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The Ins and Outs of Internal and External Relations

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INTERNAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: Never overlook an opportunity to do internal public relations about your department and its offerings. A training department must, first and foremost, be visible in the organization it serves. Larry Lottier, Manager, Education of Dana Corporation publishes a training department course catalog with faculty, course listings and course descriptions to publicize his department’s offerings. Gary Slobodian, Assistant Manager, Corporate Staff Development, of Great-West Life Assurance Company has found that getting training on the agenda at national sales meetings increases his department’s visibility.

ACHIEVING CREDIBILITY: Make sure your department has credibility within your organization. There are several ways to attain (and maintain) credibility. Your departmental plan of action must “… support what the organization is trying to do, be integrated into it,” says Susan Warshauer, whose upcoming book, Inside Training and Development, Creating Effective Programs, examines this. The trainings offered and the department’s overall philosophy must give tangible answers to the needs expressed by senior management. Understanding that business plan — its goals, mission, ethics and company positioning is essential to the training department being seen as “one of us” by the rest of management. To have this kind of personal credibility with senior executives, a training manager must “speak the language of the suits.”

BENEFITS OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS: If you are considering using outside consultants to supplement your in-house training staff, consider some of the benefits of external people that our experts identified: --Breadth of experience, have been inside several other organizations, more objectivity, wider range of solutions. (James Hayes) --You can buy `being up to date’ with the latest technology; it costs to teach an internal person that. (Robin Grumman) --Sometimes outside eyes see more. (Sharon Burns) --Technical experts can fill needs we can’t do in house. (Mary Belle GrosJacques) --You don’t need to pay them benefits or keep them on staff. (Markus Zimmer).

DRAWBACKS OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS: If you are considering using outside consultants to supplement your in-house training staff, consider some of the drawbacks of external people that our experts identified: --They don’t know the culture. (Barbara L. Thornton) --May not be available the next time you need them. (Ken Wessel)

--You never know what you’re going to get; there is an element of risk that you may not need with a first time program. (Susan Warshauer) --An internal person is hooked into the performance appraisal system at the company, and external person needs more supervision, more of a manager’s time. (Sharon Burns).

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