Manager's point - interview - 4

posted by John Rizzo

This is the interview of the managers of the first students having taken the new JavaBlackBelt coached e-learning.


John is co-founder of JavaBlackBelt.com and has 10 years experience in Java training and skills management.

Philippe Varin is Managing Director of Genesis Consult, a privately held company of 60 consultants.

Stephane Levaque is Sales Director.

They know both the IT and consultancy business inside out.

John (JBB): Why did you decide to train the consultants with the JavaBlackBelt coached e-learning?

Philippe:

The training that we asked you to give isn't directly in line with a specific project, but rather to offer some kind of benefit to our consultants. Developers talk to each other on Facebook and social networks, and if we take good care of our developers, the news spreads fast. People who work for a consulting and services company expect trainings, to be taken care of.

However, quality training is expensive. With traditional training, one must also account for loss of revenue, that is what Genesis cannot bill the client for. With the JavaBlackBelt coached eLearning we saved the equivalent of 6 people at a cost of 500 Euro a day for 10 days, that's 30,000 euros.

Stephane:

I knew what blended learning was, but I had never really experienced it. I'd done traditional training or elearning. But not blended learning with coaching. With your solution, the consultants learn at their own pace. That is the problem of heterogeneous groups, where the slowest and the fastest are unhappy. Here, we have the core which teaches the basics, then each student can continue at his pace, depending on his skills and availabilities. It's as motivating for the highly skilled developers as for the others.

John (JBB): And were you surprised with the formula?

Philippe:

Yes, there was a result-driven objective, which we have already taken advantage of. For example, we were able to answer a client's proposal for a mission, thanks to the skills that Fred acquired during training. If he hadn't done the training, I wouldn't have replied to the offer!

The best aspect of the formula, is that we set a time limit on the trainings that are given here.

Stéphane:

I am positively surprised, because I didn't think that the developers would manage to finish the course and pass the exam in the given time frame. In two months, we finished the whole training cycle that we had initially planned.

John (JBB): How did the consultants give you their feedback?

Philippe:

We see the consultants once a month. I will have a very tangible feedback. I saw nearly all of them this month. I think that by the end of the month, I will have received an email from everyone with some feedback.

Stéphane:

They are all delighted. Some were faster than others, some are more tenacious than others, it's normal. For some it was like going through an obstacle course.

John (JBB): Are the integrated exams important?

Philippe:

Yes, very important because consultants like to get a diploma and it brings added value. When they pass with 95%, they are proud, it allows them to know where they stand. Thanks to the exams, consultants were more driven. It's not only the final objective that is important, but also the journey.

Also, the first thing a consulting firm sells, is the resume, it's the first thing that appears. Success on an exam brings added value to the resume

Stéphane:

There's the gratifying aspect, but also the fact that we can situate them. There is a purpose, it's not only learning for the sake of learning. Otherwise, the consultant does a course and doesn't have the need for it immediately and he forgets it. Here they have a final objective, a reward.

Philippe:

Tuan, for example when he passed with 92%, everyone knew about it and he was very proud.

John (JBB): How do you perceive the coach's role in this training?

Stéphane:

The coach is very important because he is the consultant's guide, when he can't finish an exercise, he can help and the consultant can ask questions without feeling embarrassed. Some of the consultants don't dare to raise their hand or ask a question during a traditional class. During individual coaching, the student will make progress much faster.

There's the motivation aspect as well, the coach encourages the consultant to reach the final goal which is to pass the exam.

In regard to Genesis, it is in the coach's interest to liaise between the consultant and management. It's an interesting triangular relationship. Everybody has his own interests which, in the end aim to add value to the consultant and the company. The coach will inform the company's management of the students' progress.

For a company such as our own, I can delegate some of the follow-up of the people who are coached and trained. Big companies have a training department. But small ones don't have the time or the know-how (often neither do big companies). JavaBlackBelt sells the training outsourcing for the company. The next step would be to ask JavaBlackBelt to write up a yearly customized training plan for each consultant. some consultants would have 5 certifications at the end of the year, others only one.

