Training is an essential cornerstone of maintaining our ongoing professional relevance. While conferences and webinars should be a staple in any individual or company training repertoire, a perhaps underutilized tool is group trainings for members of a team, or even across silos. By group training, I refer to the practice of utilizing either an in-house subject matter expert or outside trainer to train multiple members of your team or enterprise on a given subject. In this blog I address five distinct benefits of group training:
Deeper and More Customized:
One limitation of conferences and seminars is that there is a limit to how deep into a subject one can get in 50-90 minutes. Group training is great for those topics that require anywhere from a half day to multiple days to really do justice. Another distinct advantage is that group training can be tailored. As Thierry Dessange, VP of Information Technology Audit for First Republic Bank noted, group training allows for a leader to work with the trainer to customize the material to the specific needs of the team or enterprise, thus maximizing the benefit of the investment.
Imparting Common Knowledge Across the Organization
Group training is also a valuable tool when you want to impart common/consistent knowledge across an organization. This can be technical knowledge on a new platform, knowledge of a framework or security/privacy policy, or any other subject where we want to have uniform understanding or competency. Charles Schwab, for example, has been including ISACA enterprise training on IT audit foundational skills as part of its new hire on-boarding program for those new hires earlier in their internal audit career. As Lica Hartman, VP of Professional Practices, noted, “Our industry is highly technology-driven, so it is essential that even our financial/operational and compliance auditors have a baseline understanding of basic technology audit concepts.”
Developing Rapport and Common Understanding Across Silos
Group training can be great tool to promote common understanding across the IT trust silos. This may be particularly important now as an increasing number of companies outside of financial services are more seriously embracing the three lines of defense concept. Cross-training multiple silos simultaneously can have multiple benefits: it can help each silo better understand the perspectives of the other groups and can create a common understanding around lexicon, risk appetite or other key concepts. But it can also be great for building rapport between silos. Martin Burkard, a senior manager for IT Audit and Data Analytics at biotech firm Amgen, noted that, “Sometimes you get questions from other groups that can make you see or think about things in a different manner.” He further noted the benefits of “building rapport with key stakeholders in a relaxed setting outside of an audit.”
Building Team Morale and Cohesion
As a recruiter of 26 years, I know that one of the most important things to candidates is a robust training program and support for their certifications. Candidates are much less likely to leave a company/team that they believe is invested in their future growth. But another benefit to group training is that it helps to build rapport across the team. Pam Nigro, VP Information Technology/Security Officer for Home Access Health Corporation and an ISACA board director, noted, “Training and certifications are one way to keep your team invested, engaged and grow their value to themselves and the organization. Teams feel more respected, connected and competent. The training also creates a learning culture, which increases creativity and innovation.” This sense of support and connectivity could be particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when leaders are challenged to find new ways to maintain a sense of belonging and team cohesion.
Cost Savings
Group training can be much more cost-effective than sending your employees out to individual training. Of course, if you use someone in-house (i.e., bring in someone from the security team to do a training for the IT audit team), there may be no cost. But even bringing a professional trainer in from the outside (whether virtual or otherwise) can be much more cost-effective than trying to achieve the same benefits by sending people to individual trainings. While that may be relatively easy for larger companies/departments, it can sometimes be a challenge for smaller departments. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, we have a lot of young technology companies with very small audit, security, risk or compliance functions. In that instance, the same benefit can be achieved by partnering with some of your peer companies in the region. If two or three companies pool together, you can achieve the same benefits and cost savings.
About the author: Todd Weinman is the President and Founder of The Weinman Group, an executive search firm specializing in Audit, Governance, Risk, and Compliance.