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What Can Help Retrain Employees

The National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT) predicts that while there will be 3.5 million “computing-related” jobs in the U.S. by 2026, 83% of them could go unfilled due to a lack of college graduates with related degrees. To meet this demand, organizations must reskill their workforces and look to candidates who have learned in-demand technical skills through alternate forms of education.

In recent years, coding bootcamps have succeeded in training a diverse group of workers for careers as web, full-stack and software developers, among other roles, as well as reskilling people already in those professions. However, several major coding bootcamps have also closed in recent years, including Dev Bootcamp and The Iron Yard in 2017. What are surviving bootcamps doing to succeed in an industry marked by constant change? Let’s take a deep dive into the mentoring and coaching strategies, learning methods, diversity efforts and other best practices coding bootcamps are using to ensure learner and organizational success.

Increased Learner Support

From learning multiple coding languages (e.g., JavaScript, R and Python) to understanding complex technical concepts, learning to code can seem daunting to even the most motivated learners. To overcome this apprehension and improve learning, coding bootcamps are offering mentoring and coaching support. For example, Code Fellows, a Seattle-based coding academy, implements a one-to-six student-to-teacher ratio to ensure learners have the personalized instruction they need during class and lab time, says Mitchell Robertson, vice president of Code Fellows. For additional support, the company has a tutoring program, where learners can receive help from past graduates and industry experts, and career coaching that covers topics such as business etiquette, creating a professional network and managing behavioral interview questions.

At Geekwise Academy, mentoring is ingrained in the learning process. “Our Geekwise instructors are not just the instructors; they are actual mentors,” says Terry Solis, director of Geekwise Academy. “They coach. They’re project leads. They have work experience in the industry, so they draw from their industry experience working in tech teams and developing and delivering software projects.” As the demand for technical skills continues to rise, employers must also support the upskilling of their existing workforce to keep up with industry advancements. Nickolay Schwarz, chief technology officer at BenchPrep, encourages organizations to “do good by your team members, provide ample opportunities to learn and verify skills, because failing to [do] these things will end up being more costly in the long run.”

Learning Methods for Success

To prepare learners for roles in the tech industry, coding bootcamps should create an environment that’s representative of the work environment they may encounter when entering the industry, Solis says. Project-based, real-time learning is one effective tool to replicate the workplace. Further, she adds, Geekwise works to “instill confidence and soft skills in additional to … current programming languages and tools.” Bootcamps should create an environment that’s representative of the work environment learners may encounter in the industry. Similarly, Code Fellows simulates a professional environment to prepare learners for their tech careers by ensuring its courses remain interactive, collaborative and hands-on. Its program also uses “stack-module learning,” which Robertson describes as “teaching in a way that builds upon concepts that go deeper each day to improve retention and ignite graduates’ ability to continue learning well beyond their time with us.”

With constant advancements appearing across the tech field, it’s also important for coding bootcamps to adapt their curriculum based on the skills employers are looking for. At Trilogy, Sommer says, “We built a curriculum that was driven by industry, and we’ve been able to modify the curriculum itself over 700,000 times based on input that we get from learners, from faculty members at universities and from industries. It’s a constantly dynamic and changing curriculum.”

Committing to Diversity

The need for greater diversity in the tech sector has become an ongoing conversation. NCWIT reports that, while women earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees, they earn only 18% of undergraduate computer and information sciences degrees. Further, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports that 83.3% of tech executives in the U.S. are white, and 80% are men. By making technical training more accessible, coding bootcamps can help diversify the industry.

For Code Fellows, advancing diversity has always been an integral part of the business. “When we launched in 2013, we set out with that mission in mind: that we wanted to find ways to make education more accessible to those who have traditionally not been able to obtain it,” Robertson says. To help fulfill this mission, Code Fellows launched its diversity scholarship fund, which funds up to 70% of the cost of education to learners who fall under a “non-traditional background” (e.g., minorities in the industry). Today, the scholarship has awarded nearly $3 million, Robertson says.