JBB: How do you measure the success of a training?

Philippe:

Objectively and subjectively

Objectively: on the basis of the technical level attained. The exam is the first snapshot. Then there is the interview: the JavaBlackBelt training allows us to send our consultants to more interviews! In the end, it's the work accomplished at our client's one year later: that's the real added value. What will the feedback be in a real situation? It's specific to any training, not only in IT.

The subjective aspect: What are the consultant's feelings about this training. How did he perceive it, not only the logistics (JavaBlackBelt monitoring during the training period), what he thought of the contents, and the difficulty level of the exam questions.

JBB: To what extent can a training change a consultant's confidence when going to an interview for a project?

Stéphane:

At first glance, if you go on a training, you feel more confident on the subject. Someone like Fred needed a refresher, and this refresher came at the right time. It's a question for the consultants. Some consultants say they know the subject and that they don't need the course. They say no thank you. I was surprised, but there are.

John (JBB): What is the financial impact?

Stéphane:

The real question is: for an investment of X what is the impact in the sales cycle.

1. We better the resume. The client sees that he did a Spring/Hibernate training, he wants to meet him.
2. During the interview, he can then evaluate the skills.
3. As he knows Spring and Hibernate, we can increase the price.

The financial impact is that he must be easier to sell and at a higher rate.

The number of missions that we can offer our consultants increases or the rate increases. The rate can be +20 Euro / day. As for the number of projects: it's nearly impossible to measure, but maybe 20% more missions. I first try to match skills, that way, the client knows I am not just sending anybody and the trust grows stronger on the long term. During a sale, sometimes we might say we are increasing the price because we spent money training the person.

The equation is interesting, not only the financial aspect but also the human aspect. The marketing aspect exists at the time of hiring and also at the time of sale: people know if we are able to offer our people training.

Beyond the trust, there is also the certification aspect. Some clients require certified consultants, be it Microsoft or others. It has a value for certain clients. I ask myself what value a JBB certification has: purely commercial beyond a community aspect. I don't have the answer. I'll probably get clients who couldn't care less and others who will see it as a bonus. You must put forward what is recognized by clients and the community. Some consulting firms invest a lot in certifications.

John (JBB): What is the financial upgrade of a well-known certification such as Sun or Microsoft?

Stéphane:

There are 2 aspects: 1 "must have" or 2 "nice to have"

1. It is required by the client, for example Prince2 for project leaders. It's the "project charter". In Java we don't have this demand for certification. In terms of financial impact, the price is already at level, the client who wants a certified consultant is prepared to pay the price, which is certainly 10% more.

2. There is a selection by certification:

A client such as SNCB (Belgian rails) who are looking for a Java developer get 50 resumes in 3 days. So they use an objective criteria to weed out, such as a certification, to avoid getting 50 more resumes (100 pages). Usually, it's the project leader who sets this criteria, because he has other things to do. What other clients do is shorten the response time (in order to receive less resumes) In the 20th century, the big eat the small and in the 21st century, the fast beat the slow (and the big aren't fast).

John (JBB): Do clients have assessment processes to weed out the candidates?

Stephane:

At Electrabel, for example, they have very advanced .Net exams. They torture consultants who tell us that they not only have to drive the car but also have to be able to take the engine apart. Some clients push the interview very far, to know how it really works. It's difficult for a consultant who thinks he knows and comes out thinking he knows nothing.

JBB: In the future, for your trainings at Genesis, which training type would you choose?

Stephane:

I would choose the JBB Coached eLearning again. I speak for myself, this formula allows a great deal of flexibility for the company, the consultant and the client who doesn't feel an impact during the mission.

John (JBB): What are the next steps for trainings at Genesis?

Stéphane:

We must work on the short term (quarter), but also on the long term (end of year, you must know that)

We must analyze this internally, get feedback. We should have feedback from our people by the end of the month and see which other aspects they want to look at. We will have to do the analysis based on the JavaBlackBelt exam list.