06 Jul Staffing the ERP Training Team
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our previous posts
Staffing an ERP Training Team can be intimidating. This may well be the biggest, most complex training project you ever attempt. However, the standards and thoroughness you normally use when staffing projects still apply.
You review the project plan to get an idea of timing. You look at scoping documents to learn about content complexity. You ask questions to understand your audience and figure out which training delivery systems you might be able to use. You identify skills needed and roles to be staffed.
Common Roles Needed Throughout the ERP Project Lifecycle
Below you’ll see some familiar training team roles set within the context of a typical ERP project lifecycle. Then, we’ll step through each role and discuss activities performed and skill sets needed.
Project Preparation
Training Team Lead
Business Design
Training Team Lead
Development
Training Team Lead
Instructional Designer(s)
Online Learning Developer(s)
Implementation
Training Team Lead
Trainer(s)
Training Coordinator
Training Team Lead
The team lead is the first to arrive and the last to leave the project. During the first two project phases, the team lead performs information gathering and planning tasks such as:
- Conducting an audience assessment
- Developing a training strategy and plan
- Contributing project plan line items
- Selecting and securing other training team members
- Developing a project orientation in preparation for other training team members joining the project
- Contributing to the Change Management strategy and plan
A good candidate will have a broad knowledge of the business and great analysis and negotiation skills. During development, the team lead becomes a conduit between project management and the training group. Some of the crucial activities performed during this phase are:
- Keeping the team moving towards milestones
- Training the team on development tools or systems used for training
- Communicating and resolving issues within the team and on the project
- Communicating status
- Preparing and delivering end user training presentations to the business
The lead must be highly organized and possess superior communication and people skills. Ideally, the person will also have led medium-to-large training teams and possess some ERP experience. If experience cannot be found in-house, an outside consultant is often paired with the internal team lead to provide mentoring and support.
Instructional Designers
Instructional designers build the curriculum and design the courseware. They join the project during the development phase, and their participation continues until the training materials are complete.
Their contributions include:
- Course design
- Curriculum development
- Course development for the classroom or the web
- Train the Trainer workshop design and development
In this role, the ability to understand and analyze complex business processes is important. You’ll need to look for individuals who are team players and have experience in instructional design, adult learning theory and interviewing subject matter experts, with excellent communication skills.
The number of instructional designers you’ll need is based on three factors:
- Timeline – Generally speaking, the shorter the timeline, the more you’ll need.
- Number of business processes and their complexity – How many processes can one instructional designer reasonably handle?
- Number of subject matter experts – How many people will one designer need to work with to obtain information?
Online Learning Developer
If you plan on delivering training over the web, you’ll need an online learning developer. The individual initially consults with your instructional designers to develop courseware standards and give advice about how learning content translates to an online environment. The person then builds on-line modules from course storyboards.
Your online learning developers should be skilled in:
- Training development tools for the web
- Producing online learning for business process and software tools
- Instructional design concepts
- Visual communication of ideas
The number of online learning developers you need depends on many factors unique to your project and the skill of the developer.
Trainer
There are two ways of finding trainers for classroom delivery.
The first way is to grow your own. Find individuals in each business area with good communication and people skills. Over the life of the project, show them how the ERP system will work for them. As end user training nears, teach these subject matter experts how to use the course materials you’ve developed to train the end-users.
The second way is to hire professional trainers who already know the system and processes to be taught. Professional trainers can be added to the project about 1-2 months prior to the start of end user training.
With either approach the duties of the trainer are the same:
- Become familiar with course material
- Assist instructional designers in the development of the participant exercises by advising on likely business scenarios
- Help load practice data in a training system
- Deliver end user training
- Participate in the post training analysis of the end user training
Required skills include excellent communication and facilitation skills, ERP subject matter expertise, limitless patience and enthusiasm in the classroom.
The number of trainers you’ll need will depend upon the number of business processes and end users to be trained.
Training Coordinator
The training coordinator takes on the enormous tasks of scheduling learners into appropriate courses, tracking completion, scheduling make-up courses, setting up online curriculum in the LMS, and adjusting training schedules as necessary. Add this full time person to the project about two months prior to the start of end user training.
Essential skills include attention to detail, organization, working knowledge of database software, and above average written and verbal communication. Now that you have a clearer understanding of the skills required for each training team role staffing your ERP training team will be easy.
And that about sums up staffing your ERP Project! With this information you’ll be better equipped to find the identify the talent for your project. Do you need help staffing your ERP project? ISC Resources can help! We’ve been developing our network of training professionals for decades. Get in touch today.
Also, look out for next post in the series where we’ll cover “Partnering with the Business” and “ERP Impacts on the Organization”.