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consulting

Team Building is Coming

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Team building events are essential if you want better team relations because it is all about the most important asset of your business – your employees. Even the best product or most innovative business plan doesn’t mean anything if there aren’t great people behind it. Employees are the heart of every company, and investing in team building exercises enhances their roles and connections. Team building events are important for companies of all sizes and structures. No matter if you have thousands of employees or 10 employees or a collaborative environment or one where everyone works on their own projects, team building events are a must. Whatever your company and no matter how big or small, your business will be more productive when your team is happy.

Invest in Team Building

Taking an entire day away from the office for yourself and your staff could seem unthinkable. The cost and the missed work time might seem like a la vish expense and one you can do without. But in reality, team building exercises are something you can’t do without. They are a vital part of any company! Think about it as an investment. A team that doesn’t work well together or that isn’t engaged in their work could cost you business. Investing time and money into team building events and activities builds relationships and can lead to a more open and collaborative culture. Team building activities sometimes get a bad rap. People are tired of sitting in a conference room playing awkward icebreaker games or being forced to do a trust fall on their co-workers. Don’t fall into the trap of cheesy team building games. Quality team building can be creative and fun! It’s a chance to let loose, try something new, and see your co-workers and employees in a new light. Today’s team building activities can be extreme, push employees to the limits, and create a fun environment that builds lasting memories. For more ideas on how to engage your team check out our free ! Aside from just being fun and an excuse to be together, team building events have serious business and personal impacts. Here are just a few of the reasons team building is important.

Get to Know Each Other

The most obvious benefit of team building exercises is that it encourages employees to get to know each other outside of work. It’s one thing to sit in the cubicle next to someone for 40 hours a week, and it’s another thing to chat with them casually and see them in a non-work setting. Most of your time is spent at work, but it can be hard to get to know your staff and what they are really like. People naturally like to feel connected. Co-workers are the thing most people like best about their jobs. Even when the work gets rough, as long as the people are supportive and good to be around, it can make all the difference. However, it can be hard at work to find similarities with other people, especially if you only ever talk about work. It’s over a team building river cruise or bowling night that colleagues can find out that they both enjoy hiking, went to the same college, or have kids who are the same age. These connections might not come out in the office, but it helps employees build connections with each other. Personal bonds and commonalities are much stronger than simply sharing office walls.

Build Bridges Across Departments

Team building also allows employees from different areas of the company to get to know each other. People can interact with colleagues they might not usually see. At a company-wide team building activity, employees from the marketing team can participate alongside members of the finance team. Long-term employees are next to interns, and it opens the doors for new friendships and work associations. Team building embraces diversity because it breaks down the silos of companies and lets everyone be equal.

Getting to know each other extends beyond just personal pleasantries. Team building is also a great networking tool. Most of today’s employees don’t spend their entire careers at the same company like their parents did, so chances are today’s co-workers will be tomorrow’s job references. Networking helps employees grow their own personal skills but also creates a web of people they can call on at any point in their career. These are the people who will help with career transitions and be the ones to get your foot in the door for your next job. Many people spend time going to tedious industry networking events, but team building activities make it easier to build a network from your current position.

Improves Morale and Engagement

Team building activities allow employees to have fun. Instead of being stuck behind a computer all day, they now have the chance to learn a new skill, play a sport, or explore somewhere new. When a company encourages a fun activity, employees are more likely to feel engaged. This is especially true in our modern workforce. With so many employees working remotely or on flexible schedules, it’s common for employees to work by themselves or only communicate with people via phone or email. Team building activities bring everyone together and can make even the most solitary employee feel like part of a team. Engagement is crucial to a company’s success. It’s the difference between workers who are there just to earn a paycheck and people who are there because they are excited about the work and want to contribute to the mission of the company. In the U.S., 70% of workers aren’t engaged, and it costs businesses a total of $500 billion a year. Investing in team building exercises is one way to help employees feel more motivated and engaged. It’s a small price to pay for a connected workforce and actually saves companies money in the long run.

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consulting

Putting Humanity

When you work with executives and managers, a common complaint you hear about HR professionals is “They don’t listen. They just tell.” So when you work with HR professionals, you encourage them to adopt three practices of active listening:

  1. The period-to-question-mark ratio.
  2. The EAAR listening method.
  3. Confront, then question.

The Period-to-Question-Mark Ratio

When you’re engaged in a conversation, what’s the ratio of your sentences that end with periods to those that end with question marks? If you’re like most people, the ratio is overwhelmingly tilted toward sentences that end with periods. This could show that you are telling people what to do more often than you are looking for consensus on how to solve a problem. When you engage in a discussion with an executive, manager or employee, keep the ratio in mind. Strive to correct the imbalance by making yourself ask questions. The fact that you ask matters more than what the question is.

