Planning the TQS Development Journey (6) – What about the mileposts?

Your journey towards TQS certification may begin with a single step, and you certainly know where you’re going, but have you identified the mileposts along the way?

There are probably between eight and ten mileposts leading to the major road sign which says: “Start writing your TQS application now.”

Most of these mileposts are attached to gates across the road. That is, you can’t get past the milepost until you open the gate and pass through it. Try to go around the gate and you’re likely to get bogged down in the mud at the roadside.

So how are you doing at getting past the first few mileposts?

Milepost one: We know who our principal stakeholders are.
Congratulations, if you do.

Test this one out immediately by drawing a diagram with your organisation at the centre and the five or six principal stakeholders clustered around you.

Then check that you have a consensus in your organisation that these are your principal stakeholders!

Milepost two: We know who owns the employer.
Great, if you do.

Quite a few provider organisations don’t.

In some cases no one owns the employer, which means no one takes responsibility for managing each employer’s relationship with the organisation.

To check that you are clear about the quality of these relationships, map out an employer journey and see who takes responsibility for ensuring that the employer’s relationship with the organisation is rewarding – for the employer, that is – at each juncture.

• Who takes care of the employer when he or she first works with your organisation?
• Who takes responsibility for making sure the relationship develops?
• Who ensures that the employer is happy with the service received?
• Who builds the relationship for the future?

. . . And lots more . . .

Milepost three: When we make proposals to employers we always deal with business issues as well as training solutions.
Time for a celebration, then.

This is a development issue that takes time to get right. Lots of provider organisations struggle with this one.

You need to be certain you understand your employers’ organisational development issues and the challenges they are facing before you are in a position to recommend any training and development programmes.

Thus, the only way you can demonstrate that your training and qualifications are relevant to your employers is to demonstrate that there is a link between the work you undertake with an employer to the business issues that employer faces.

It’s relatively easy to check how you are progressing with these stages of the journey. Success with most of them is about clarity of thought and writing down what you do – as is success with much of the TQS.

More mileposts next week.