Last week we quoted Hilarie Geary of Executive Connections on the importance to SMEs of designing and implementing a training programme as a means of achieving wider corporate objectives.
Such exhortations inevitably meet with the response that such things cost money and time in large doses, and are not always suited to the needs of the smaller operator.
One way around this impasse is the multimedia training programme, which is essentially a CD-based training and instruction course that can be used to raise the quality of a firm's workforce, regardless of how many or (especially) how few the number of employees involved.
Multimedia can bring affordable training solutions to the most demanding of production and processing techniques, and there is no better example than the package launched recently by Compu Pharma, a campus company born of research conducted at the Institute of Technology Tallaght, and now applying its output to the needs of the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector.
Dr Ed Carey, managing director, explains that, compared to the alternatives, multimedia is a very convenient and affordable means of raising staff productivity. This is particularly true of off-the-job training courses, which tend to entail the absence of an employee for several days, cost hundreds, if not thousands of pounds each, and often incur travel and accommodation costs for the employer.
The benefits of these exercises also tend to be concentrated in whichever employee is nominated for the particular course, and will leave with the employee should he or she decide to work elsewhere. By contrast, the better multimedia programmes reside with the purchasing firm, can be applied to as many workers as necessary, and are safeguarded against obsolescence through regular updates.
The problem with some programmes, says Carey, is that the emphasis in their production goes into the IT end, so that the content sometimes falls short of the promise held by the fancy graphics. Compu Pharma has overcome this problem by allying a strong graphical presentation to solid research conducted by professional researchers, including some ITT postgraduates, to produce a programme that delivers in terms of content and user-friendliness, says Carey.
The company's particular strength is the chemicals/pharmaceuticals sector, which is subject to more regulations and standards than most, and therefore has a greater need of dedicated training. Equally, however, it serves as a role model for other industries with a less demanding regulatory regime, and as an example of what multimedia training can achieve.
Despite its high technology and capital intensity, pharmaceuticals and chemicals manufacturing shares common standards across a range of equipment and processes, and all companies are subject to the US and/or European regulatory regimes governing these.
Devising a training programme to enable employees master their own responsibilities and product areas, therefore, is well within the capability of a CD-Rom-based package, once the right ingredients are there in terms of IT capability and industry-relevant research.
It must be remembered, says Carey, that even in a high-tech sector like pharmaceuticals, effective training is less about imparting grand philosophical themes and more about sorting out a huge organisational nightmare. Multimedia effectively takes the pain of the entire procedure for both employer and employee, he says.
Such systems can also be customised to individual company needs, taking account of each one's in-house protocols, corporate logo, specific processes and equipment, and so on. This combination of capabilities, says Carey, makes the multimedia route ideal for firms training their staff up to ISO compliance standards, or just simply to enhance product or service quality as part of a broader marketing strategy.
The system developed by Compu Pharma retails at £2,000 for a single user licence, slightly more for a networked version. An update is already under development, and should come available in the middle of next year, at a price of around £500.
The Compu Pharma package was formally launched last month by the Irish Pharmaceutical and Chemical Manufacturers Federation, which also launched its own guide to Good Manufacturing Practice at the same time. The guide, which aims to promote and support the highest standards of quality in the industry, is part of a five-year business strategy that sets out the federation's direction until 2002. Affiliated to IBEC since 1994, the federation represents 49 companies in the sector in Ireland.