People I’ve coached have found that keeping the ratio in mind acts as a self-regulating device to ask more questions.

The EAAR Listening Method

E: Explore – A: Acknowledge – A: Apply – R: Response

It’s a sequence. Begin the discussion with an exploratory, open-ended question: “Ms. Manager, what are the reasons that led you to conclude Mr. Employee should be fired?” “Tell me more.” “Please share some examples.” “Help me understand.”

Once you’ve explored the other person’s position and reasons for it, move to acknowledgement. Get the person to acknowledge that you understand his or her point. “So, Ms. Manager, if I understand you correctly, you believe Mr. Employee should be terminated because of the following reasons… Is that correct? Although critical, the acknowledge step is often overlooked. Instead of confirming the understanding, the listener makes an assumption, which often proves erroneous and leads to unnecessary conflict. The EAAR method eliminates this possibility. If the person says, “No, that’s not my position,” simply go back to the exploration step: “I’m sorry. Please explain what I missed.” In your response, apply portions of what the person said, even actual words the person used. Even if your response isn’t substantively what the person originally sought, this approach creates optimal conditions for acceptance.

“Ms. Manager, I agree with you that Mr. Employee’s behavior is unacceptable. What you described [list the employee’s actions] makes a compelling case. However, because of the following reasons, I think termination now would be premature and present undue legal risk.

“Nevertheless, I’m happy to work with you on an intervention strategy. If Mr. Employee is willing and able to close the gap in your legitimate management expectations, he will do so. If not, we will be in a much stronger position to terminate his employment, and I will support you.”

Many HR professionals have told me that when they’ve used the EAAR method, conversations they feared would turn ugly became positive. Instead of a clash of wills and arguments, the discussion became collaborative and solution-oriented.

Confront, Then Question

What if you are the bearer of bad news? You must deliver a message you know won’t make the recipient happy. The approach here is to confront, then question. Make a short opening statement. State your position succinctly and without elaboration. Next, switch to question mode. You can think of this approach as beginning the EAAR method with a short opening response to frame the conversation.

“Mr. Executive, based on our investigation, we found that Mr. Employee in your department engaged in actions that violate our anti-harassment policy. Although we understand he has been with the company for a long time and is one of your best performers, given the seriousness of the misconduct, we believe the appropriate action is termination of his employment.”

Next, go to question mode: “What do you think?” “What questions do you have?” “How do you see things at this point?”

Assuming the executive doesn’t respond by saying “Great idea! Go for it!” and wants to argue his or her point, pivot to exploration and start the EAAR process at that point. “I want to make sure I understand you, so please tell me what you agree with, what you disagree with and your reasons.”

After that comes your acknowledgement: “Let me make sure I understand you. You agree that Mr. Employee’s behavior was unacceptable and violated policy. However, you disagree that the proper remedy is termination. Instead, you recommend a suspension and written warning for these reasons. [List the reasons.] Is that accurate?”

Now you’re ready to apply. From what the executive said, extract what you can use in your response.

“I appreciate the fact that you support our investigation and finding of misconduct. Our only disagreement is the appropriate remedy. Your points about Mr. Employee’s long service and stellar performance are valid. Yet for these reasons [list them], I still believe termination is called for. How do you suggest we resolve our differing views? For example, should we present them to the CEO and let her decide?”

These types of conversations can go in all sorts of directions, including ones you don’t anticipate. That’s OK, so long as you don’t lose sight of the value of questions during a dispute. Avoid cross-examination questions, such as “Isn’t it true that … ?” Your questions should not state or imply your view. They should be curiosity-based, as you’re genuinely trying to find out what the other person thinks. The confront-then-question approach allows you to go directly to the heart of the matter. Even if you sense rising tension and hostility, the negative emotions will soon be arrested by your open-ended, exploratory questions. When HR professionals make a commitment to active listening, executives, managers and employees become their biggest fans instead of being their biggest critics.