Best Practice in Management/Supervisory Development

Australia has started an initiative in management development that represents a total system to provide competencies, assessment and certification and training for new managers. In 1995, a taskforce was established by the Australian Government to examine best practice in management development and management education and training globally within both the public and private sectors. The resultant report Enterprising Nation known as the Karpin Report identified a need within Australia to develop improved management skills that would serve to underpin the economic and employment strategies of the future.

Prior to the Karpin Report there was no formal supervisor or Frontline Management training or recognised qualifications at this level. The Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) was developed as a direct result of the Taskforce findings. The FMI skilling program has a number of positive implications for organisations. Firstly, it recognises the vital step of an employee being promoted from a position where they apply their technical skills only to one that incorporates elements of management. Secondly, it recognises the need for additional skills and knowledge to enable that employee to competently fulfill that role. Finally, it recognises that there is a management career stream that assists the organisation with succession planning, thus increasing the retention rate of employees within the organisation.

Competencies Required to Achieve Qualifications
Frontline Management qualifications are structured under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and are universal and transferable across industries. There are three levels ranging from Certificate III (requiring a completion of six units of competency) to Diploma (requiring a completion of all eleven units) structured under a core and elective modules.

Core Stream Units
Unit 1- Manage personal work priorities and professional development
Unit 2- Provide leadership in the workplace
Unit 3- Establish and manage effective workplace relationships
Unit 5- Manage operations to achieve planned outcomes
Unit 8- Develop and maintain a safe workplace environment

Elective Stream Units
Unit 4- Participate in lead and facilitate work teams
Unit 6- Manage workplace information
Unit 7- Manage quality customer service
Unit 9- Implement and monitor continuous improvement systems and processes
Unit 10- Facilitate and capitalise on change and innovation
Unit 11- Contribute to the development of a workplace learning environment

One of the barriers discovered during the marketing of the program is the perception by some employers of the need of intensive off the job training for all participants. Since it is the participant's role to understand the competencies and assessment criteria identify, through consultation, the competencies to be developed and gather the evidence for assessment, generic competency workbooks were developed for each of the units of competency providing a self?paced guide. To achieve competencies through self-paced learning requires high levels of intrinsic motivation. Some participants choose to slow or sometimes avoid the learning process when they identify a unit of competency they are not familiar or believe may be too difficult. This is evident even with mentor support.

Implementation and Support

Registered Training Organisations (RTO's) are public and private training businesses who were assessed by the State Training body to have the organisational capacity to provide accredited training and sometimes assessment of competencies. All RTO's are required to have an accredited quality system in place.

Implementation and support is designed to ensure where possible all of the knowledge gained is applied in the work environment. This is done with a coordinator, an assessor as well as a mentor coach. Individual people, a collection of people or one person filling more than one role, generally the latter can fill each role. The coordinator is responsible to link the competencies to the business goals, and planning how the FMI competencies will be used within the work environment. This may involve customising competencies, developing individual development plans as well as organising qualifications, and promoting and explaining the purposes of the program. These individuals have the opportunity to achieve significant growth and development for an organisation through its people. Like all programs, it cannot be successful without top management support. Although it is a skilling program surprisingly, it is also a very effective change management program.

The most challenging element is building the confidence of the participants so as they feel empowered to undertake projects; to step outside their pre?conceived work boundary and for them to realise that they can make a difference. When commencing the training most of the participants worked with the perception that it was some one else's (and often their supervisor's role) to attend to the identified problems and short falls within the company.

Assessment mechanisms and qualifications

The evidence needs to ensure that qualifications are met cover demonstrating that the skills and knowledge outlined in the units of competency are being applied in the work environment. Assessment can be a combination of performance observation, submission of accomplishment of individual work tasks, as well as team accomplishments. Recommended is that proposed projects be work specific and provide added value to the organisation.

Assessors must be qualified. The national qualification for assessors is a Diploma in Training and Assessment system and demonstration of the competencies that they are to assess. Assessors need to identify the 'not yet competent' gaps that can be assessed at a specific assessment point or need to be reviewed over a period of time. All providers of Frontline Management training are required to have an appeals process for assessed persons.

Although the program is designed to provide skills and knowledge for employees at the Frontline Management level, is creates a new workplace culture and demonstrate to managers at higher levels within the organisation the value of the training as well as the amount it contributes to positive change and provides. By issuing a qualification it also provides recognition of the efforts and skills of the participants and serves as a motivator for other people within the organisation to aspire to gain the qualification. They see it as fun and very self?empowering.

Brenda Jamnik, President of the Australian Institute of Training and Development in the Northern Territory. Presented at the IFTDO 30th. Conference in Brazil.