to other educational
methods, coaching focuses on attitude and is directed at the
character of a person. Coaching focuses on the future – past
serves for the development of the future solution only. Coaching
is a kind of guidance “on the road”, while the coach gets to know
the coachee and supports his/her own individuality. Coaching
creates an atmosphere of openness and cooperation, it makes
people develop, be competent and apply their own decisions.
In the context of educational procedure in consulting, it is also
possible to come across the term supervision. It represents a
method, which, by means of mutual interaction between a
supervisor and the person supervised, makes people revise their
work and helps improve the professional competence of their
work and performance. In the area of consulting, supervision
plays an important role in the improvement of their consulting
competence and skills.
Facilitating means supporting the processes or activities focused
on improving the performance. It represents targeted
management and guidance of negotiations, meetings or
discussions of smaller or larger groups. In connection with
consulting, it can be applied in the consulting process itself,
during business negotiations of the consulting contract, when
solving the subject matter of the consulting etc.
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