I know, downsizing and training aren’t usually put together. Most corporations do not invest the extra money in training workers they are letting go. That is why I was surprised to be talking to my clients during a recent morning training session and find out that their whole department will not exist in a couple of months.
A few of the employees will be relocated to other parts of the corporation. Most will be laid off with a severance package, the length depending on their years of service. Surprisingly, the employees do not have a bad view of their current employer, even though they are being laid off. They even commented on how much they appreciated everything their employer is doing to help them during this transition.
The corporation is investing in getting these displaced workers special training to help them find new jobs. The company believes in helping them succeed, even if they are not employed there anymore. What a great concept! I really like that they are having training sessions for these workers before the department is dissolved in a couple of months.
The training sessions cover Microsoft Office topics like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. During the morning training, we have customized a class to help them fill in the gaps in their knowledge of the software application. In the afternoon we have hour long one-on-one or one-on-two sessions to go over specific questions or target areas in the same software application that we covered in the morning.
This past week the training was on Excel. We had great sessions in the morning and afternoon! All of the students said that they really understood Excel better. They all had great attitudes and really dug in deep to understand all of the formulas, which was of primary concern to many of them.
I am looking forward to my Word sessions with them soon! It is so refreshing to see a corporation who cares about their employees, even during tough economic times like we have experienced the past couple of years.
