In-House Technology Training: Wayne Glynn

In-house technology training can be an effective way to teach nonprofit staff the skills they need to use technology efficiently. Devoting resources to training will enhance an organization's ability to fulfill its mission and ensure that it can thrive in the information age. By investing in a comprehensive technology training plan, your organization can produce the following results:

• Your organization will communicate better internally and externally through e-mail and group production software such as Outlook or GroupWise.
• Your employees will be more comfortable with computers and complete computer-related work faster.
• If you have IT Staff, they will be able to focus more attention on preparing for future organizational needs than reacting to support problems.
• As staff ability to use technology increases, you will increase the ability of your organization to research on the Internet and capitalize on new opportunities through better communications.
• You will be less likely to lose critical files -- such as grant proposals -- to viruses or system crashes.

Investment always comes at a cost. The cost in this case is principally staff time, including technology (IT/ MIS) staff time. At Third Sector New England, we decided to take a comprehensive look at our training program. We planned to increase training opportunities using internal resources as much as possible to minimize cost. As a result, the training was more connected to the actual tasks staff needed to accomplish. By spending time to create a comprehensive training program, we also reduced costs associated with lost work and inefficient use of technology.

Assessing Your Training Situation

At Third Sector New England, we used a representative committee, or "Technology Team" to evaluate, plan, and implement technology training policies and procedures. We felt that it was more effective to design and implement a strategic technical training initiative, than train in an incidental and random way. We also believe that as much as possible, staff should be involved in the planning and practice of technology training.

If you chose to model your process in a similar way, you should form a committee and appoint one person to act as facilitator. This group should be representative of the different work groups or departments in your organization. Although the members do not have to be people who make decisions about money and resources in the organization, you should make sure that those people receive updates and have a way to offer input into the process. It’s a good idea to involve staff responsible for developing the budget, human resources, and technical staff. Additionally, managers who budget their workers’ time should be part of the planning process.

Given these underlying ideas, we developed the following steps:

Step One: Technology Assessment

At Third Sector New England, we assessed our existing hardware and software, surveyed staff, and held a town meeting-style luncheon to gather staff input. We also identified software or hardware that was used exclusively by a department or individual, such as accounting or fundraising software.

We felt that people should assess their own skill levels and comfort with the equipment and software that they use. Our survey included questions about both commonly used applications and job-specific programs. This investigation provided the training planners with an overall understating of the level of expertise of staff, as well as input on what skills people needed to acquire. We also solicited input on types of training classes preferred, locations, time, and priority. We did this because we believe that everyone affected by the policies and procedures should have a voice in their making.

Step Two: Make Goals, Set Objectives

Once we evaluated our training needs, we discussed what we wanted to achieve. We wanted an organization in which everyone would have the technology skills necessary to fulfill its mission. We set goals and objectives, and we established standard for different skills.

Step Three: Develop a Training Plan and Policy

It is likely that your nonprofit has limited resources. The time-honored method for dealing with a lack of resources is budgeting. With this understanding, we budgeted a period of time during which internal IT staff would train, and confirmed that personal development money already in the budget could be used for technical training.

Supervisors also have to budget their team members' time. It is not always easy to take time from the work day for training, but it is necessary. We asked for a commitment from supervisors to recognize the importance of training, and to support their staff taking time away from work. As a next step we did one last “check-in” with the entire staff to ensure that we had effectively captured their input.

In our program, we use a mix of training styles. We hold monthly workshops on how to use common application or skills, followed up with coaching and peer support. We use a combination of the following tactics:

In-House Workshops:We plan bi-monthly workshops. These are short (15-minute to one-hour) workshops that review or teach new skills that are commonly used in the organization; these workshops cover office systems, standard applications, other technologies such as phones or Internet applications, or document management. These are planned and led by in-house technical staff or a knowledgeable staff person.

Group Classes and Individual Classes: We found such classes are best used for intermediate or advanced skills, for the introduction of a new technology, or for specialized software applications. These are more intense one- or two-day training classes that can be led by a knowledgeable technical staff person, but may be best taught by an outside professional.

Peer Learning:This is possibly the cheapest form of training. This is when staff members help each other with software and hardware questions. In our case, the staff has been encouraged to share "tricks and tips" and "cool solutions" with their peers.

Coaching:This can refer to assisting a user with a one-time issue, or a planned process teaming one staff person with another at a higher skill level. We believe that this can be an extremely effective way of developing a culture of learning. Remember that every opportunity to teach is an opportunity to learn.

Our technology training initiative included:

• Written guidelines about software standards, expectations and policies
• Tailored group training classes offered to staff in standard office applications
• Annual performance review modified to include sections on technology training options used in the past year; evaluation of its effectiveness; and training goals or needs for the coming year; this information helps everyone create an individual training plan.
• New staff orientation program that includes familiarization with standard applications and the development of an individual training plan.

Step Four: Implementation

When turning our plan into action, we chose to make it the responsibility of the technical manager and the human resources department to oversee training. It became both organizational policy and part of the technical manager’s job description and duties.

Step Five: Evaluation

Our planning group felt that the training plan should be evaluated periodically, and reviewed at least annually. We developed several ways of capturing evaluations:

• Each staff person who takes a course evaluates it in writing; all group training sessions also include an evaluation.
• As part of the annual review process, the staff is asked to comment on the long-term effectiveness of any technology training they completed in the past year.
• The IT staff periodically evaluates the training offered, assesses staff needs, and develops or refines the training formats or course topics.

Parting Thoughts

Working in a nonprofit, there will always be fires to put out, programs to save, and money to raise. Increasingly, much of this work is accomplished using technology, and it is well worth the investment to dedicate staff time and resources towards fostering better technology users. At Third Sector New England, we underwent the process outlined here, and the staff has become more empowered, more comfortable with their computers, and the technology manager has fewer requests for technical support.